Hello everyone!
My name is Stefan Aguirre Quiroga, more known to you all as Bernardito, and I've been a moderator of /r/AskHistorians since 2012. I am here today to answer your questions about what I have been researching for the last couple of years: The Kit Carson Scouts during the Vietnam War. The Kit Carson Scouts was a name given to a group of defectors from the People's Army of Vietnam (also known as the NVA) and the armed wing of the FNL (The People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, more commonly known in the West as the Viet Cong) who volunteered to undergo training to serve alongside American and later Australian, New Zealand, Thai, South Korean and South Vietnamese forces in the field. The role of the Kit Carson Scouts was to serve as scouts, guides, and interpreters. Kit Carson Scouts often walked point, scouting for hidden booby traps, hidden weapon caches, and signs of the enemy.
The Kit Carson Scout Program (1966-1973) has long remained a curious footnote in the history of the Vietnam War, yet the presence of Kit Carson Scouts prolifierate in accounts by American veterans. I was fascinated by the idea of understanding why soldiers from the PLAF and the PAVN would make the choice to not only defect, but also to volunteer to fight against their former comrades. In addition, I felt that investigating the motivations of the Kit Carson Scouts could nuance the otherwise monolith representation of the PLAF and PAVN soldier as faceless hardcore communist believers or nationalist freedom fighters. The agency of these South or North Vietnamese soldiers and the choices they made made shows them as historical actors who were not passive and who actively made choices that shaped their own lives as well as that of the war. My research into this question resulted in the article Phan Chot’s Choice: Agency and Motivation among the Kit Carson Scouts during the Vietnam War, 1966–1973 that was recently published online in the scholarly journal War & Society (with a print version to come shortly). The abstract reads as follows:
Through a focus on agency and motivation, this article attempts to reach conclusions about the choices made by PLAF and PAVN defectors for continuing their lives as combatants in the employment of the United States Armed Forces as part of the Kit Carson Scout Program. Using predominantly fragmentary personal accounts found in divisional newspapers, this article concludes that Kit Carson Scouts joined for a variety of personal reasons that included the desire for better working conditions, the opportunity to support their family, the search for revenge, and political disillusionment. Additionally, the importance of the individual scout’s choice is emphasised.
I am very excited to share all of this with you. This is only a small part of my research into the subject and I am looking forward to keep writing about it. For those desiring a copy of the article, send me a PM and I will send you a link where you can download it. I am also happy to answer any other inquiries.
AMA about anything related to the Kit Carson Scouts!
Did you see any big differences between defection rates based on the origin of the NVA or PLF fighters? Initially the Main Force Viet Cong were sent down from the North and recruited more once they got to the South, so were PLF insurgents from the South defect at higher rates?
They sound like a fascinating group and I've never heard of them before. I kinda have to start at the end though with my question. What happened to them when America pulled out? Did they get to come, or where they left behind?
How much did ideology contribute to the decision to defect? Were there those who had, so to speak, fallen out of love with Communism, or perhaps more specifically with Communism as practiced in Vietnam?
How were they perceived by US forces? Did the USA encourage defection, and if yes, how?
In Vietnamese culture, are these people seen as "Kapos"? Like, will a Vietnamese person call someone a Kit Carson Scout as an insult?
Did any of the Kit Carson scouts regret their decision to defect? Did any of them try to defect back?
I've got many questions about camaraderie and integration.
And all of that, really, was leading to this one:
It's a barrage of questions, but it's such an interesting topic that I can't help but wonder at all of these.
What's been the legacy of the Kit Carson Scouts in Vietnam? How did Vietnamese society view and remember them?
Have you dealt at all with questions of gender or military manliness? I'd be interested to know how Kit Carson scouts were perceived in this regard, and how they perceived themselves.
Did they think of themselves as elites? Did US soldiers see them as bad-asses, or as pitiful traitors (as it seems that ARVN forces believed)? What did North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops think of the Kit Carson Scouts?
Your article title is "Phan Chot's Choice" so I'm assuming Phan Chot was a scout? What was his choice and why was it significant enough for you to use as the title of your article?
Maybe this just isn't obvious to me because English isn't my first language but why the name "Kit Carson Scouts"? What does the name mean and why was it chosen or how did it come up?
How did the Kit Carson Scout Program come into being? Was it inspired by historical precedents, for example the French Psychological Action Bureau during the Algerian War?
Do you know if religious feelings/identification played any role in the defection, given the general Communist distaste for the 'opium of the people'?
How did the Anti War movement respond to Vietnamese preferring to side with the USA and their “puppets” than the “freedom fighters” of the NVA and VC.
did you find there was a counter-part to the Kit Carsons on the North Vietnamese side? (ie. South Vietnamese soldiers, or other soldiers, defecting to their side).
After the war, what was the fate of the Kit Carsons. Where they given any sort of priority in being evacuated and possibly even resettled in the US, or were they mostly just left to their fate? How were they treated by the North from '75 onwards?
Do you know anything about Salt and Pepper?
Thank you for this great thread. I recently joined to read all the April 1st posts but as a History buff I’m glad I stumbled across this sub and especially this reddit. Will you please send me a link to your article?
Many people are aware that the tet offensive was a propaganda victory for the north in terms of changing US domestic opinion, fewer are aware that it seriously changed South Vietnamese domestic opinion to be significantly more hawkish and led to much more support to the S Vietnamese regime. Did this come up much in terms of the defectors?
How was it for the soldiers to kill their former Ally's?