Advisory· Vietnam War
First Combined Action Platoon
The first Combined Action Platoon was formed near Phu Bai in August 1965, launching what became one of the Marine Corps' most distinctive contributions to the Vietnam War.
The concept paired a Marine rifle squad with a local Popular Force militia platoon, the Marines living permanently in the village rather than sweeping through it and leaving, so that the combined unit could provide continuous security, deny the Viet Cong access to the population, and build the local force's capability from within. Knowledge of the village and its people, gained by staying put, was the program's central advantage. From this first platoon the program grew into a network of Combined Action units across the northern provinces, embodying the Marines' emphasis on pacification and population security as the foundation of the counterinsurgency. The approach demanded that small groups of Marines accept the risks of living among the people they protected, isolated from larger units, and it produced both notable successes in securing the countryside and hard fighting when the Viet Cong moved to wipe out the exposed platoons. The Combined Action Program remained a defining feature of the Marine war and is still studied as a model of counterinsurgency practice.
Record no. 706