CHAPTER 13

Prelude to Escalation

The close of 1964 marked the end of a full decade of American political, economic, and military advice and assistance to South Vietnam. That 10-year period saw a fragile state born and begin its struggle for survival only to have its existence threatened by a new brand of Communist aggression--the “war of national liberation.” It also saw the U.S. commitment to Vietnam’s defense deepen in almost direct proportion to the increasing threat. Despite growing amounts of American aid and advice, there was little doubt that South Vietnam stood near the brink of destruction at the hands of the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allies as 1964 ended.

In many respects, the disaster which befell the Vietnamese Marines and ARVN Rangers at Binh Gia on the final day of 1964 marked a critical turning point in the war being waged in South Vietnam. General Westmoreland feared that the battle heralded “the beginning of the classic and final ‘mobile’ phase of the war.” “To the South Vietnamese government,” he reported, “it meant the beginning of an intensive military challenge which the Vietnamese government could not meet within its own resources.”[13-1] Brigadier General Carl Youngdale, Westmoreland’s assistant chief of staff for intelligence and the ranking Marine assigned to Vietnam, assessed the meaning of the battle in equally distressing terms. “Binh Gia,” he explained, “was just part of the whole thing. All the reserve--the strategic reserve--was fixed: the airborne and the four Marine battalions had all been committed. There was absolutely no strategic reserve left.”[13-2] So, as 1964 ended, hope was fading rapidly among American military officials in Saigon that the ground war for South Vietnam could continue for long without more vigorous participation of the United States.

Pressures other than those produced by military events in the South were also working to move the United States toward direct military intervention against the Communists in Indochina. Although sustained open warfare had not occurred as a result of the Tonkin Gulf crisis of early August, tensions continued to mount between North Vietnam and the United States throughout the autumn. On 1 November, just after the cessation of the U.S. air strikes which followed the Tonkin Gulf incidents, Viet Cong mortar squads attacked American facilities at the Bien Hoa airbase near Saigon. Four American servicemen were killed, five B-57 medium bombers destroyed, and eight others heavily damaged in the raid.

President Johnson’s reaction to the Bien Hoa attack was to initiate a month-long review of U.S. policy regarding North Vietnam. In early December that review culminated in the adoption of a two-phased plan to discourage further North Vietnamese support of the Viet Cong by expanding the air war. Phase I, approved for implementation in December, called for stepped-up air operations against the vital Communist infiltration routes in Laos, and for the intensification of covert operations against North Vietnam. Approved “in principle,” Phase II involved “a continuous program of progressively more serious air strikes” against North Vietnam. The implementation of Phase II, it was agreed, would depend on future enemy actions.[13-3] As if to indicate that Communist policy makers had settled on a parallel course of escalation, Viet Cong terrorists bombed a U.S. officers’ quarters in Saigon on Christmas Eve, killing two Americans and wounding over 50 others.[13-A]

[13-A] Among the wounded was Major Damm, the Assistant Senior Marine Advisor.

The new year, 1965, would open against this portentous combination of intensified U.S. air activities over Laos, a worsening military situation on South Vietnam’s battlefields, and the existence of the Phase II contingency plans. It was this situation which would spawn a new series of events as the first months of 1965 unfolded--events which would determine the direction of American and North Vietnamese military involvement in the war for South Vietnam. In January, MACV intelligence would learn that two new North Vietnamese Army regiments, the _32d_ and the _101st_, had infiltrated the South and had initiated combat operations. Intelligence sources would also report the existence of another NVA regiment in the first stages of formation in Quang Tri Province. When added to a unit of similar size which had appeared in Kontum Province (II Corps Tactical Zone) in the final weeks of 1964, the new arrivals would raise to four the number of North Vietnamese regiments known to be operating on South Vietnamese soil.[13-4]

The pace of escalation would quicken in early February. The Viet Cong would attack a U.S. installation at Pleiku in the Central Highlands on the 7th. Eight Americans would die in this incident, over 100 would be wounded, and a score of aircraft would be either destroyed or damaged. President Johnson would react quickly to the Pleiku attack by ordering a series of reprisal air strikes under the code name FLAMING DART. Recognizing the possibility of surprise North Vietnamese air strikes against U.S. installations in Vietnam, Johnson would also order a Marine light antiaircraft missile (LAAM) battalion to Da Nang, the American base located closest to Communist airfields. Armed with Hawk missiles, the Marines would protect the growing Da Nang airbase from which many of the FLAMING DART raids were to originate.

American reaction to the Communists’ escalation would not be limited to the bombing of North Vietnam. Washington also would authorize the use of U.S. jet attack aircraft to engage targets in the south. On 19 February, U.S. Air Force B-57s would conduct the first jet strikes flown by Americans in support of Government of Vietnam ground units. Less than one week later, on the 24th, Air Force jets would strike again, this time to break up a Communist ambush in the Central Highlands with a massive series of tactical air sorties.[13-5]

While the events of February would serve to focus world opinion more sharply on the intensifying conflict already raging over Southeast Asia, March would prove the decisive month in terms of the commitment of American combat power to the war in Vietnam. On 2 March, the President would order the FLAMING DART raids replaced by Operation ROLLING THUNDER--a sustained air campaign against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam designed to escalate gradually in response to continued Communist military activities in South Vietnam. ROLLING THUNDER would constitute a transition from the earlier reprisal type raids to a continuing air campaign based upon strategic considerations.

Within a week after the first ROLLING THUNDER strikes over the North, the ground war in South Vietnam would also shift toward deeper and more active American involvement. On 7 March, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade--the force which had been poised in the South China Sea since the Tonkin Gulf crisis of the previous August--would finally land at Da Nang to provide protection for the air base. Although the Pentagon would announce their mission as purely defensive, the Marines would become the first actual American ground combat battalions on hand for use in Vietnam. With that commitment, the stage would be set for a new and more dramatic phase of what was already becoming known as the “Second Indochina War.”

Notes

PART I

THE WATERSHED