• Ngo Dinh Diem anti-communist, pro-U.S. in south; Ho Chi Minh pro-USSR in north - map 1954
  
• National Liberation Front organized in south Dec. 20, 1960, by anti-Diem groups
  
• infiltration from north began 1961, communist People's Revolutionary Party gained leadership of NLF by 1962
  
• JFK sought "limited partnership" with Diem, flexible response, counterinsurgency, nation-building, reform without revolution
  
• CIA recruited Meo (Hmong) tribesmen in Laos, Montagnards in Central Highlands to fight Pathet Lao and Viet Minh
  
• Maxwell Taylor and Green Berets May 1961 - article by Joseph Kraft - uniforms and training and languages
  
• Operation Ranch Hand Nov. 1961 - 18m gals herbicides (2/3 was agnt Orange) on 8% land area by 1971

• MAAG (Truman's Military Advisory and Assistance Group) replaced by MACV (Military Assistnce Command, Vietnam) Feb. 12, 1962, under Gen. Paul Harkins and Project Beef-Up - 11300 advisors sent during 1962, with 300 aircraft, automatic rifles, napalm, penicillim - 16000 advisors by Nov. 1963
  
• Operation Sunrise - strategic hamlet program - 6800 built by Nov. 1963
  
• Texas group awarded $2b to construct bases at Saigon, Danang, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nonh
  

• Battle of Ap Bac Jan. 2, 1963 in Mekong Delta - map - 350 VC attacked by 2 ARVN battalions with 5 new HU-1 Iroquois helicopters, but ARVN reluctant to fight, all helicopters shot down, 3 U.S. pilots killed - Lt. Col. John Vann led 13 M113 armored personnel carriers into village after ARVN refused to advance - battle revealed weakness of popular support for the Diem Catholic urban mercantile elite government that had abolished the village electoral system in 1956, failed to implement land reform, followed anti-Buddhist repression
  
• JFK State of Union speech Jan. 14 declared that "aggression blunted in Vietnam"
  
• JCS sent investigation team Jan. 18 - Joe Mendenhall said VC getting stronger
  
• infiltration from NV grew from 850 per month to 1700 per month, with new Russian heavy weapons imported by fishing boats - 81mm mortars with 2-mile range, 75mm recoiless rifle - launched major offensive in Delta that destroyed strategic hamlets and captured 200,000 U.S. weapons by Nov.
  
• Buddhist riots May 8 led by Tri Quang - Diem's troops fired into Buddhist crowd and killed 8 - immolation suicide of Quang Duc June 11
  
• Diem assault on Buddhist pagodas Aug. 20 - martial law - 1400 arrested
  
• JFK feared that the U.S. would "lose" Vietnam like Truman lost China in '49 - replaced Nolting with new ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Aug. - Rusk cable to Lodge Aug. 24 to encourage SV generals planning coup to overthrow Diem - JFK approved on Oct 5 the selective suspension of aid to Diem - Rusk cable to Lodge Oct. 6 "while we do not wish to stimulate a coup," the U.S. would support a more popular government - Diem assassinated Nov. 2
  
• JFK approved on Nov 20 McNamara's Plan 34A, covert operations in NV including commando raids, kidnapping, mercenaries, parachute sabotage teams, U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering DeSoto patrols
  
• songs by Pete Seeger, Kingston Trio and emerging folk-rock genre
• JFK killed in Dallas Nov. 22
  

Links:

• JFK links

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