Vietnam Period 1847 - 1964
1847
1954
Beginning of 1954 - American aid to France's military campaign now totals
$US1.1 Billion. Australia gives small amounts of military and economic aid. France has
lost 74,000 troops with another 190,000 bogged down.
January - Operation "Atlante" begins. It is designed to clear the coastal
areas of Viet Minh. The operation ends in failure in March.
March . Navarre has a dozen battalions dug in around Dien Bien Phu including two
groups of 75mm guns, 28 X105mm, four 155 guns, including mortars, and 10 light tanks. Six
Grunman fighters armed with napalm are on alert on the airfield. Three main bastions form
the defense of the larger airstrip, while the main stronghold included the village itself.
Four smaller outposts formed the outer defense. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was about to
begin. The French hope that Giap will hurl his army to destruction.
8 April - Australian - R.G Casey
"The United States of America is on our side. It is on the side of democracy,
decency and right, and the forces of darkness opposed to it are very apparent and very
powerful. The world may have a showdown at any time between our form of life and the
forces of darkness".
Austraian - Sir Paul Hasluck - [The conflict in Indo-China is]
"part of a world wide struggle... The French are defending liberty".
April . Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies states;
"If communist forces again come on the march and a great war ensues, the farther
north the lines of defense are drawn, the better for those communities of Viet Nam, and
Laos, and Cambodia, and Thailand, and Burma, and Malaya, and the Philippines, and
Indonesia and all the rest of us who wish to retain control of our own future and govern
ourselves in our own way".
May 7 - The remnants of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrender, depriving
France of any bargaining power at Geneva.
May 8. Geneva conference on Indochina opens.
July 7 - Ngo Dinh Diem newly chosen Premier of South Vietnam, completes the
organization of his cabinet. His regime proves to be oppressive and inhumane.
July 20-21 - The
Geneva Agreements are signed, partitioning Vietnam along the 17th Parallel and setting
up an International Control Commission to supervise compliance with the Agreements
American Response to The
Geneva Declarations
AGREEMENT ON THE CESSATION OF
HOSTILITIES IN VIET-NAM, JULY 20, 1954 (The Geneva Accords)
MISSION OF THE SPECIAL UNITED
STATES REPRESENTATIVE IN VIET-NAM: Statement Issued by the White House,
November 3, 1954
Letters
from Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy to Diem, 1954 and 1961
August - Australian Prime Minister - Robert. G Menzies, in Parliament
"It is therefore foolish, superficial, and dangerous to speak of the conflict
in the world as a contest between two economic systems, capitalism and communism. Nor can
the cynics dispose of it as an old-fashioned struggle for military or physical power, with
territory and resources as the prizes of victory. It is desperately important that the
world should see this as a moral contest, a battle for the spirit of man. There can be no
easy or enduring compromise between peoples who affirm the existence of a divine authority
and the compulsion of a spiritual law and those others who see nothing beyond an atheistic
materialism".
September 8 - An agreement is signed at Manila establishing a South East Asia Treaty
Organization(SEATO), aimed at checking Communist expansion.
September 1954. The Australian Minister for Defence,Sir Philip Mc Bride,
outlined the Australian government's fears upon which Australian foreign policy was
predicated for the following twenty years.
"It is a matter of vital importance to maintain the gap between Australia and the
present high-water mark of the southward flow of communism. Should this gap narrow, the
nature and scale of attack on Australia would become intensified as distance shortened.
Finally, should the tide of communism lap on our shores, we would face an intolerable
defense burden and a scale of attack which would be beyond our capacity to repel alone.
There is, therefore, every reason strategically and economically why Australia should
co-operate to keep aggressive Communism within its present boundaries, and to stem its
onward flow".
See The Domino Theory
October 5 - The last French troops leave Hanoi.
October 11 - The Viet Minh formally assume control over North Vietnam.
October 23 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower advises Diem that the US will
provide assistance directly to South Vietnam, instead of channeling it through French
authorities.
US
Entry into South Vietnam
1955
January 1. Direct US aid to South Vietnam begins.
February 12. US advisers begin training South Vietnamese troops.
March 29 - Diem launches his successful campaign against the Binh Xuyen and the
religious sects.US Ambassador Collins advises Washington to consider a change of
leadership. Bao Dai, from Paris accuses President Diem of "selling the blood of
Vietnamese". Diem is advised by the CIA to conduct a plebiscite and let the people
decide.
Diem is warned by the Lansdale(CIA) "not to rig the elections", "... I
don't want to suddenly read that you have won by 99.99%"
June. Hanoi asks for formal talks to prepare for the international supervised
elections scheduled for
October. Diem holds the plebiscite and wins by 98%. CIA knows the plebiscite was rigged.
President Diem places family members in key positions.
Much later, Diem's last military Chief of Staff, General Tran Van Don was to say of Diem's
Government, "They resorted to arbitrary arrests, confinement in concentration camps
for undetermined periods of time without judicial guarantees or restraints, and
assassinations of people suspected of Communist leanings. Their use of Gestapo-like police
raids and torture were known and decried everywhere. had they confined themselves to known
Communists or proven Communist sympathizers, one could understand their methods. The
repression, however, spread to people who simply opposed their regime, such as head or
spokesmen of other political parties, and against individuals who were resisting extortion
by some of the government officials".
April - Australian Prime Minister - R.G Menzies, Parliament
"...there is no country in the world more completely British than Australia,
nor...more devoted to the throne and person of Her Majesty the Queen. We are a proud
member of a Crown Commonwealth, and will ever continue to be so. But we would be strangely
blind if we did not see that...the rise of the United States to supremacy in industrial
power, her vast population, her intellectual and moral influence are all such that she has
become...vital to the existence of the free world...[her]friendship and cooperation are
vital to our safety".
May 10 - South Vietnam formally requests US instructors for Armed Forces.
