plan the proliferation of Ranger-type counterinsurgency units without central direction and without a civil-military context inadequate intelligence inadequate military communications lack of centralized direction of the war effort. LTG Williams pointed to the dual chain of command of the ARVN, as distinct from the Civil Guard. The latter was commanded by the Department of the Interior, and controlled by province and district chiefs. This structure let the U.S. Operations Mission (USOM, the contemporary term for non-military foreign aid from the Agency for International Development) financially aid the Guard, they were so dispersed that there could be no systematic advice, much less to the combination of Guard and Army. Under the authority of the commander of United States Pacific Command, it was ordered that MAAG-V assign advisors to the infantry regiment and special troops regiment level, who were not to participate directly in combat, and advisers be provided down to infantry regiment and to artillery, armored, and separate Marine battalion level. This move would enable advisers to give on-the-spot advice and effectively assess the result of the advisory effort. He also requested US Army Special Forces (SF) mobile training teams (MTT) to assist in training ARVN units in counterinsurgency. On 8 July, the MAAG-V headquarters at Biên Hòa was raided by the Viet Cong; two South Vietnamese guards were killed along with two advisors, Major Dale R. Buis and Master Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand. These were the first American battle deaths in the Vietnam War. Structural barriers to effectiveness of RVN forces When the MAAG was instructed to improve the effectiveness of the ARVN, the most fundamental problem was that the Diệm government had organized the military and paramilitary forces not for effectiveness, but for political control and patronage. The most obvious manifestation of Diệm's goal was that there were two parallel organizations, the regular military under the Department of National Defense and the local defense forces under the Ministry of the Interior. Diệm was the only person who could give orders to both. Command and control President Diệm appointed the Secretary of State for National Defense and the Minister of the Interior. The Defense Secretary directed of General Staff chief and several special sub-departments. The General staff chief, in turn, commanded the Joint General Staff (JGS), which was both the top-level staff and the top of the military chain of command. There were problems with the military structure, even before