During the Vietnam War, the South Vietnamese Regional Forces were a form of local militia. Recruited locally, they fell into two broad groups - Regional Forces and Popular Forces (The RFPF's, called Ruff-Puffs by American forces). During the early 1960s the Regional Forces manned the country-wide outpost system and defended critical points, such as bridges and ferries. There were some 9,000 such positions, half of them in the Mekong Delta region. In 1964, the Regional Forces were integrated into the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and placed under the command of the Joint General Staff.