Military Assistance Advisory Group

Military Assistance Advisory Group ( MAAG ; German for "military support and advisory group") was the name for military advisory groups of the United States during the Cold War , which from the late 1940s to the 1970s in most of the allies (and also some neutral ) countries were used within the framework of military cooperation. The groups consisted of soldiers of the US armed forces and were organizationally subordinate to the US military leadership (and thus the Department of Defense ), but were considered civil "technical personnel" of the US embassies and mostly had the same privileges as embassy staff . The head of a MAAG was always a high-ranking US officer, usually in the rank of general.

The goals of the MAAGs were to improve military cooperation and the arming and training of the armed forces of the respective host country, but also their political influence in the pro-American sense. MAAG members worked as trainers, trained officers, instructed local soldiers in new weapon systems, advised the military leadership, organized the army administration; sometimes they also accompanied associations in combat missions. In some crisis states, the MAAG is said to have also acted as a cover organization for secret missions by special forces ; the transition from legal military aid to covert operations was often fluid.

The MAAG program can be seen as a personnel component of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program , which is taking place around the same time and through which military technology was supplied to allied armed forces on a large scale. Since sending a MAAG was mostly linked to financial aid and the costs were borne by the United States, the program was popular and accordingly widespread. States that wanted American military aid had to make a formal request and prove that both the government and the high-ranking officers were anti-communist . The MAAG was then created through a bilateral agreement. In fact, as part of the containment policy , the Americans themselves tried to install MAAGs in as many states as possible.

MAAGs existed in almost all NATO allies, in numerous countries in Central and South America, some countries in Africa (e.g. in Ethiopia , Libya and Morocco) and several countries in the Near and Middle East (e.g. in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan) , whereby the size of MAAG and its tasks and goals varied greatly depending on the country. A MAAG often only consisted of a few dozen men, but it could also be several thousand. Cuba's armed forces were trained by a MAAG from 1956 to 1958; the program was ended because dictator Fulgencio Batista was using the US weapons supplied to act increasingly brutal against the resistance movements in his own country.

MAAG Thailand badge

However, the MAAGs became known primarily in relation to East and Southeast Asia , since the US governments of the 1950s and 1960s, based on the domino theory, viewed the states there as particularly threatened by communism. MAAG Philippines , MAAG Korea , MAAG Thailand and MAAG Indochina had already been established by 1950 ; the latter to support the French in the Indochina War . The MAAG Republic of China followed in 1951 . From the MAAG Indochina went to South Vietnam , the MAAG Vietnam , which ranges in advance of the Vietnam War should develop into the largest and most important MAAG and a central role in expanding the conflict played until the group finally in 1964 in the MACV -Kommandostruktur of US ground forces was incorporated. The Kingdom of Cambodia also had a MAAG from 1955 to 1963, which was eventually withdrawn after the Kingdom declared its neutrality . After the fall of Sihanouk in 1970, there was another military adviser mission, albeit under the name Military Equipment Delivery Team . In the Kingdom of Laos , which also declared itself neutral (but was in fact in the middle of a civil war ), MAAG operated most of the time under the code names Programs Evaluation Office and Requirements Office . In Indonesia, a MAAG existed only briefly from 1950 to 1952, but followed in 1958 by a Military Technical Advisory Group , from which a Defense Liaison Group emerged .

In the Federal Republic of Germany, MAAG Germany was involved in building up the Bundeswehr from 1955 to 1962 . In 1976, the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), which still exists today, but is much smaller, emerged (which should not be confused with the Defense Attache 's Office, which also exists ). The formation of the Japanese self-defense forces at around the same time was also supported by a MAAG.

The name MAAG is no longer used today (probably because it has had a negative connotation since the Vietnam War), but comparable military support groups are still in widespread use. Current names are for example Joint US Military Advisory Groups or, more generally, United States Security Assistance Organizations .

literature

• James Ciment: Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History , Routledge, 2015, entry Military Assistance Advisory Groups, US ( on Google Books )
• Donald E. Weatherbee: Historical Dictionary of United States-Southeast Asia Relations , Scarecrow Press, 2008, entry Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) (p. 234) ( on Google Books )

Individual evidence

1. ^ The National Archives : Records of Interservice Agencies, 1916-73
2. ↑ Dieter Fleck, Stuart Addy: The Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces , Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 102
3. ↑ USARSUPTHAI Association
4. ↑ Guo fang bu. Shi zheng ju: The First Years of MAAG, ROC (1951-1955) , 1971
5. ↑ Shelby L. Stanton : Vietnam - Order of Battle , US News Books , Washington DC, 1981, Chapter Army and Advisory Level Commands (early 1963, MAAG Vietnam comprised over 3,400 military advisors)
6. ↑ Martin Stuart-Fox : Historical Dictionary of Laos , Scarecrow Press, 2008, entry American Aid (p. 9f)
7. ↑ germany.usembassy.gov: Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) ( Memento of the original from August 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ^ Edward A. Olsen: US-Japan Strategic Reciprocity: A Neo-Internationalist View , Hoover Press, 1985, p. 76