Civilian Irregular Defense Group program

The Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG, pronounced , SID-jee; Vietnamese: Lực lượng Dân sự chiến đấu) was a military program developed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Vietnam War, which was intended to develop South Vietnamese irregular military units (militia) from indigenous ethnic-minority populations. The main purpose of setting up the CIDG program was to counter the growing influence of Viet Cong (VC) in the Central Highlands by training and arming the villagers for village defense.

Source: Wikipedia — Civilian Irregular Defense Group program (CC BY-SA 4.0)