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In early 1965, villagers across South Vietnam might have watched a curious military formation race through their hamlets. No, not heavily-armed troops shielded inside armored vehicles, but rural militiamen on bicycles.<\/p>\n
For nearly a year, authorities in Saigon and their American advisers considered adding bicycles to various rural units. Cheap and easy enough for provincial soldiers to fix on their own, the bike potentially offered a good alternative\u00a0to larger, gas-guzzling vehicles.<\/p>\n
In many areas, \u201cthe principal means of movement \u2026 is by foot on paths and by boat on the numerous waterways,\u201d U.S. Army evaluators explained in an August 1965 final report. \u201cFaster reaction time \u2026 permits more timely support of\u2019 hamlets under attack and under some conditions lessens the opportunity for the V.C. to establish ambushes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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For the test, the South Vietnamese Army had bought nearly 800 French-made commercial bicycles. To reflect the bikes\u2019 new role, they got a green paint job and a yellow and red stripe \u2014 representative of the national flag \u2014 below the seat.<\/p>\n
The new gear was a welcome morale boost for the ill-equipped Regional Forces and Popular Forces. Nicknamed \u201cRuff-Puffs\u201d by American troops, these second line troops often got stuck with antiquated weapons or cast offs from the regular army.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, rural commanders and province chiefs had little idea when or how<\/em> to use the bicycles, if at all.<\/p>\n While the idea of bicycle-mounted troops was hardly new by the 1960s, the practice<\/em> had fallen out of vogue. After widespread use, especially in Europe<\/a>\u00a0during World Wars I and II, modern armies universally abandoned bicycles in favor of motorized vehicles.<\/p>\n During the Vietnam War, the bicycle became synonymous with the Viet Cong and its\u00a0North Vietnamese allies. Communist insurgents used fleets of bikes to help carry vital supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.<\/p>\n The Pentagon realized that bikes could be useful for government troops, too. Firstly, especially in areas with roads or trails, bike-riding soldiers could\u00a0cover more ground than on foot.<\/p>\n \u201cThe soldier as a cyclist on a heavily packed bicycle should be able to cover an average distance of 50 miles, and a maximum distance of 100 miles a day, at about an average rate of eight to 10 miles per hour and still remain ready to fight,\u201d analysts consulted by the Army wrote. \u201cHe should be clothed, equipped and armed in such a way that he can lay down his bicycle at any time and enter combat as an infantryman, even for several days.\u201d<\/p>\n In March 1965, U.S. Air Force Col. Ben Hardaway asked the researchers to compile a summary of historical examples of bicycle troops. At the time, Hardaway was the head of the Advanced Research Project Agency\u2019s team in South Vietnam.<\/p>\n Unlike jeeps or cargo trucks, bikes do not suffer because of broken engines or lack of fuel. Without assigned vehicles, military units might need to wait hours for their superiors to round up civilian buses or other transportation.<\/p>\n But with bicycles,\u00a0militiamen could race at\u00a0moment\u2019s notice toward nearby hamlets if they came under attack. And the bikes were practically silent compared to noisy gas- or diesel-engine vehicles. The Ruff-Puffs could also use this stealthiness to quietly assemble for an attack.<\/p>\n If the Viet Cong\u00a0blew up bridges, troops could simply carry their lightweight rides across canals and rivers. And the lightweight bikes were less likely to trigger\u00a0mines meant for larger vehicles.<\/p>\n The Ruff-Puffs had no trouble riding with their rifles and submachine guns. Of course, no one tried to actually shoot<\/em> guerrillas from the bicycles. In the future, the Army recommended buying \u201cwomen\u2019s style\u201d bikes with a slanted or altogether missing center bar to help troops jump off faster in a fight.<\/p>\n With trailers attached, bikes could conceivably carry heavier armament like .30-caliber machine guns and 60-millimeter mortars. While none of the Ruff-Puffs pursued these ideas, one company rented more powerful motorcycles to carry these weapons.<\/p>\n Some intelligence units even used the civilian-looking bikes for secretive patrols in villages. \u201cIn these operations, members \u2026 wore civilian clothes and carried only pistols or submachine guns which could be concealed beneath their clothing,\u201d the\u00a0report\u00a0explained.<\/p>\n But bicycles were by no means perfectly suited to South Vietnam. Flooding in areas full of rice paddies made them impractical.\u00a0American trainers reported that some units in the Mekong Delta region rarely used their new bikes.<\/p>\n Then there was a concern about how bicycle-riding troops would survive\u00a0enemy ambushes.\u00a0Three out of five advisers reported that the bikes made the units more effective in combat,\u00a0the Army noted in its report. But one bluntly said there was \u201cno apparent difference.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"V1\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/v1.jpg?w=620\")
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While the American officials said that bicycle-riding troops\u00a0might actually present less<\/em> of a target, no mounted Ruff-Puffs ever actually encountered the Viet Cong during the test.<\/p>\n