May 16 - The United States agrees to furnish military aid to Cambodia, which
becomes an independent state on 25 September.
July 20 - South Vietnam refuses to take part in the all-Vietnam elections called
for by the Geneva Agreements, charging that free elections are impossible in the Communist
North.
October 23 - A national referendum deposes Bao Dai in favor of Diem, who proclaims
the Republic of Vietnam.
1956
February 18- While visiting Peking, Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk renounces SEATO
protection for his nation.
March 31. Prince Souvanna Phouma becomes Prime Minister in Laos.
April 28 - An American Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) takes over the
training of South Vietnamese forces. The French Military High Command disbands and
French troops leave South Vietnam.
June. Le Duan,
"Duong Loi Cach Mang Mien Nam," [The Path of Revolution in the South], circa
1956
UNITED STATES POLICY WITH
RESPECT TO VIETNAM: Address by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs,
Walter S. Robertson, Washington, June 1, 1956. Delivered to the American Friends of
Vietnam at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC.
August 5 - Souvanna Phouma and the Communist Prince Souphanouvong agree to a
coalition government in Laos.
1957
January 3 - The International Control Commission declares that neither North Vietnam
nor South Vietnam has carried out the Geneva Agreements.
March. Australia announces a new defense policy providing for closer co-operation
with America in South East Asia. Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies states, "
Though this is a wholeheartedly British nation this is not a hearsay. It merely recognizes
the facts of war".
May 29- Communist Pathet Lao attempt to seize power in Laos.
June. The last French training missions leave South Vietnam.
September - SVN President Ngo Dinh Diem visits Australia and the Government
reaffirms support for Diem. Diem is successful in South Vietnamese general election.
1958
January - Communist guerrillas attack a plantation north of Saigon.
March7. President Diem receives a letter from North Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Van
Dong, proposing a discussion on troop reductions and trade relations as a renewed step
towards reunification.
April 26. President Diem rejects any discussion until North Vietnam has established
"democratic liberties" similar to those in the South.
President Sukarno of Indonesia survives a CIA backed rebellion. This disturbs the
Australian Government who now believe they are becoming increasingly isolated.
1959
In 1959 North Vietnam initiated a long-term campaign aimed at destroying the government of
South Vietnam through political subversion and armed action. The goal was to unify Vietnam
under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. To achieve this end, the North Vietnamese directed
Communists in the South to spark unrest, infiltrated guerrilla reinforcements, and began
preparing a logistical line of communication, soon labeled the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through
neighboring Laos. To ease the threat to this supply system, the North Vietnamese
exacerbated existing political tensions in Laos. They supported with troops and supplies
the indigenous Pathet Lao Communists, who were attempting to overthrow the pro-Western
Royal Laotian Government.
During 1959 several detachments from naval mobile construction battalions (NMCB), known as
Seabees, improved strategically important roads and the country's main airfield, Wattay,
at the capital of Vientiane
April - A branch of the Lao Dong (Worker's Party of Vietnam), of which Ho Chi Minh
became Secretary-General in 1956, is formed in the South, and Communist underground
activity increases. THE
IMPORTANCE TO THE UNITED STATES OF THE SECURITY AND PROGRESS OF VIET-NAM: Address by
President Eisenhower, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1959
(Excerpt)
May - The US Commander in Chief, Pacific, begins sending the military advisers
requested by the South Vietnamese government.
May 6 - President Diem SVN passes
oppressive laws on his countrymen.
June-July - Communist Pathet Lao forces attempt to gain control over northern Laos,
receiving some Vietnamese Communist assistance.
July 8 - Communist South Vietnamese wound American advisers during an attack on
Bien Hoa.
During September 1959, in the autumn of 1960, and again in January 1961,
the Seventh Fleet deployed multiship carrier task forces into the South China Sea as a
deterrent to further Communist guerrilla attacks on pro-American forces in Laos and as
reassurance to friendly governments of U.S. resolve to stand by them.
December 31 - General Phoumir Nosavan seizes control in Laos.
Between 1959 and 1964, poor leadership constituted the greatest hindrance to an effective
Vietnamese Navy. Political intrigue, cultural differences, and seemingly petty personal
disputes troubled the officer corps. Because of the navy's short existence, senior
officers were relatively young and inexperienced. Its small size in comparison with the
Vietnamese Army and the consequent domination by the ground force stifled the naval
command's initiative. In the enlisted ranks, lack of motivation, low pay, austere living
conditions, and inadequate training for navy life caused some to desert. Poor maintenance
of obsolete World War II-vintage ships and craft and the inefficient repair and supply
systems reflected a lack of modern technological heritage in South Vietnam. All of these
factors resulted in the mediocre operational performance of the naval service. Many of the
problems identified by Rear Admiral Henry S. Persons during his inspection of the
Vietnamese Navy in November 1961 for the Commander in Chief, Pacific remained when Captain
Phillip S. Bucklew made a similar visit in early 1964. Indeed, the disruption in the
officer corps caused by the coup d'etat against President Diem in November 1963 and the
Communist exploitation of the subsequent political and military chaos in South Vietnam
even lessened the Vietnamese Navy's ability to carry out its mission at the end of 1964.
1960
Recognizing that the sea was a likely avenue of approach for Communists infiltrating
from North Vietnam or moving along the South Vietnamese littoral, in April 1960 the navy
established the paramilitary Coastal Force. In line with its emphasis on counterinsurgency
warfare, the Kennedy administration wholeheartedly endorsed the development of this junk
fleet, providing the force with American naval advisors, boat design and construction
funds, and stocks of small arms. By the end of 1964, the 3,800-man, 600-junk force
patroled the offshore waters from 28 bases along the coast. To coordinate the operations
of these 28 separate divisions, U.S. advisors helped set up coastal surveillance centers
in Danang, Cam Ranh, Vung Tau, and An Thoi, the respective headquarters of the 1st, 2d,
3d, and 4th Coastal Districts.
