Operation Sealords is launched in the Mekong Delta by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.
This operation was ordered by newly appointed Commander Naval Forces Vietnam, Vice-Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., who established Task Force 194 to operate along the canals and less-traveled waterways of the Mekong Delta to interdict Viet Cong infiltration routes from Cambodia. Additionally, TF 194 was to harass Communist forces in the area and, with the assistance of ground and air forces, pacify the Delta region. Under Zumwalt’s direction, U.S. and South Vietnamese naval forces worked together to secure the waterways of the Mekong Delta. When the Vietnamization program began in 1969, the U.S. Navy instituted ACTOV (Accelerated Turnover to Vietnam), the Navy’s Vietnamization plan, and by April 1971, all Sealords operations had been turned over to the South Vietnamese Navy.
