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.