May 5 - US MAAG strength is increased from 327 to 6850 members.
June and July , Men of US Naval Beach Group 1 and Underwater Demolition
Team (UDT) 12 pushed 430 miles up the unpredictable, rapid-strewn Mekong River to deliver
ten landing craft to the Laotian armed forces.
August
5 - Captain Kong Le's paratroopers sieze Vietiane, the administrative captial of Laos.
9 - Kong Le acussing the United States of colonialism and urges restoration of a
neutral Laos under Prince Souvanna Phouma . This is opposed by Phoumi Nosavan and Boun Oum
supported by the United States and Thailand.
August - Malayan Emergency ends.
October 1960 - The US Navy formed the River Transport Escort Group as
protection for the vital foodstuffs being convoyed through the Mekong Delta to Saigon.
Later in the period, the navy created the River Transport Group to move army forces in the
delta.
November 11-1 2 - In South Vietnam a military coup against Diem fails.
December 16 - The forces of Phoumi Nosavan capture Vientiane and Kong Le flees to
north-central Laos and links up with the communist Pathet Lao, who are supported by the
Soviet Union. The United States increases aid to Phoumi Nosavan. US Special Forces train
the Royal Army and the North Vietnamese match this by sending Viet Cong cadre to Pathet
Lao units.
December 20 - The Communist National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam is formed.
Temporarily deployed American mobile training teams complemented the advisory effort.
These small detachments accomplished such specialized tasks as helping to develop a
full-fledged intelligence department on the Vietnamese Naval Staff, reactivating an old
French boat repair yard adjacent to the Saigon Naval Shipyard, and teaching courses in
radar technology. In addition, the mobile training teams instructed Vietnamese Air Force
mechanics in the maintenance of 63 Douglas A-1H Skyraiders and 15 North American T-28
Trojan aircraft that were transferred to the allied air service from 1960 to 1964. Also
during this period, many Vietnamese naval personnel received training at U.S. facilities
in the United States, including the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and the
Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Other Vietnamese sailors served short
tours in Seventh Fleet ships or benefited from combined antisubmarine warfare exercises
with U.S. submarines Bluegill (SS 242), Queenfish (SS 393), and Capitaine
(AGSS 336).
1961
In the spring of 1961 their offensive appeared on the verge of overwhelming the pro-
American Royal Laotian Army. Once again the fleet sortied into Southeast Asian waters. By
the end of April most of the Seventh fleet was deployed off the Indochinese Peninsula
preparing to initiate operations into Laos. The force consisted of Coral Sea (CVA
43) and Midway (CVA 41) carrier battle groups, antisubmarine support carrier Kearsarge
(CVS 33), one helicopter carrier, three groups of amphibious ships, two submarines, and
three Marine battalion landing teams. At the same time, shorebased air patrol squadrons
and another three Marine battalion landing teams stood ready in Okinawa and the
Philippines to support the afloat force. Although the administration of President John F.
Kennedy already had decided against American intervention to rescue the Laotian
government, Communist forces halted their advance and agreed to negotiations. The
contending Laotian factions concluded a cease-fire on 8 May 1961, but it lasted only a
year
January 4 - Prince Boun Oum organizes a pro-Western government in Laos; North Vietnam
and the USSR send aid to the Pathet Lao communist insurgents.
January 19 - Outgong US President Eisenhower briefs in coming US
President Kennedy , the emphasis is on Indochina, Eisenhower states that Laos is the key
to South East Asia and must not be lost to the communists.
January 20. John Fitzgerald Kennedy takes the office of President of the United
States of America.
April 9. President Diem is re-elected as President of South Vietnam.
US Ambassador Frederick Nolting reveals that Diem, "did not want combat troops in
Vietnam".
April 10 -
First defoliation test mission is flown in Vietnam
Exercise Pony Express, conducted on the northern coast of Borneo by 60 ships and 26,000
personnel from SEATO member states between late April and early May 1961, prominently
displayed U.S. naval power and allied military solidarity. Throughout this period, the
Navy took other steps to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to friendly governments. Heavy
cruisers Toledo (CA 133) in October 1959 and Saint Paul (CA 73), the
flagship of Commander Seventh Fleet, in October 1960 visited Saigon to participate in
Vietnamese Independence Day celebrations
May 5. President Kennedy at a press conference declares that if necessary the use
of US forces would be considered "to help South Vietnam resist communist
pressures". The President also decides not to send troops to Laos.
May 8. A task force of US sub-cabinet officials makes a recommendation
that US forces in South Vietnam be increased from a few hundred to several thousand.
President Kennedy authorises an increase of 100 advisers and 400 Special Forces troops to
train South Vietnamese.
May 11-1 3 -Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam for talks with
Diem. Johson is briefed by the president to proclaim America's solidarity.
May 16. A 14 nation conference in Geneva affirms Lao's neutrality.
May 23. Vice President Johnson returns to the United States from a visit
to Southeast Asia and gives a report to Kennedy on his trip. He states that the US must
either help the countries of Southeast Asia or pull back its defenses to San Francisco.
June 16. Following a meeting between South Vietnam's President Diem and
Kennedy, the United States agrees to increase the number of American advisors in Vietnam
from 340 to 805. The commitment places the prestige of the Kennedy Adminstration behind
the efforts in Vietnam.
July. Australia is "distressed" by Britain's announcement that they will
seek to join the EEC.
August - Conditions in in Laos are deteriorating and US Secretary of
State, Dean Rusk states at a White House meeting that the US should be ready to defend
Indochina under a SEATO plan, which calls for the dispatch of 30,000 combat troops
supplied by Great Britain, France and the United States. Both Britain and and France have
already made it clear that they had no intention of sending troops.
