Advisory Campaign 1962-1965

Viet Cong organize themselves into battalion-sized units operating in central Vietnam.

Defense Secretary McNamara visits South Vietnam and reports "we are winning the war."

The Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos signed in Geneva by the U.S. and 13 other nations, prohibits U.S. invasion of portions of the Ho Chi Minh trail inside eastern Laos.

President Kennedy signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1962 which provides "...military assistance to countries which are on the rim of the Communist world and under direct attack."

A U.S. Special Forces camp is set up at Khe Sanh to monitor North Vietnamese Army (NVA) infiltration down the Ho Chi Minh trail.

350 Viet Cong fighters defeat a large force of American-equipped South Vietnamese troops attempting to seize a radio transmitter in the Battle of Ap Bac. Three American helicopter crew are killed.

Buddhists riot in South Vietnam after they are denied the right to display religious flags during their celebration of Buddha's birthday. In Hue, South Vietnamese police and army troops shoot at Buddhist demonstrators, resulting in the deaths of one woman and eight children. Political pressure mounts on the Kennedy administration to disassociate itself from Diem's family-run government.

Buddhist demonstrations spread. Several Buddhist monks publicly burn themselves to death as an act of protest. Diem imposes martial law. South Vietnamese special forces under control of Diem's younger brother Nhu wage violent crackdowns against Buddhist sanctuaries in Saigon, Hue and other cities, sparking wiidespread anti-Diem demonstrations. Madame Nhu refers to "barbeques" on TV.

South Vietnamese General Tran Van Don, a Buddhist, contacts the CIA in Saigon about the possibility of staging a coup against Diem.

New U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge arrives in South Vietnam.

Ambassador Lodge interprets a U.S. State Department message to indicate he should encourage a military coup against President Diem.

Ambassador Lodge meets President Diem for the first time. Under instructions from President Kennedy, Lodge tells Diem to fire his brother, the much-hated Nhu, and to reform his government. But Diem arrogantly refuses even to discuss such matters with Lodge.

President Kennedy and top aides begin three days of heated discussions over whether the U.S. should in fact support the military coup against Diem.

A Lodge message to Washington states "...there is no possibility, in my view, that the war can be won under a Diem administration." Kennedy then gives Lodge a free hand to manage the unfolding events in Saigon. However, the coup against Diem fizzles due to mistrust and suspicion within the ranks of the military conspirators.

President Kennedy describes Diem in an interview with Walter Cronkite as "out of touch with the people" and adds that South Vietnam's government might regain popular support "with changes in policy and perhaps in personnel." He also comments, "If we withdrew from Vietnam, the Communists would control Vietnam. Pretty soon, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, would go..."

President Kennedy sends Ambassador Lodge a mixed messaged that "no initiative should now be taken to give any encouragement to a coup" but that Lodge should "identify and build contacts with possible leadership as and when it appears".

Rebel generals under Duong Van "Big" Minh ask for assurances that U.S. aid to South Vietnam will continue after Diem's removal and that the U.S. will not interfere with the actual coup. President Kennedy concurs and the CIA in Saigon then signals the conspirators that the United States will not interfere with the overthrow of President Diem.

Prompted by concerns over public relations fallout if the coup fails, a worried White House seeks reassurances from Ambassador Lodge that the coup will succeed.

Ambassador Lodge reports a coup is "imminent."

An increasingly nervous White House now instructs Lodge to postpone the coup. Lodge responds it can only be stopped by betraying the conspirators to Diem.

Ambassador Lodge meets with President Diem from 10 a.m. until noon at the presidential palace, then departs.

Diem calls Lodge and asks about the attitude of the United States. Lodge responds "...it is four thirty a.m. in Washington, and the U.S. government cannot possibly have a view." He expresses concern for Diem's safety, to which Diem responds "I am trying to restore order."

Diem and Nhu escape from the palace unnoticed and go to a safe house in the suburbs owned by a wealthy Chinese merchant.

A Diem aide betrays his location to the generals. The hunt for Diem and Nhu now begins.

A White House meeting is interrupted with the news of Diem's death. According to witnesses, Kennedy turns pale and leaves the room.

