Vietnam and the U.S., 1954 to 1968

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By August 1964 Nguyen Khanh was Prime Minister of South Vietnam, with General Duong Van Minh as his chief of state. Khanh declared a state of emergency, promulgated a new constitution, and dismissed General Minh. After a few days of mass protests against him, he resigned. The situation did not stabilize until June of 1965 when two generals, backed by a larger faction of generals, declared themselves in charge. Nguyen Van Thieu would be Chief of State, with Nguyen Cao Ky as Prime Minister. [Karnow 378-386]

Lyndon Johnson won a landslide victory over the Republican Party candidate, Barry Goldwater, in the U.S. Presidential election of November 3, 1964. His Democratic Party also won huge majorities in both houses of Congress. Johnson, of course, was frustrated by the inability of the South Vietnamese to form a stable, democratic government. Yet he clung to the idea that intervention by the United States could keep South Vietnam from aligning with North Vietnam, and the Communist aligned nations. At the same time the illusion was maintained that a minimal involvement of the U.S. military was capable of achieving this goal.

Supplied largely through the now fully operational Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietcong strength was growing rapidly in 1964 and 1965. There was no counter thrust from the comic-opera South Vietnamese army. Not wanting to commit combat troops, the Johnson administration was talking itself into an aerial bombardment of North Vietnam. The problem with that strategy was that the target nation did not have the kinds of large scale industries that make good strategic bombing targets. In contrast, on November 1, 1964 the Vietcong had shown the vulnerability of the U.S. presence in Vietnam. Using low-tech mortars, they attacked the Bienhoa air base and destroyed six B-57s and more than 20 other aircraft. [Karnow 402]

After much argument about appropriate responses, President Johnson opted for a secret bombing campaign in December 1964. Called Barrel Roll, it would hit the North Vietnamese supply routes to the Vietcong that went through southern Laos. It had almost no effect on the trend of the war in favor of the Vietcong, who won major battles against the South Vietnamese Army that same month. [Karnow 406-408]. In February 2005 the Vietcong attacked a U.S. airfield near Pleiku, killing eight Americans, wounding many more, and destroying ten U.S. aircraft. [Karnow 412]
Pleiku tipped most of the few administration advisors for restraint into the war camp; only Vice-President Humphrey and Senator Mike Mansfield dissented. Humphrey was banished from Vietnam deliberations until he agreed to support the Johnson position. The President okayed continuous bombing raids on North Vietnam on February 7, 1965. Only, unlike after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, now the air raids were continued without any particular pretext except the ongoing nature of the civil war in the south. The U.S. attacks only hardened the position of North Vietnam’s leaders, who believed other communist nations should help defend them against U.S. aggression. [Karnow 412-414]

At this time U.S military personnel in South Vietnam were still called advisors, though this did not spare them from being killed in battle, as at Pleiku. The first troops that were not called advisors were sent in to defend the advisors. Three thousand five hundred U.S. Marines landed to protect the American airfield at Danang on March 8, 1965. This was more soldiers than had been stationed in Vietnam when Eisenhower left office. At the time it did not seem like a tipping point, but once combat personnel were allowed to be a potential solution, they became the only solution to the political and military activities of the Vietcong. President Johnson okayed twenty thousand “logistical” troops and two more combat Marine Corp battalions on April 1, 1965. As long as Johnson was President, the level of troops in Vietnam would keep rising. [Karnow 415-417]

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