1 August 1962, US Minesweeping Division 71 sailed from the area, thus
ending the 7-month-long combined patrol. Other Seventh Fleet ships gathered information on
the suitability of South Vietnamese beaches for amphibious landings. During January 1962,
high-speed transport Cook (APD 130) conducted beach surveys along the South
Vietnamese coast from Quang Tri in the north to Vung Tau in the south. In February and
March of the following year, Weiss (APD 135) made a similar transit along the South
Vietnamese littoral. On several occasions, the Viet Cong fired on shore parties from the
ship. Fleet units also transported American support forces to South Vietnam.
27 August - US Commander Mine Division 93, with ocean minesweepers Leader
(MSO 490) and Excel (MSO 439), made the first official visit by ships of the U.S.
Navy to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
September 1-4 - Viet Cong forces carry out a series of attacks in Kontum Province,
South Vietnam.
September 18 - A Viet Cong battalion seizes the provincial capital of Phuoc Vinh
some 55 miles (89km) from Saigon.
October 8 - The Lao factions agree to form a neutral coalition headed by Souvanna
Phouma, but fail to agree on the apportionment of cabinet posts.
October 11 - President John F. Kennedy announces that his principal military
adviser General Maxwell D. Taylor , USA, will go to South Vietnam to investigate the
situation.
After the fact-finding mission General Maxwell Taylor, the Kennedy administration,
responded by: 1) increasing military aid and the number of advisors in-country, 2)
adopting specialized counterinsurgency measures, and 3) deploying American support forces
to Southeast Asia. The U.S. Navy played an important role in each of these three major
programs. Paralleling the overall rise in MAAG strength, the Navy Section increased from
79 men in 1959 to 154 in early 1964. In addition, the naval advisors began to accompany
South Vietnamese ships, river assault groups, and other units on combat operations.
Another small naval contingent served on the staff of the Military Assistance Command,
Vietnam (MACV), established on 8 February 1962 to coordinate the total U.S. effort in the
Republic of Vietnam. The command function was centralized when the MAAG was disestablished
on 15 May 1964, and its resources were absorbed by MACV. Thereafter, the Naval Advisory
Group (NAG) continued the work of the old Navy Section. By the end of the year, 235 naval
personnel were assigned to the 4,889-man military assistance command.
The Kennedy administration concluded early that in addition to providing military aid and
advice to friends in their fight against Communist "wars of national
liberation," specially trained American units might be necessary to combat the
enemy's political-military offensive. The Taylor mission to South Vietnam in October 1961
invigorated the American effort to develop specialized counterinsurgency units in the U.S.
Armed Forces.
October 11 - US
Secretary of Defence - McNamara's report to President Kennedy
November - Colonel S.C Graham, Australian Director of Military
Intelligence tours Vietnam and concludes that; "...the war in Vietnam had already
reached a stage similar to that which existed before Dien Bien Phu".
November 15. President Kennedy has doubts about US involvment in Vietnam.
November 16 - As a result of the Taylor mission, President Kennedy decides to
increase military aid to South Vietnam, without committing US combat troops .
U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/03/06 Foreign Relations, 1961-63, Vol XXIII, Southeast Asia, Office
of the Historian
NATIONAL
SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 111, November 22, 1961
December - Indonesia proclaims that they would reclaim Dutch New Guinea by the end
of 1962.
11 December 1961, aircraft ferry Core (T-AKV 13) of the Navy's
Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) arrived in Saigon and offloaded two Army
helicopter transportation companies. At the end of January 1962, Card (T-AKV 40)
carried another such unit to Subic Bay. There, it was transferred to amphibious assault
ship Princeton (LPH 5), LST 629, and LST 630 for the last leg of the
journey to Danang.
14 - US President Kennedy's Letter to President Ngo Dinh Diem
31 - US military personnel total 3,200.
During the 1961 spring crisis, antisubmarine support carrier Bennington (CVS 20)
carried 14 Sikorsky H-34 helicopters to the Gulf of Siam where they were flown off and
transferred to friendly forces in Laos, then preparing to meet the next Pathet Lao
assaults. However, relative calm settled over the country during the latter half of 1961
and early 1962. This lull was shattered when the Communists overran the pro-American
defenders of Nam Tha on 6 May 1962, renewing fears for the survival of a non-Communist
Laotian government.
Among the ships and craft provided between 1961 and 1964 by the United States to the
Vietnamese Navy's Sea Force were an additional 5 escorts (PCE), 12 motor gunboats (PGM), 3
medium landing ships (LSM), and 3 tank landing ships (LST), 1 fuel barge (YOG), and 12
minesweeping launches (MLMS). These vessels gave the oceangoing force a greater capability
to carry out its responsibility for patrol and transport along the 1,200-mile coastline,
gunfire support of troops ashore, amphibious landings, minesweeping, and open sea
operations.
As a result of President Kennedy's decision in November 1961 to expand the use of American
support units in South Vietnam, in "limited partnership" with the South
Vietnamese Armed Forces, the U.S. Navy deployed major fleet units to the increasingly
hostile region. Beginning in December 1961, Seventh Fleet and Vietnamese Navy units
conducted combined surface and air patrol operations from the 17th parallel eastward to
the Paracel Islands. The purpose of the patrols was to train the South Vietnamese Sea
Force in open sea deployments and to determine the extent of any waterborne infiltration
of munitions from North Vietnam. Aided in their surveillance mission by Martin SP-5B
Marlin seaplanes based on Taiwan, five minesweepers of Minesweeping Division 73 carried
out the first patrols. Faster and more seaworthy destroyer escort ships soon relieved the
minesweepers on patrol.
