Beyond NATO military assistance groups were located in countries including Brazil (established June 1953); Cambodia; the
Republic of China (see below); Ethiopia; Indonesia; Iran, until 1979; Japan; the U.S. Military Advisory Group to the Republic of Korea (KMAG); Laos (see below); Libya;
Pakistan; the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group to the Republic of the Philippines; the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group, Thailand (see below); the U.S. Air Force Mission to Uruguay; and the American Military Assistance Staff, Yugoslavia.
Brazil U.S. military assistance to Brazil began during
World War II. Major General
William A. Beiderlinden served in Brazil from 1952 to 1955, holding the positions of head of the
Joint Brazil-United States Military Commission and Military Assistance Advisory Group Brazil. He was commended for his work to improve U.S-Brazil military relations, and his success was recognized when Brazil's military awarded him honorary graduate status of that country's
Escola Superior de Guerra. The advisory group was staffed mainly by army personnel, with smaller contingents of navy and air force personnel. As Cambodia's leadership took an official policy of neutrality in the Cold War, MAAG Cambodia's involvement in the country was terminated on November 20, 1963, by General Order 6, MAAG Cambodia, following the Cambodian government's cancellation of all U.S. aid.
Republic of China / Taiwan At the end of
World War II, a Col. Wise recruited for the Military Advisory Group to the
Republic of China Air Force with headquarters located at Nanking and liaison teams at
Hankou. From 1951 until 1978, there was a Military Assistance Advisory Group to the
Republic of China in Taiwan. From 1955, operational U.S. joint combat forces operating alongside the advisory group were directed by the
United States Taiwan Defense Command. The Military Assistance Advisory Group, Taiwan, commanded by Army Major General
William C. Chase, was authorized 67 Army, 4 Navy and 63 Air Force personnel. Under the group's joint headquarters were Army, Navy and Air Force sections. General Chase arrived at Taipei, Taiwan, on 1 May 1951 to begin carrying out his duties as the military member of a team, which was charged with insuring that all assistance granted the Chinese Nationalists was in furtherance of United States foreign policy. After its arrival at Taiwan, the advisory group was reorganized and expanded. The original three Service sections proved inadequate, so a joint technical service section was created as a counterpart to, and for advising, the Nationalist Army's Combined Service Force, which comprised the medical, signal, engineer, ordnance, transportation, chemical, and quartermaster services. A Headquarters Commandant, on the same level as the four section chiefs, was made responsible for the routine tasks necessary to support the group. Military Assistance Advisory Group officers assisted their counterparts within the Nationalist
Ministry of National Defense and the general headquarters. Special teams were created as needed to provide aid at service schools and in tactical units. On September 3, 1954, fourteen 120mm and 155mm Chinese Communist artillery in
Xiamen (Amoy) and
Dadeng (Tateng) fired six thousand rounds at the
Kinmen (Quemoy) Islands in a five-hour period. Two Americans of the US Military Assistance Advisory Group, Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Medendorp and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Lynn, were killed in the shelling. Memorial cenotaphs were erected for the officers on Greater Kinmen by the ROC Army
Kinmen Defense Command in 1992 and 2011 respectively. Lt. Col. Alfred Medendorp () was posthumously awarded the
Order of the Cloud and Banner in November 1954. General Chase retired in 1955 at which time he was succeeded by U.S. Brigadier General Lester Bork. In 1967, Major General
Richard Ciccolella commanded the MAAG. By this time, the CINCPAC Command History for 1967 gives the title as "MAAG China". American military advisors were tasked with providing arms and military advice, assisting with Taiwanese military training, implementation of the
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, maintaining military contacts, and monitoring Republic of China forces. In 1957 there were 10,000 Americans in Taiwan, the great majority being CIA and military personnel and their families. Since 1979, the site of MAAG headquarters in
Taipei has been occupied by
American Institute in Taiwan/Taipei Main Office, which moved to a new office complex in 2019. The
American Club Taipei currently occupies the former site of the MAAG
NCO Open Mess – Club 63.
