By 1961, the VC insurgency presented a real threat to the Diem regime. The South Vietnamese government sought help from the Combined Studies Division (CSD), cover name for the CIA and gave them permission to meet with Rhade tribal leaders. The Rhade tribe was chose for 3 reasons; first, they were considered the most experienced and socially advanced of the Montagnard tribes; second, many of its men were combat veterans of the French Expeditionary Corps; and third, Darlac Province was considered a major VC danger zone.  The village of Buon Enao was inhabited by approximately 400 Rhade tribesmen and selected as the initial Village Defense Program (VDP) site.  The CSD offered defense training and small arms to the Rhade if they would swear allegiance to South Vietnam’s government and start village self-defense programs. By developing the VDP, South Vietnam began meeting its objectives of securing Montagnard loyalty, providing them protection, and developing their counter-guerrilla fighter potential. Unlike President Diem’s Strategic Hamlet Program, which was intended to isolate rural Vietnamese from VC influence, the Montagnards would stay in their own villages and receive training on how to use updated weapons and defensive tactics to protect their homes, families, and possessions from the VC. 

    In early Oct, David Nuttle, an International Voluntary Services official and SSG Paul Campbell, an 1st SFG(A) medic, who was in VN training the Luc Luong Dac Biet (LLDB)-the South Vietnamese Special Forces and a small contingent of LLDB troops  arrived in Buon Enao. Mr. Nuttle and SSG Campbell  approached the village elders, with a plan to improve living conditions, agricultural means, and medical facilities while standing up a defense system around the village to encourage defiance against Viet Cong(VC). After several weeks of negotiations with the Village Chiefs, the contruction of the medical dispensary and village defense began in early Nov. 

   The task training the security forces for the VDP was assigned to CPT Shackleton and Detachment A-113, 1st SFG(A) on Okinawa.  From January to August 1962, Shackleton and A-113 prepared Buon Enao to be the province’s operational base for directing, supporting, and administering the VDP. This meant preparing village defensive measures such as improving individual training, constructing security fences and digging shelters. Systems were also put into effect which stressed patrolling, early warning, communications, intelligence collection and reporting, population control, and mutual support coordination with neighboring villages.

    By August 1962, the results of A-113’s efforts were becoming obvious. More than 200 Montagnard villages spread over approximately 4,000 square kilometers and more than half of the 120,000 Montagnards in Darlac Province’s were protected by a local militia of thousands of village defenders and a 1,500-man mobile strike force. A-113 was so successful that as 1962 came to an end, Darlac Province was declared secure and VDP control became the Darlac Province Chief’s responsibility.