During the 1961 fall crisis, planes from Ticonderoga (CVA 14) conducted
photographic reconnaissance over the Central Highlands. In September and October, Douglas
A3D-2P Skywarriors and Vought F8U-IP Crusaders flew random missions over suspected
infiltration routes
1962
1 January 1962 - The US Navy established in the Atlantic and Pacific
Fleets 60-man naval special warfare units called SEAL teams (the name reflects a
capability to fight on the sea, in the air, and on land). Their chief purpose was to carry
out guerrilla and antiguerrilla operations in rivers, canals, harbors, and on adjacent
land areas. The units were also charged with training American and allied forces for
special operations
12 - The US Air Force launches Operation Ranch Hand to deny the Vietcong the use of
the road and trails. Using a defoliating herbicide named Agent Orange, over 10% of the
vegetation in Vietnam is destroyed during the course of the war. The defoliant also causes
severe disabilities among Vietnam veterans and the population of Vietnam.
13 - The US Joint Chiefs of Staff urge President Kennedy to authorise the deployment
of troops to Vietnam to prevent 'Vietnam's loss'.
February
3 - The "Strategic Hamlet" program begins in South Vietnam.
5 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara reports: "
The actions which the South Vietnamese Government has taken to counter the very serious
threat of subversion and aggression, covert aggression, in that nation, are beginning to
be effective...'.
7 - American military strength in South Vietnam reaches 4,000, with the arrival of
two additional Army aviation units.
19 February 1962, US Admiral George W. Anderson, the Chief of Naval
Operations, authorized establishment of another type of unit designed to counter Communist
insurgencies through civic action programs. The 13-man Seabee Technical Assistance Teams
(STAT), formed to help win the support of indigenous populations for their governments,
also constructed traditional military posts for American and friendly forces.
27 - President Diem escapes injury when two South Vietnamese aircraft attack the
Presidential Palace.
Seeking to verify any Communist infiltration of arms and supplies from Cambodia into the
Ca Mau Peninsula and adjacent areas, U.S. and South Vietnamese naval forces mounted a
similar effort in the Gulf of Siam. Training the Vietnamese Navy in blue-water
surveillance operations also became a goal in this area. Destroyer escorts Wiseman
(DE 667) and Walton (DE 361) initiated the combined patrol when they steamed into
the gulf on 27 February 1962. For the next three months, U.S. ships' radar vectored South
Vietnamese ships toward suspicious contacts for boarding and search. Nonetheless, the
gulf's shallow waters precluded combined operations by U.S. and Vietnamese ships, thus
allowing little opportunity for training. At the same time, the forces found no
appreciable infiltration. Accordingly, U.S. participation in the gulf patrol was ended on
21 May, when the ships of Escort Division 72 departed South Vietnamese waters for their
scheduled return to the United States.
March
31 - President Diem writes to Prime Minister Menzies, drawing his attention to,
"the grave threat to peace in Vietnam".
April
Australian Army Colonel Ted Serong and future Commanding Officer of the Australian
Training Team Vietnam(AATTV) visits Vietnam and concludes "Vietnam was one of
restrained optimism".
'Get Me Ten Years': Australia's
Ted Serong in Vietnam, 1962-1975."
May
ANZUS Council meeting in Canberra. US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states that the US
wants more support in Vietnam from its allies and asks Sir Garfield Barwick, Australian
Minister for External Affairs for a contribution of instructors.
6 - Phoumi Nosavan having refused to co-operate in forming a coalition cabinet in
Laos masses troops on China's border area. North Vietnamese troops invade Laos. 5,000
defenders flee in panic. Nosavan agrees on a coalition goverment with Pathet Lao and
rightist elements, headed by Souvanna Phouma. The North Vietnameses now have protection on
the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main supply route into Vietnam.
Determined to preserve the status quo and at the same time reassure American allies,
President Kennedy again ordered the Seventh Fleet into the South China Sea. The Hancock
(CVA 19) carrier group and the Bennington submarine hunter-killer group steamed to
a position off Danang, and the fleet's Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) carried the Marine
Special Landing Force (SLF) into the Gulf of Siam. Then, in mid-May, U.S. ground, air, and
naval forces deployed to Thailand. On the 17th, the Amphibious Ready Group landed a Marine
ground-air team, which quickly moved forward to Udorn on the Thai-Laotian border. Other
units, including elements of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10, joined this force in
succeeding days to form the 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade. With the forces in the area
now more in balance, political compromise was possible.
15 - Australian Cabinet resolves that military assitance to South Vietnam can only
be undertaken at the request of the Republic of Vietnam(RVN), but should such a request be
made, Australia was willing to send a small force of advisers and instructors.
23 - Australian Government announces that the No 79 Squadron RAAF, equipped with Sabre
Jet fighters is to be stationed in Ubon, Thailand.
24 - Australian Minister for Defence, Athol Townley announces that 30 Army
Instructors are to be sent to Vietnam and states; "If the communists were to achieve
their aims in Vietnam, this would gravely affect the security of the whole of Southeast
Asia and ultimately Australia".
June
NATIONAL
SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 162, June 19, 1962
July
23 July 1962, the various Laotian parties formally agreed at the Geneva
Conference to form a coalition government headed by the neutralist, Prince Souvanna
Phouma.
23 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara reports:
"Our military assistance to Vietnam is paying off. The South Vietnamese are beginning
to hit the Viet Cong insurgents where it hurts most - in winning the people to the side of
the government....".
COMUSMACV General Paul Harkins: "There is no doubt we are on the
winning side".
CIA Director John McCone late wrote that MACV and the Embassy: "...
had been grossly misinformed by the South Vietnamese provoince and district chiefs .....
The province and district chiefs felt obliged to 'create statistics' which would meet the
approbation of the Central Government".
This was a period of disinformation or highly exagerated reports by the South Vietnamese
goverment. SVN officers disgruntled by the situation leaked sensitive information to
the press in hope that some of the truth would reach Washington.
August
3 - 30 Advisors from the Australian Army Training Team(AATTV)arrive in South Vietnam
and are met by the Australian Ambassador. They become the first Australian troops involved
in the Indochina war.
