city. The chief of the General Staff was thus removed several miles from the Department of National Defense. The navy and air staffs were also separately located in downtown Saigon. With such a physical layout, staff action and decision-making was unduly delayed on even the simplest of matters. "The over-all ministerial structure described above was originally set up by the French and slightly modified by presidential decree on 3 October 1957. Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, had proposed a different command structure which would have placed the ministry and the "general staff" in closer proximity both physically and in command relationship." Diệm, however, made a practice of keeping individuals or small groups from having too much authority. The chain of command of both the Civil Guard and Self-Defense Corps, went from the Ministry of the Interior to the province chiefs, district chiefs, and village councils. Even though the province chiefs and district chiefs were often military officers, commanders of ARVN units operating in a province or district could not give orders to these units. Instead, they had to pass a request through military channels to the Ministry of Defense in Saigon. If the officials there agreed, they would convey the request to their counterparts in the Ministry of the Interior, who would then send orders down its chain of command to the local units. Regular military Three corps headquarters and a special military district: I Corps at Da Nang for the northern and central areas; the Central Highlands were separate II Corps at Pleiku for the Central Highlands provinces III Corps at Saigon for the southern part of the country Saigon city special military district. Seven divisions of 10,450 men each three infantry regiments artillery battalion mortar battalion engineer battalion company-size support elements Airborne group of five battalion groups four armored cavalry "regiments" (approximately the equivalent of a U.S. Army cavalry squadron) one squadron (U.S. troop) of M24 light tanks two squadrons of M8 self-propelled 75-mm howitzers Eight independent artillery battalions with U.S. 105-mm, and 155-mm pieces. Local defense forces Created by presidential decree in April 1955, and originally under the direct control of President Diệm, with control passed to the Ministry of the Interior in September 1958, the Civil Guard was made up of wartime paramilitary veterans. Its major duty was to relieve the ARVN of static security missions, freeing it for mobile operations, with additional responsibility for local