By 1974, it had become much more effective with foremost counterinsurgency expert and Nixon adviser Robert Thompson noting that Regular Forces were very well-trained and second only to the American and Israeli forces in the Free World and with General Creighton Abrams remarking that 70% of units were on par with the United States Army. During the American intervention in Vietnam, the ARVN was reduced to playing a defensive role with an incomplete modernisation, and transformed again following Vietnamization, it was upgeared, expanded, and reconstructed to fulfill the role of the departing American forces. Several changes occurred throughout its lifetime, initially from a 'blocking-force' to a more modern conventional force using helicopter deployment in combat. The ARVN began as a post-colonial army that was trained by and closely affiliated with the United States and had engaged in conflict since its inception. It is estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties (killed and wounded) during the Vietnam War. At the ARVN's peak, an estimated 1 in 9 citizens of South Vietnam were enlisted, and it had become the fourth-largest army in the world composed of Regular Forces and the more voluntary Regional Forces and the Popular Force militias. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam ( ARVN Vietnamese: Lục quân Việt Nam Cộng hòa French: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. Not to be confused with People's Army of Vietnam.
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