Responding to South Vietnamese reports of air intrusions by unidentified aircraft in
August 1962, the US Navy dispatched an AD-5Q (EA-IF) Skyraider detachment of Air Early
Warning Squadron 13 to Tan Son Nhut Airfield near Saigon.
October
9 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara reports: "I think it is too
early to say that the tide has turned or to predict the final outcome....".
November 1962 to February 1963, Douglas RA-3B Skywarriors of Heavy
Photographic Squadron 61 photographed large segments of the country for use in a crash
mapmaking program.
Sir Garfield Barwick, Australian Minister for External Affairs
"The courageous people of Vietnam [are in the] front line struggle against
communist aggression ... Recruits are obtained by kidnapping and other coercive measures,
and sent to North Vietnam for training and indoctrination. Later they come back to form
new Viet Cong units".
See
Australia's Military Involvement in Vietnam The Political Dimension
1963
The worsening situation in South Vietnam during 1963 prompted measures to evacuate
Americans in the event of a general emergency. Saigon street demonstrations by Buddhists
and other Vietnamese disaffected with the Diem government occurred throughout the summer.
The public self-immolation of several Buddhist monks drew world attention, as did the
government's heavy-handed counteractions.
January
2 - Battle of Ap Bac. ARVN forces with 51 US advisers are defeated by the 514th Viet
Cong Battalion(400 men). With superior numbers and firepower5 US helicopters are destroyed
and 11 damaged. 65 ARVN are killed with 3 US Advisers.
This battle showed the unwillingness of ARVN troops to fight even when the advantage was
on their side. This was mainly a result of Diem's poilcy of reprimanding senior officers
who suffered heavy casualties in their units. Reports from the battle causes an angry
outcry in the United States where the calls for reform by Diem are wanted. Diem ignores
the contoversy and allows events to continue as usual.
May
6 - COMUSMACV General Paul Harkins tells Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara:
"... we are continuing to make progress in the war".
McNamara directs the military to prepare a plan for the phasing US forces beginning with
the withdrawal of 1,000 advisers by years end.
8 - South Vietnamese troops, enforcing a ban on the Buddhist multicolored
flag, fire upon 20,000 Buddhists at Hue. The attack begins a series of intensifying
protests by Buddhists against the government.
June
3 - Budhist monks protest in Hue and the government responds by sending out
troops. Nine Budhists are killed. Rioting spreads from Hue to Siagon.
11 - After the riots in Hue, South Vietnam, a Buddhist monk commits suicide by setting
himself alight. Diem's wife outrages the world by referring to the act as a
"barbecue".
August
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff have delayed the withdrawal plan until the current crisis has
subsided.
When the political turmoil in the capital reached a peak at the end of August 1963, the
Seventh Fleet deployed the Amphibious Ready Group and the Marine Special Landing Force to
a point off Vung Tau, where they prepared to take out the 4,600 American noncombatants in
the Saigon area. Although the crisis in the capital abated, the relief was only temporary.
21 - Diem's brother Nhu orders an elite military unit to raid the
Budhists pagodas in the early hours. Several hundred are arrested(1,400). President
Kennedy denounces the attacks.
23 - Two South Vietnamese Generals contact the US Embassy in Siagon and
'feel out' what the US attitude would be in the event of a coup.
24 - The US take this opportunity to move against the Diem Regime.
A cable is drafted to the new US Ambassador in Siagon, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr: "
....Ambassador and country team should urgently examine all possible alternative
leadership and make plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should
become necessary". US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Averell
Harriman approves the cable. President Kennedy agrees provided his senior advisers concur.
They concur and the cable is sent. General Maxwel Taylor the President's military adviser
is shocked by the news knowing that this represented a major change in Vietnam policy.
Later he is to state that the cable would never have been approved had not the anti-Diem
faction in Washington made what he called an "egregious end run" during the
absence of high-level officials". Bobby Kennedy recalls later that the President(his
brother) regretted the decision and viewed the cable as a "major mistake".
25 - Ambassador Lodge in Siagon having seen the cable as an order from
the President to encourage the South Vietnamese military to launch a coup, calls a meeting
to consider how to organise a coup and puts the CIA in charge of the operation. The CIA
contact General Tran Thiem and General Nguyen Khanh and tell them that the Nghu's(Diem's
brother and sister-in-law) have to go and leave the question of retaining Diem up to them.
27 - CIA Vietnam expert, William Colby, describes the situation in Siagon
as quiet and said unrest had not spread to the countryside.
September
9 - President Kennedy at a news conference, when asked about the Domino
Theory states: "...I beleive it. China is so large, looms so high just beyond
the frontiers, that if South Vietnam went, it would not only give them an improved
geographical position for a guerrilla assault on Malaya, but would also give the
inpression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia was China and the Communists. So
I believe it ".
President Kennedy's Television
Interviews on Vietnam, September 2 and 9, 1963
TIM WEINER, "Kennedy Had
Plan for Early Vietnam Exit," New York Times, December 23, 1997
17 - President Kennedy sends Ambassador Lodge in Siagon, a 'conciliatory'
cable outlining reforms under which the United States would accept continuing rule by
Diem.
23 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara and General Maxwell visit
Vietnam on fact finding and discussions to assess the situation and report back to
President Kennedy.
29 - Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara and General Maxwell meet with
Diem and express concern over South Vietnam's political unrest and that the unrest and
repression it had triggered endangered the war effort and the US support. Therefore the
repression must stop and the unrest be resolved. Diem flatly rejects these assertions
blaming the press for attacking his government. A report is drafted for the President on
the visit.