Saigon celebrates the downfall of Diem's regime. But the coup results in a power vacuum and teh country becomes totally dependent on the United States for its existence.

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.

Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th U.S. President. He makes a key mistake by retaining many of the same policy advisors who served Kennedy, and who were loyal to JFK but not LBJ.

South Vietnam has 16,300 American military advisors and received $500 million in U.S. aid during 1963.

General Minh is ousted from power in a bloodless coup led by General Nguyen Khanh who becomes the new leader.

U.S.-backed mercenaries flying WWII American fighter planes start bombing the Ho Chi Minh trail inside Laos.

Defense Secretary McNamara visits Vietnam and states that Gen. Khanh has U.S. support, adding, "We'll stay for as long as it takes."

McNamara advises President Johnson to increase military aid to the ARVN. U.S. policy makers focus on preventing a Communist victory, believing it would damage the U.S. credibility.

The US cost of the war in Vietnam rises to two million dollars per day.

The U.S. National Security Council recommends the bombing of North Vietnam. President Johnson approves planning by the Pentagon.

Work begins on a Congressional resolution supporting the President's Vietnam policy. The work is postposed because of lack of support in the Senate, but later surfaces as the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

56,000 Viet Cong spread guerrilla war throughout South Vietnam, reinforced by North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars pouring in via the Ho Chi Minh trail. Responding to this escalation, President Johnson approves Operation Plan 34A, CIA-run covert operations using South Vietnamese commandos in speed boats to harass radar sites along the coastline of North Vietnam. The raids are supported by U.S. Navy warships in the Gulf of Tonkin including the destroyer U.S.S. Maddox which conducts electronic surveillance to pinpoint the radar locations.

President Johnson appoints Lt. Gen William C. Westmoreland as the new U.S. military commander in Vietnam.

In the Gulf of Tonkin under Operation Plan 34A, South Vietnamese commandos in unmarked speed boats raid two North Vietnamese military bases located on islands just off the coast. In the vicinity is the destroyer U.S.S. Maddox.

Three North Vietnamese patrol boats attack the American destroyer U.S.S. Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin ten miles off the coast of North Vietnam. They fire three torpedoes and machine-guns. A single machine-gun round hits the Maddox. There are no casualities.

U.S. Navy fighters from the carrier Ticonderoga, led by Commander James Stockdale, attack the patrol boats, sinking one and damaging the other two.

President Johnson reacts cautiously, sending a diplomatic message to Hanoi warning of "grave consequences" from further "unprovoked" attacks and ordering the Maddox to resume operations in the Gulf of Tonkin. U.S. forces worldwide go on alert.

USS Turner Joy and USS Maddox zigzag through the Gulf of Tonkin to within eight miles of North Vietnam's coast, while South Vietnamese commandos in speed boats harass North Vietnamese defenses along the coastline. During nightime thunderstorms, electronic instruments on the destroyers give readings that are interpreted as another North Vietnamese torpedo attack, and both destroyers open fire on apparent targets without any actual enemy sightings.

Despite lack of information and possible doubts about the second attack, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend a retaliatory bombing raid against North Vietnam.

American press reports embellish the second attack with spectacular eyewitness accounts although no journalists had been present.

President Johnson orders retaliatory bombing of North Vietnamese oil facilities and naval targets. 64 U.S. Navy planes make the raid.

Lt. Everett Alvarez pilots one of two Navy jets shot down during the bombing raids and becomes the first American prisoner of war, and the first inhabitant of the infamous POW camp called "Hanoi Hilton".

In a midnight television appearance, President Johnson tells Americans,"We Americans know, although others appear to forget, the risk of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war."

With opinion polls showing 85% public support, Johnson's aides lobby Congress to pass a White House resolution giving the President a free hand in Vietnam.

Senator Wayne Morse, tipped off by someone in the Pentagon that the Maddox had been involved in the South Vietnamese commando raids against North Vietnam and thus was not the victim of an "unprovoked" attack, queried McNamara in a meeting. McNamara replies that the U.S. Navy "...played absolutely no part in, was not associated with, was not aware of, any South Vietnamese actions, if there were any..."

