| Timeline Year Span 1847-1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972-1975 |
JANUARY
13
The US Joint Chiefs of
Staff urge President Kennedy to authorise the deployment
of troops to Vietnam to prevent 'Vietnam's loss'.
13 January 1962 It must be recognized that the fall of South Vietnam to Communist control would mean the eventual Communist domination of all of the Southeast Asian mainland. . . . Of equal importance to the immediate losses are the eventualities which could follow the loss of the Southeast Asian mainland. All of the Indonesian archipelago could come under the domination and control of the USSR and would become a Communist base posing a threat against Australia and New Zealand. The Sino-Soviet Bloc would have control of the eastern access to the Indian Ocean. The Philippines and Japan could be pressured to assume, at best, a neutralist role, thus eliminating two of our major bases of defense in the Western Pacific. Our lines of defense then would be pulled north to Korea, Okinawa and Taiwan resulting in the subsequent overtaxing of our lines of communications in a limited war. India's ability to remain neutral would be jeopardized and, as the Bloc meets success, its concurrent stepped-up activities to move into and control Africa can be expected. . . . It is, in fact, a planned phase in the Communist timetable for world domination.
--US Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff
FEBUARY
3 - The "Strategic Hamlet" program begins in South Vietnam. Australia provided very large quantities of barbed wire, corrugated iron and generators for lighting. The program failed because of lack of interest by villagers in maintaining the defenses."
MAY
13 January 1962 It must be recognized that the fall of South Vietnam to Communist control would mean the eventual Communist domination of all of the Southeast Asian mainland. . . . Of equal importance to the immediate losses are the eventualities which could follow the loss of the Southeast Asian mainland. All of the Indonesian archipelago could come under the domination and control of the USSR and would become a Communist base posing a threat against Australia and New Zealand. The Sino-Soviet Bloc would have control of the eastern access to the Indian Ocean. The Philippines and Japan could be pressured to assume, at best, a neutralist role, thus eliminating two of our major bases of defense in the Western Pacific. Our lines of defense then would be pulled north to Korea, Okinawa and Taiwan resulting in the subsequent overtaxing of our lines of communications in a limited war. India's ability to remain neutral would be jeopardized and, as the Bloc meets success, its concurrent stepped-up activities to move into and control Africa can be expected. . . . It is, in fact, a planned phase in the Communist timetable for world domination.
--US Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff
FEBUARY
3 - The "Strategic Hamlet" program begins in South Vietnam. Australia provided very large quantities of barbed wire, corrugated iron and generators for lighting. The program failed because of lack of interest by villagers in maintaining the defenses."
| The Strategic Hamlet In 1962, the Strategic Hamlet program was introduced in Vietnam, based on a British counterinsurgency program used in Malaya from 1948 to 1960. In a dismal attempt to prevent the National Liberation Front from “influencing” peasants in South Vietnam, the United States turned villages into concentration camps—they erected stockade walls and patrolled the villages with armed guards. According to figures compiled by the United States, 39 percent of the South Vietnamese population was housed in these restrictive hamlets (4,077 strategic hamlets were completed out of a projected total of 11,182). |
5
- Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara reports: " The actions which the
South Vietnamese Government has taken to counter the very serious
threat of subversion and aggression, covert aggression, in that nation,
are beginning to be effective...'.
7 - American military strength in South Vietnam reaches 4,000, with the arrival of two additional Army aviation units.
19 US Admiral George W. Anderson, the Chief of Naval Operations, authorized establishment of another type of unit designed to counter Communist insurgencies through civic action programs. The 13-man Seabee Technical Assistance Teams (STAT), formed to help win the support of indigenous populations for their governments, also constructed traditional military posts for American and friendly forces.
27 - President Diem escapes injury when two South Vietnamese aircraft attack the Presidential Palace. Seeking to verify any Communist infiltration of arms and supplies from Cambodia into the
Ca Mau Peninsula and adjacent areas, U.S.
and South
Vietnamese naval forces mounted a similar effort in the Gulf of Siam.
Training the Vietnamese Navy in blue-water surveillance operations also
became a goal in this area. Destroyer escorts Wiseman (DE 667) and
Walton (DE 361) initiated the combined patrol when they steamed into
the gulf on 27 February 1962. For the next three months, U.S. ships'
radar vectored South Vietnamese ships toward suspicious contacts for
boarding and search. Nonetheless, the gulf's shallow waters precluded
combined operations by U.S. and Vietnamese ships, thus allowing little
opportunity for training. At the same time, the forces found no
appreciable infiltration. Accordingly, U.S. participation in the gulf
patrol was ended on 21 May, when the ships of Escort Division 72
departed South Vietnamese waters for their scheduled return to the
United States.