October
2 - Meeting between the President, McNamara and Maxwell: They brief the
President on the trip to South Vietnam(SVN) and discuss the removal of 1,000 advisers from
SVN. The President convenes the National Security Council on the matters contained in the
report and stresses that the US needed to find effective ways of persuading Diem to change
the political atmosphere in Siagon. The President endorses the withdrawal of 1,000
advisers from Vietnam by December 31, 1963.
Summary
Record of the 519th Meeting of the National Security Council White House, Washington,
October 2, 1963
U.S. POLICY ON VIET-NAM: WHITE
HOUSE STATEMENT, OCTOBER 2, 1963
5 - The President states his approval for the section of the report
relating to coup planning. In essence is says, "Our policy should be to seek urgently
to identify and build contacts with an alternative leadership if and when it
appears". The CIA in Siagon are cabled instructions to that effect.
NATIONAL
SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 263, October 11, 1963
25 - Lodge cables Washington that plotting amongst SVN Generals was
now far advanced, "we should not thwart the coup".
November
1 - Transcript of
the phone call between Diem and Henry Cabot Lodge.
2 - A military coup overthrows Diem and they are reported to have 'committed suicide'.
Diem and his brother were placed in an APC with their hands tied behind their backs for
transport to Joint General Staff HQ in Siagon. When the carrier's arrived at the HQ both
Diem and his brother Nhu were dead. Both had been shot and Nhu had been stabbed several
times. Diem's killing shocked the US President.
In response to the overthrow of the Diem government, U.S. naval forces again concentrated
off South Vietnam and prepared to ferry evacuees by helicopter from Saigon to transport
them by boat from the nearby Vung Tau Peninsula. When the political unrest in the capital
once again quickly subsided, the fleet steamed from the South Vietnamese coast and resumed
normal operations.
6 -General Duong Van Mingh emerges as the new President and takes over the
leadership of South Vietnam.
14 - President Kennedy ,when asked; "Are we going to give up in
Vietnam ?", states, "The most important program of course, is our national
security, but I don't want the United States to have to put troops there".
NATIONAL
SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO.273a, November 21, 1963
22. John F Kennedy is assassinated at Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B.
Johnson becomes President.
Robert McNamra reflects in his book, 'In Retrospect'; "Having reviewed the record
in detail, and with the advantage of hindsight, I think it highly probable that, had
President Kennedy lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam. He would have concluded
that the South Vietnamese were incapable of defending themselves, and that Siagon's grave
political weakness made it unwise to offset the limitations of of South Vietnamese forces
by sending US combat troops on a large scale".
24 - President Johson makes it clear that he wants to win the war and wanted
priority given to military operations, over 'so called' social reforms.
NATIONAL
SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 273, November 26, 1963
A policy was to emerge, "to assist the people and Government of
South Vietnam to win their contest against directed and supported conspiracy' through
training support and without the application of overt US military force".
December
13 - Reports from the US Defence Intelligence Agency(DIA) state that the Viet Cong had
not scored spectacular gains over the past year, however they had sustained and even
improved their combat capabilities.
21 - Robert McNamara reports to the President; "The situation is very
disturbing, current trends, unless reversed in the next 2-3 months, will lead to
neutralization at best or more likely to a Communist controlled state".
US Advisers total 16,300 - US KIA 78
Throughout 1963 and 1964, detachments from SEAL Team 1 (the Pacific Fleet unit) deployed
to South Vietnam and instructed American advisors, South Vietnamese "frogmen,"
or LDNN (Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai), and Coastal Force Biet Hai commandos in
related skills.
General Tran Van Don, South Vietnamese Army;
"I feel that we shall achieve victory in 1964" .
General Paul D. Harkins, US Commander in Vietnam;
1964
Despite material aid, advisory assistance, and direct support by American
military units, by 1964 the failure of the counterinsurgency struggle in South Vietnam was
apparent. The Communists exploited the crisis with attacks on South Vietnamese regular and
paramilitary forces and with stepped-up infiltration of reinforcements and supplies,
primarily through Laos. To curtail this external direction and armed support, the new
administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson adopted a different strategy. Its intention:
to signal the North Vietnamese leadership, through increasingly severe military pressure
applied in Laos and North Vietnam, that the United States would not abide the Communist
efforts against the South Vietnamese and Laotian governments.
January
29 - A junta headed by Major General Nguyen Khanh deposes General Duon Van Minh
in South Vietnam but little is to change.
February
1- On recommendation, President Johnson approves a four month program,
"to convince the North Vietnamese that it was in their self interest to desist from
agression in the south". Operations Plan 34A(OPLAN 34A) is
put into action. The initial measures was a series of maritime harassment operations in
North Vietnam under Operation Plan 34A. South Vietnamese "frogmen" and boat
crews carried out the action using the American PTF motor torpedo boats reactivated or
bought in 1963.
6 - Five hundred Viet Cong troops cross the border and seize three
strategic hamlets. They are forced to withdraw after a 14 hour gun fight with ARVN (the
South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam). They lose 100 men, while ARVN loses 4.
21 - The US Joint Chiefs of Staff are asked to examine a series of
actions against North Vietnam designed "to induce that government to terminate its
support and encouragement of the insurrection in South Vietnam and Laos". They report
back on the 2 March that; "the overriding importance to the security interest of the
United States of preventing the loss of South Vietnam. To achieve this they state that the
US ,"should be prepared to to destroy military and industrial targets in North
Vietnam, mine its harbours, and undertake a naval blockade". They also recognise that
China might intervene and this could mean the probability of the use of nuclear weapons .
March
Robert McNamara visits South Vietnam and is convinced that the situation in South Vietnam
is deteriorating and if South Vietnam falls the rest of South East Asia will follow. He
returns to Washington and recommends increased aid to South Vietnam.
17- US President Johnson orders an increase in US aid to South Vietnam of $60
million. The President also orders the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to begin planning
retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam, to be launched on 72 hrs notice.
April
SEATO Council meeting in Manilla calls for all SEATO members to fulfill their duty under
the agreement. The US is seeking further support in Vietnam.
