Last article, I covered the struggle in South Vietnam between the Ngo Dinh Diem regime and the Viet Cong (VC) insurgency. Both sides in the war received external assistance and advice from sponsors seeking to direct the conflict and exert control over their clients. Over the course of the Kennedy administration (1961-1963), US assistance in South Vietnam dramatically increased until there were 16,000 advisors in country by the end of 1963. Likewise, beginning in 1959, North Vietnam gradually increased its military assistance and advisors to support the insurgency. The North eventually sent thousands of trained “regroupees,” southerners who regrouped to the North in 1954 as part of the Geneva Accords, to add additional strength to the insurgency. In this article, I’ll focus on how Sovereign of Discord models American and North Vietnamese external assistance.

American Assistance and Advisors

Between 1961-1963, American external military support to South Vietnam can be summarized in three general categories: raising ARVN force levels, augmenting ARVN military capabilities, and advisory support. The United States also provided significant economic assistance to the South during the period, but we’ll focus on military support below. These three categories of American support are all modeled by the new Washington Track, which can be placed as an overlay on the US Available portion of the board. The US player’s victory condition in Sovereign of Discord roughly reflects their condition in Fire in the Lake: Total Support – (2x Washington Track). In more general terms, the US player wants to build as much Support for the South Vietnamese government as possible, while minimizing their level of involvement.

One major issue of negotiation between the Kennedy administration and the Diem regime was the overall size of the South Vietnamese military and supporting local forces. In Sovereign of Discord this is covered by some ARVN Troops and Police cubes only being available at higher levels of the Washington Track. The United States player must balance holding out raising the ARVN force limits to pressure the ARVN player to implement reforms and build Support, part of the US victory condition, and rapidly augmenting the overall size of ARVN forces to challenge the Viet Cong and North Vietnam players.

In addition to raising the size of the ARVN forces, the United States assistance also increased the South Vietnamese military’s mobility and firepower. To get around restrictions placed by the 1954 Geneva Accords, the United States implemented a secret air war. As part of Operation FARM GATE, US pilots flew the missions but had accompanying South Vietnamese officers or pilots on board the aircraft to technical adhere to the accords. At increasing levels of the Washington Track, the US player may utilize the Air Lift Special Ability and the new Interdict Operation to model the increasing role of the Air Force in South Vietnam.

Finally, unlike in Fire in the Lake where the US has Troop cubes, Sovereign of Discord uses a small amount of the base game US cubes to explicitly represent US Advisors. US Advisors allow the US player to use ARVN forces through the Advise Special Activity, which enables them to perform an enhanced ARVN Sweep or Assault Operation in any space with an Advisor. US Advisors also enable US Pacification to build Support, representing the other economic and technical advice provided to the South Vietnamese state during this period.

As noted briefly above, the US player will need to try to leverage their control over the benefits from the Washington Track to pressure cooperation from their South Vietnamese ally, but their leverage will also be difficult to maintain since raising the Washington Track is needed to help check Viet Cong and North Vietnamese victories. The US Pivotal Event, Best and Brightest, representing Kennedy’s top advisors, helps give the US player some flexibility over the Washington Track at a key moment.

North Vietnamese Assistance and Advisors

In Sovereign of Discord, the North Vietnam player represents the militant faction of the Politburo led by Le Duan, that sought to maximize assistance for the South. During the 1961-1963 period, there was also a prominent moderate faction that sought to focus on building up the North rather than prioritizing supporting armed struggle in the South. Debate in the North limited the level of North Vietnamese support to assistance and advisors, and is modelled by the new Hanoi track, which can be placed as an overlay on the NVA Available and Trail portions of the board. Similar to American support, North Vietnamese support can be organized into three broad categories: increasing the size of the insurgency through the return of “regroupees” to the South, sending supplies and heavier military equipment to the insurgency, and advisory support to augment the military and diplomatic struggle. As with the US, the North Vietnamese victory condition in Sovereign of Discord roughly corresponds to their one in Fire in the Lake: Uncontrolled Population + NVA Advisors. Unlike in Fire in the Lake, North Vietnam had yet to send their conventional military forces and sought to weaken the Diem regime’s control rather than immediately replace it with NVA Control. Likewise, rather than placing NVA Bases, the North Vietnamese player places their NVA Advisor cubes on top of Viet Cong Bases in the South, representing them expanding their influence over the broad coalition of anti-Diem forces in the southern insurgency.

As the Hanoi Track increases, the Viet Cong player gains additional Guerrillas and Bases, representing the return of regroupees to the South. To give a sense of the scale of these returning forces, the North sent a little under 20,000 personnel to the South in 1961-1962, with most being regroupees. Increasing the Hanoi Track also gives the ability to use Bombard to remove ARVN pieces in spaces with large concentrations of VC Guerrillas, representing the heavier weapons coming from the North. Finally, increasing the Hanoi Track also augments the number of available NVA Advisors to infiltrate to the South. In addition to contributing towards their victory condition, NVA Advisors placed on VC Bases broaden the North Vietnam player’s ability to control Viet Cong forces, and allows them to utilize diplomatic struggle to target US Aid and Support in South Vietnamese Cities.

Unlike the US player, the North Vietnamese player only benefits from the Hanoi Track being higher; however, their Advisors in the South will be more frequently targeted as their numbers increase. First, the VC player may reassert its autonomy as a broad anti-Diem coalition and resist North Vietnamese advice by removing NVA Advisors through their Subvert Special Activity. Second, the US player seeking to deny the Viet Cong supplies flowing from the North will target VC Bases with NVA Advisors as part of their Interdict Operation, representing various aerial interdiction efforts across South Vietnam. Although the ARVN player has less reason to directly target them over other VC Bases, the additional military benefits provided by NVA Advisors means ARVN forces may prioritize eliminating them. Events lowering the Hanoi Track will also lock NVA Advisors from use, and potentially remove NVA Advisors from the map during the Reset phase. Luckily for the North Vietnam player, their Pivotal Event Le Duan allows them to rapidly increase the Hanoi Track to keep their Advisors available and give the VC player a large pool of resources.

By covering both factions in one article, I had to be a bit brief on historical background. For those wanting to learn more about American support for Diem, I would again recommend Misalliance by Edward Miller. For books on the Kennedy administration’s Vietnam policies, see my larger bibliography on Sovereign of Discord’s BGG page. The best book by far on North Vietnam during this period is Pierre Asselin’s Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War: 1954-1965. Next time, in the series’ final article, we’ll focus on the themes of the new Bonus Events for Fire in the Lake coming in the expansion.

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Previous Articles:

Sovereign of Discord: Sink or Swim with Ngo Dinh Diem

Sovereign of Discord: The Strategic Hamlet Program