MAAG Laos MAAG Laos was preceded by the
Programs Evaluation Office, established on 15 December 1955. Due to the limitations emplaced by
international treaty, the PEO was set up with civilian personnel instead of a MAAG with military staff. When political changes superseded the treaty, MAAG Laos was established in 1961 to replace the
Programs Evaluation Office in its support of the
Royal Lao Army's fight against the communist
Pathet Lao. On July 23, 1962, several interested countries agreed in Geneva to guarantee the neutrality and independence of Laos. As such, the US removed the MAAG, replacing it with a
Requirements Office, which served as a convenient cover for the
CIA activities. One of MAAG Laos' commanders was
Reuben Tucker.
Military Mission in Liberia Upon the request of the Liberian Government, President
Harry S. Truman approved on October 19, 1950 a small US military training mission for Liberia. The mission (abbreviated LIBMISH) was to "undertake to reorganize and train the ..poorly organized and ill-equipped Liberian militia for internal security." In the event, the U.S. Army personnel of the mission remained, training the
Armed Forces of Liberia, until the 1990s and the
First Liberian Civil War.
MAAG Iran In 1943, a U.S. Army Mission (ARMISH) to the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces was established. Major General
Clarence S. Ridley, the first commander, "..found upon his arrival that the inflation had rendered officer salaries, and the budget generally, inadequate; that of serious equipment shortages, those in transport were drastic; that the organization and functioning of the supply and auxiliary departments were unsatisfactory; but that for all tasks likely to be imposed upon the
Army during the war period, 1942 tactical methods and training were in general sufficient. In a report submitted in 1942, at the request of the Shah, to the Minister of War, Ridley specified four necessities as basic to Army reorganisation: limiting total strength to 88,000; retaining only the best officers; providing a reasonable scale of pay; and providing adequate motor transport." In October 1946 the U.S. Ambassador wrote that the: "Iranians have formed great expectations of US Army mission under Grow and are already talking about request that it be doubled in size and giving it more responsibility." In October 1947 the U.S. Army Mission under General
Robert W. Grow succeeded Ridley's limited mission. They were to "advise and assist the Minister of War of Iran ..with respect to plans, problems concerning organisation, administrative principles and training methods. The mission was to be involved with the General Staff and all the departments of the
Ministry of War in Tehran except as regarding "tactical and strategic plans and operations against a foreign enemy." In 1949 after the creation of the
Department of Defense, the words "
United States Air Force" were added to mentions of the United States Army in a revised wording of the agreement. The Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) was established in 1950, and this began
United States Navy involvement. The
Imperial Iranian Armed Forces began to adopt American military structures and doctrines. The separate organizations were consolidated in 1958. From 1962 to 1978 the two advisory missions were referred to as ARMISH-MAAG. In 1969, a Technical Assistance Field Team (TAFT) was added. About one quarter of the approximately 100 U. S. Navy advisors in 1978 were MAAG, acting as a headquarters advisory component, and the remainder are TAFT, acting as one-on-one field advisors with an IIN counterpart. All advisors were chief petty officers or above. By July 1972,
Henry Kissinger wrote "we should leave decisions on what [military equipment] to buy to the Government of Iran and confine ourselves to assuring that the Iranian Government has good technical advice from our military people on the capabilities of the equipment involved." See Saunders to Kissinger, 14 July 1972, in FRUS, 212.
Richard Secord was the USAF Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Iran from September 1975 to July 1978. The new posting mandated a promotion to
brigadier general. In his new capacity he managed all USAF military assistance programs in Iran as well as some US Navy and Army programs, and acted as chief adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the
Imperial Iranian Air Force. During this time he also oversaw
Project Dark Gene and Project Ibex. After William H. Sullivan was appointed ambassador, Secord again found himself clashing with the diplomat over the use of U. S. military personnel and civilian technicians. An Air Force major-general was in command of the mission in 1978.
