During the Vietnam war and up to this moment, the US main stream media tended to ignore the role of The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). In other words, the soldiers of ARVN seemed to be invisible, having no portraits. A small collection of photos below will give you a glimpse of those soldiers' images. Not only how they look like, but more or less the candid photos would reflect their lives, joy, sadness, and belief. For more than 20 years, those ordinary soldiers who mostly came from poor farming families, had borne the burden of Vietnam War, successfully stopping the invasion machine of world communism until the bitter end.

Someone would say without the U.S. air superiority and artillery firepower support, the ARVN couldn't stand by itself and achieve victory in the the Eastern offensive (1972); but all the military experts will agree that no matter how powerful air support is available, the battle job won't be done without the foot soldiers on the ground. In this context, the soldiers of ARVN have performed beyond expectation, considering their limit military resource, physical capacity, and the political circumstance during the war. General MacArthur once said "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." Not only so, the ARVN soldiers' images would be imprinted forever in the memories of those who once witnessed their dedication and sacrifice for the liberty of south Vietnam.

The following text is an excerpt found in a Vietnam Vet's website.

In Honor of the Other Vietnam Veterans

      It is easy for we Americans, Canadian, and Aussies who fought in Vietnam to forget that there is a whole population of Vietnam veterans who saw it through to the end. I speak of the armed forces of South Vietnam. Unlike us, they did not return home after 364 and a wake up. They got no R&R. They just fought on and on.

The South Vietnamese armed forces are criticized for being mediocre troops with untrustworthy leaders. That may have been so in some cases but I believe that most of the South Vietnamese soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were good troops, led by competent officers who put up a damn fine fight -- until the only friends they had walked out on them.

(More photos will be added when available)