U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that allows the President "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force" to prevent further attacks against U.S. forces. The Resolution, passed unanimously in the House and 98-2 (Senators Morse and Gruening against) in the Senate, grants enormous power to President Johnson to wage an undeclared war in Vietnam from the White House.

After escalating student and militant Buddhist protests in Saigon against the Khanh regime, Khanh resigns as sole leader in favor of a triumvirate of himself, Gen. Minh and Gen. Khiem. Saigon disintegrates into chaos and mob violence amid the government's instability.

President Johnson is nominated at the Democratic National Convention, stating, "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

Two South Vietnamese generals stage an unsuccessful coup.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is ousted from power, replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the U.S.S.R.

China tests its first Atomic Bomb. China also massee troops along its border with Vietnam as a message to the U.S.

A pre-dawn mortar assault kills five Americans, two South Vietnamese, and wounds nearly a hundred others at Bien Hoa Air Base 12 miles north of Saigon.

Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson is re-elected as President of the United States in a land-slide victory with 61 percent of the popular vote (the biggest to date in U.S. history), defeating Republican Barry Goldwater by 16 million votes. Democrats also achieve big majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate.

10,000 NVA soldiers arrive in the Central Highlands, carrying modern Chinese and Soviet weapons. They shore up Viet Cong battalions with the weapons and also provide experienced soldiers as leaders.

President Johnson's top aides, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and Defense Secretary McNamara, recommend a policy of gradual escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

Gen. Khanh and young officers, led by Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu, oust older generals including Gen. Minh from the government and seize control.

An angry Ambassador Taylor summons the young officers to the U.S. embassy then scolds them like schoolboys over the continuing instability and endless intrigues plaguing South Vietnam's government. Americans, he had already warned them, are "tired of coups." Taylor's behavior greatly offends the young officers. Gen. Khanh retaliates by lashing out in the press against Taylor and the U.S., stating that America is reverting to "colonialism" in its treatment of South Vietnam.

Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath as president and declares, "We can never again stand aside, prideful in isolation. Terrific dangers and troubles that we once called 'foreign' now constantly live among us..."

General Khanh seizes control of South Vietnam's government.

Johnson aides, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, send a memo to the President stating that America's limited military involvement in Vietnam is not succeeding, and that the U.S. has reached a 'fork in the road' in Vietnam and must either soon escalate or withdraw.January 1965.

Operation Game Warden begins U.S. Navy river patrols on South Vietnam's 3000 nautical miles of inland waterways.

National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy visits South Vietnam for the first time.

In North Vietnam, Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin coincidentally arrives in Hanoi.

Viet Cong guerrillas attack the U.S. military compound at Pleiku in the Central Highlands, killing eight Americans, wounding 126 and destroying ten aircraft.

President Johnson approves Operation Flaming Dart, the bombing of a North Vietnamese army camp near Dong Hoi by U.S. Navy jets from the carrier Ranger. Opinion polls taken in the U.S. shortly after the bombing indicate a 70 percent approval rating for the President and an 80 percent approval of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Johnson now agrees to a long-standing recommendation from his advisors for sustained bombing against North Vietnam.

In Hanoi, Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin is pressured by the North Vietnamese to provide unlimited military aid to counter the American "aggression." Kosygin gives in to their demands. As a result, sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) begin arriving in Hanoi within weeks.

A military coup in Saigon ousts General Khanh from power and Dr. Phan Huy Quat installs a new military/civilian government.

General Westmoreland requests two battalions of U.S. Marines to protect the American air base at Da Nang from 6,000 Viet Cong massed in the vicinity. The President approves his request, despite reservations of Ambassador Taylor in Vietnam who warns that America may be about to repeat the same mistake made by the French in sending ever-increasing numbers of soldiers into Asiawhere friend and foe are indistinguishable.

Operation Rolling Thunder begins with over 100 American fighter-bombers attacking the Ho Chi Minh Trail and targets in North Vietnam. Scheduled to last eight weeks, Rolling Thunder will go on for three years. The first U.S. air strikes also occur against the Ho Chi Minh trail.