Philippines By 1987, Colonel
James N. Rowe was assigned as the chief of the Army division of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG), providing
counterinsurgency training for the
Armed Forces of the Philippines. Working closely with the
Central Intelligence Agency and intelligence organizations of the
Republic of the Philippines, he was involved in its nearly decade-long program to penetrate the
New People's Army (NPA), the communist insurgency that threatened to overthrow the Philippines' government.
MAAG Thailand As part of the military outreach of the USA to friendly countries in Southeast Asia, a MAAG was established in
Bangkok,
Thailand in September 1950 with Brigadier general
John T. Cole as Group Chief. It was replaced by the
Joint United States Military Advisory Group Thailand in September 1953, which still operates today.
Vietnam In September 1950, US President
Harry Truman sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to
Vietnam to assist the
French in the
First Indochina War. The President claimed they were not sent as combat troops, but to supervise the use of $10 million worth of US
military equipment to support the French in their effort to fight the
Viet Minh forces. By 1953, aid increased dramatically to $350 million to replace old military equipment owned by the French. Although Vietnam was then nominally
independent, the country was still partly controlled by the
French Union. The
French Army was reluctant to take U.S. advice and would not allow the
Vietnamese army to be trained to use the new equipment. They were supposed to not only defeat enemy forces but to solidify themselves as a colonial power, which they could not do if a Vietnamese army existed. French commanders were so reluctant to accept advice that would weaken the time-honored colonial role that they got in the way of the various attempts by the MAAG to observe where the equipment was being sent and how it was being used. Eventually, the French decided to cooperate, but at that point, it was too late. As stated by the
Geneva Accords a month later, France and its Vietnamese ally were forced to give up the northern half of Vietnam. The French army later withdrew from
South Vietnam by April 1956. On 13 December, leader of French army in Indochina
Paul Ély and US Ambassador to South Vietnam
J. Lawton Collins reached an "understanding on development and training of autonomous Viet-Nam forces." Under the agreement,
Military Assistance Advisory Group would assume full responsibility for organizing and training the South Vietnamese military while still recognizing the overall French military authority. The French were to grant "full autonomy" to the South Vietnamese armed forces by 1 July 1955. The Americans and French did not consult with the Vietnamese while setting up the agreement. At a conference in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 1955, between officials of the U.S.
State Department and the French Minister of Overseas Affairs, it was agreed that all U.S. military aid would be funneled directly to South Vietnam and that all major military responsibilities would be transferred from the French to the MAAG under the command of Lieutenant General John O'Daniel. MAAG Indochina was renamed the MAAG Vietnam on November 1, 1955, as the United States became more deeply involved in what would come to be known as the Vietnam War. The next few years saw the rise of a Communist insurgency in South Vietnam, and President
Diem looked increasingly to US military assistance to strengthen his position, albeit with certain reservations. Attacks on US military advisors in Vietnam became more frequent. On October 22, 1957, MAAG Vietnam and
USIS installations in Saigon were bombed, injuring US military advisors. In the summer of 1959, Communist guerrillas staged an attack on a Vietnamese military base in Bien Hoa, killing and wounding several MAAG personnel. Throughout this period relations between the MAAG Vietnam and Diem were described as "excellent", even though the advisors were doubtful of his ability to hold off the insurgency. was established by the United States in Belgrade in 1951. It operated for ten years, disbursing military grants and arranging another US$1 billion in arms sales on favorable terms. Among weapons transferred were 599
M4A3 tanks, 319 M-47 tanks, 715 M-7, M-18, and M-36 self-propelled guns, 565 M-3A1 and M-8 armored cars, and a total of total of 760 105mm, 155mm, and 203mm artillery pieces. The artillery pieces delivered were used to reequip artillery units within Yugoslavia's eight divisions. Harmony was promoted to major general by February 1956 and became commander of Military Advisory Assistance Group (Provisional) – Korea. he was succeeded by
Willis S. Matthews in April 1957. == Notes==