May - Alan Renouf, Australian Minister in Washington
"Our objective should be....to achieve such an habitual closeness of relations...
and sense of mutual alliance that in our time of need ... the United States would have
little option but to respond as we would want. The problem of Vietnam is one ... where we
could without disproportionate expenditure pick up a lot of credit with the United
States".
See that "disproportionate expenditure" here.
15 - The CIA report the President that the situation in Vietnam remains
exremely fragile and that the Viet Cong continue to erode the SVN Government's authority
throughout South Vietnam. Unless the tide is arrested by the end of the year, the position
in South Vietnam is likely to become untenable.
21 May - Two Chance-Vought RF-8A Crusader photo reconnaissance planes
from Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) discover a Communist military presence in the Plain of
Jars region, from both a photographic record and direct hit on one plane by antiaircraft
fire. Between 21 May and 9 June, 130 Navy and Air Force flights over Laos confirmed the
existence of a North Vietnamese infiltration system in the southern panhandle.
29 - The Australian Cabinet agrees that the AATTV should be increased.
June 8 - The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam(AATTV) is increased to 80
advisers and their role is changed to operational employment at battalion and lower
levels.
The RAAF will deploy an air transport flight of Caribou aircraft .
July
27 - The US government announces that 5,000 additional troops are being
sent to Vietnam
30 - South Vietnamese patrols boats attack two North Vietnamese
islands in the Tonkin Gulf. This is a Covert Operation OPLAN 34A. mission.
August
2 - North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack the USS Maddox on a DESOTO patrol in
the Tonkin Gulf. This attack may have been provoked by recent SVN commando raids
into North Vietnam and the attack on the 30 July by SVN patrol boats. Plan DESOTO
was part of a system of global reconnaissance carried out by specially equipped US
ships in international waters and included intelligence gathering off North Vietnam
waters. This was the closest the the US came to declaring war and was seen by many as the
turning point of the war. An excuse had presented itself for escalation. Some critics saw
the Johnson administration as having deliberately provoked the action in order to justify
an escalation of the war and to obtain congressional authority for any escalation. This
was denied by the administration.
Tonkin
Gulf Incident
McNamara asks
Giap: What happened in Tonkin Gulf?
4 - The USS C. Turner Joy reports a similar incident. There was some
question is to the validity of this second attack. North Vietnamese Defence Minister,
General Giap stated in 1995 that the attack never took place.
5 - US Seventh Fleet carrier aircraft from USS Ticonderoga and Constellation
retaliate by attacking 4 naval bases and an oil storage depot used by the torpedo boats.
Two US aircraft are lost and two more damaged.
6-7 The US Senate
debates the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
The Tonkin Gulf Incident - President Johnson's Message to Congress
7 - US Congress adopts the Gulf of Tonkin - Joint Resolution endorsing whatever measures the
President may consider necessary, .
8 - The RAAF Caribou flight(Transport Support Flight)of 3 Caribou aircraft , to be
known as "Wallaby Airlines", arrives at Vung Tau and is to operate throughout
South Vietnam. The flight is to have 7 aircraft by May 1965.
11 - President Johnson signs the South East Asia(Gulf of Tonkin)Resolution giving
him power to take any action he deems necessary in respect to SouthVietnam.
September
19 - Montagnard tribesmen in SVN's Central Highlands attempt to secede in order to
create an autonomous state free from discrimination from their lowland neighbours. A
battle is averted by US Advisors.
3 more Caribous aircraft join the RAAF flight at Vung Ta, now totalling 6 aircraft. A
seventh aircraft is added in May 1965.
November
1 - Tran Van Huong becomes the Premier of South Vietnam.
During the fall of 1964, the Johnson administration refrained from actions that might
precipitate a broader confrontation. When the Viet Cong mortared the American military
barracks at South Vietnam's Bien Hoa Airbase on 1 November, killing 4 men and wounding 72
others, a preplanned reprisal air strike against North Vietnam was not authorized.
Similarly, the President denied permission for a retaliatory air strike when the enemy
sabotaged the American Bachelor Officers' Quarters in Saigon's Brink Hotel on Christmas
Eve. Over one hundred Americans, Australians, and Vietnamese were injured and two
Americans were killed. In each of these instances, major Seventh Fleet units had sortied
into the South China Sea prepared to launch air strikes, evacuate American dependents in
danger, or take any number of contingent actions.
4 - President Johnson is returned to power by 61% of the vote.
10 - The Australian Government introduces
selective National Service , for 20 yr olds.(Real Audio)
December
4 - Meeting in Washington between US Assistant Secretary of State William Bundy
and Australian and New Zealand Ambassadors to discuss a proposal to send combat troops.
14 - Letter From President Johnson to Prime Minister Menzies - "Military
Aid for South Vietnam"
17 - Prime Minister Menzies tells President Johnson.
While US naval forces prepared for extended combat, the Johnson administration
reinvigorated its program to dissuade the North Vietnamese from supporting insurgency in
Southeast Asia and chose Laos as the locus of this effort. As part of this renewed
campaign, on 17 December 1964 A-1H Skyraiders escorted by McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantoms
and followed by RF-8A photo reconnaissance aircraft from Ranger (CVA 61)) conducted
the Navy's first armed reconnaissance mission over eastern Laos. In this joint Navy-Air
Force program, named Barrel Roll, American aircraft flew over likely infiltration routes
and attacked Communist supply vehicles or other targets of opportunity. If none was
sighted, the flight was authorized to strike preselected storage buildings, antiaircraft
emplacements, and related facilities of a military nature. The military objective,
however, was considered secondary to the political one of sending Hanoi a message of U.S.
determination to prevail in Southeast Asia
31 - US strength is now 23,300. US KIA 225. Viet Cong strength estimated at 34,000.