SEALORDS strategy

An innovative strategy for the employment of United States and South Vietnamese naval forces in the Vietnam War developed in 1968 by then Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., the Commander of Naval Forces in Vietnam. The SEALORDS strategy, which sought to put the Communist insurgents on the defensive by using U.S. and South Vietnamese riverine forces to set up a patrol boat barrier along the Cambodian border with South Vietnam and to penetrate deep into the Mekong Delta, was generally successful in limiting Communist offensive action in the Mekong Delta region.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.