Michael Do

There were eleven infantry divisions in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd (belonged to the I Corps/ 1st Military Region); the 22nd and the 23rd (II Corps/ 2nd MR); the 5th, the 18th, and the 25th (III Corps/ 3rd MR); and the 7th, the 9th, and the 21st (IV Corps/ 4th MR).

Initially, the 5th ID was founded in the far north of Vietnam. During the First Indochina War, the French army recruited its soldiers from the Nung ethnicity to form groups to patrol the Vietnamese-Chinese border. Nung people speak Guangdong Chinese with a particular accent. Many fled China after the Chinese Communists seized power in 1949. Their commanding officer was Colonel Vong A Sang, who later became the first commander of the 5th ID.