every sense, tasked with the protection of the devotees. The Hòa Hảo formed a local militia after South Vietnam's armed forces were restructured, securing their heartlands and denying the Việt Cộng access to their agricultural riches. The Vietnamese Army was divided into three echelons: The ARVN was the regular army, and there were two echelons of territorial forces under the ARVN; the Popular Force and the Regional Force. Those in the Popular Force were only allowed to be assigned to areas within the district they resided, while those in the Regional Force were only allowed to be assigned to areas within the province they resided. This was a tremendous opportunity for the Hòa Hảo to establish a robust, unified force to defend their land and fight the Việt Cộng efficiently. Locals used to make up the Hòa Hảo's armed force, which was financed by local taxes levied on the devotees. Now, the Hòa Hảo were being paid by the Saigon government to defend themselves. Fall of Saigon The group's prowess in counter-guerrilla operations was demonstrated by the high level of security in the provinces where it operated. An Giang Province had the highest security rating of any province in South Vietnam, despite being surrounded by areas with security ratings near the bottom of the national list. Long Xuyên, the provincial capital and only 30 miles from the Cambodian border, was a Hòa Hảo stronghold with the Mekong Delta's second-highest security ranking. The region's security prompted American advisors to invite visiting dignitaries to An Giang Province, where the situation was supposedly representative of the remarkable progress made in the war. Despite the brutal guerilla warfare that engulfed the rest of the Mekong Delta, An Giang remained a haven of peace until the very end of the conflict. No ARVN division was ever assigned to conduct full-time combat operations in the province, and its efforts were limited to preventing Communist infiltration routes and camps in neighboring provinces. Moreover, throughout the Mekong Delta, An Giang's territorial forces had the lowest rate of desertions. In the mid-1970s, president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, who took power in 1967, started to face domestic opposition. After some street protests, he started to crackdown on any opposition, including the Hòa Hảo militia. Following this, six major Hòa Hảo factions signed a declaration in Hòa Hảo village, calling for an end to all separate activities that were harmful to unity,