VC ATTACK AT PLEIKU MARKS NEW PHASE OF VIETNAM WAR
Saigon, South Vietnam (JFK+50) On February 9, 1965, United States Army General William Westmoreland offered a new appraisal of the war in Southeast Asia.
According to Jack Shulimson and Major Charles M. Johnson USMC, the General's statement was that the recent Viet Cong attack on the South Vietnamese airbase at Pleiku "marked a new phase of the war" and that "with direct communist attacks on American personnel and facilities..." at least one division of combat troops would be necessary.
General Westmoreland wrote...
"We must face the stark fact that the war has escalated."
The communist attack on Pleiku took the lives of eight Americans and wounded 128. It also had damaged or destroyed 24 aircraft. National security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, who had served in the same position for JFK, was visiting in South Vietnam at the time of the attack.
Bundy sent the following message to President Lyndon B. Johnson...
"The situation...is deteriorating. Without new U.S. action defeat appears inevitable...within the next year or so. There is time to turn it around, but not much."
President Johnson then authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, a 3-stage bombing campaign against North Vietnam which would last from March 2 to November 1, 1965. LBJ agreed with his advisers that combat troops were also needed.
SOURCES
"Lessons In Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam," by Gordon M. Goldstein, Holt.
"U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and the Buildup, 1965," by Jack Shulimson and Major Charles M. Johnson, Create Space Independent Publishers Platform, 2013.
Combat Operations in Vietnam
Saigon, South Vietnam (JFK+50) On February 9, 1965, United States Army General William Westmoreland offered a new appraisal of the war in Southeast Asia.
According to Jack Shulimson and Major Charles M. Johnson USMC, the General's statement was that the recent Viet Cong attack on the South Vietnamese airbase at Pleiku "marked a new phase of the war" and that "with direct communist attacks on American personnel and facilities..." at least one division of combat troops would be necessary.
General Westmoreland wrote...
"We must face the stark fact that the war has escalated."
The communist attack on Pleiku took the lives of eight Americans and wounded 128. It also had damaged or destroyed 24 aircraft. National security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, who had served in the same position for JFK, was visiting in South Vietnam at the time of the attack.
Bundy sent the following message to President Lyndon B. Johnson...
"The situation...is deteriorating. Without new U.S. action defeat appears inevitable...within the next year or so. There is time to turn it around, but not much."
President Johnson then authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, a 3-stage bombing campaign against North Vietnam which would last from March 2 to November 1, 1965. LBJ agreed with his advisers that combat troops were also needed.
SOURCES
"Lessons In Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam," by Gordon M. Goldstein, Holt.
"U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and the Buildup, 1965," by Jack Shulimson and Major Charles M. Johnson, Create Space Independent Publishers Platform, 2013.
Combat Operations in Vietnam
November 1965
United States Army Photo