MARCH
Australian
Prime Minister Robert Gordon
Menzies, Born 20
December 1894.
Died 15 May 1978.
CH 1951, Kt cr 1963, QC. Educated University of Melbourne (LLM). Victorian Bar and High Court of Australia 1918, KC 1929, MLC for East Yarra 1928-29, MLA for Nunawading 1929-34, MHR for Kooyong 1934-46, Member Advisory War Council 1941-44, Prime Minister of Australia 1939-41 and 1949-66, Leader Federal Opposition 1943-49, Minister for External Affairs 1960-62, KC 1929, Privy Councillor 1937. Chief Commander, Legion of Merit (US) 1950, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 1958, Fellow of the Royal Society 1965. [Portrait photo]
APRIL
Australian Army Colonel Ted Serong and future Commanding Officer of the Australian Training Team Vietnam(AATTV) visits Vietnam and concludes "Vietnam was one of restrained optimism".
7 - American military strength in South Vietnam reaches 4,000, with the arrival of two additional Army aviation units.
19 US Admiral George W. Anderson, the Chief of Naval Operations, authorized establishment of another type of unit designed to counter Communist insurgencies through civic action programs. The 13-man Seabee Technical Assistance Teams (STAT), formed to help win the support of indigenous populations for their governments, also constructed traditional military posts for American and friendly forces.
27 - President Diem escapes injury when two South Vietnamese aircraft attack the Presidential Palace. Seeking to verify any Communist infiltration of arms and supplies from Cambodia into the
Ca Mau Peninsula and adjacent areas, U.S.
and South
Vietnamese naval forces mounted a similar effort in the Gulf of Siam.
Training the Vietnamese Navy in blue-water surveillance operations also
became a goal in this area. Destroyer escorts Wiseman (DE 667) and
Walton (DE 361) initiated the combined patrol when they steamed into
the gulf on 27 February 1962. For the next three months, U.S. ships'
radar vectored South Vietnamese ships toward suspicious contacts for
boarding and search. Nonetheless, the gulf's shallow waters precluded
combined operations by U.S. and Vietnamese ships, thus allowing little
opportunity for training. At the same time, the forces found no
appreciable infiltration. Accordingly, U.S. participation in the gulf
patrol was ended on 21 May, when the ships of Escort Division 72
departed South Vietnamese waters for their scheduled return to the
United States.
MARCH
Australian
Prime Minister Robert Gordon
Menzies, Born 20
December 1894.
Died 15 May 1978.CH 1951, Kt cr 1963, QC. Educated University of Melbourne (LLM). Victorian Bar and High Court of Australia 1918, KC 1929, MLC for East Yarra 1928-29, MLA for Nunawading 1929-34, MHR for Kooyong 1934-46, Member Advisory War Council 1941-44, Prime Minister of Australia 1939-41 and 1949-66, Leader Federal Opposition 1943-49, Minister for External Affairs 1960-62, KC 1929, Privy Councillor 1937. Chief Commander, Legion of Merit (US) 1950, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 1958, Fellow of the Royal Society 1965. [Portrait photo]
APRIL
Australian Army Colonel Ted Serong and future Commanding Officer of the Australian Training Team Vietnam(AATTV) visits Vietnam and concludes "Vietnam was one of restrained optimism".
MAY
ANZUS
Council meeting in
Canberra.
US Secretary of State Dean Rusk
states
that the US wants more support in Vietnam from its allies and asks Sir
Garfield Barwick, Australian Minister for External Affairs for a
contribution of instructors.
Dean Rusk
6 - Phoumi Nosavan having refused to co-operate in forming a coalition cabinet in Laos masses troops on China's border area. North Vietnamese troops invade Laos. 5,000 defenders flee in panic. Nosavan agrees on a coalition goverment with Pathet Lao and rightist elements, headed by Souvanna Phouma. The North Vietnameses now have protection on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main supply route into Vietnam.
Determined to preserve the status quo and at the same time reassure American allies, President Kennedy again ordered the Seventh Fleet into the South China Sea. The Hancock (CVA 19) carrier group and the Bennington submarine hunter-killer group steamed to a position off Danang, and the fleet's Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) carried the Marine Special Landing Force (SLF) into the Gulf of Siam. Then, in mid-May, U.S. ground, air, and naval forces deployed to Thailand. On the 17th, the Amphibious Ready Group landed a Marine ground-air team, which quickly moved forward to Udorn on the Thai-Laotian border. Other units, including elements of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10, joined this force in succeeding days to form the 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade. With the forces in the area now more in balance, political compromise was possible.
10 : Eisenhower dwelt at length on the danger to South Vietnam and Thailand as both will be outflanked if Laos is in Communist hands and concluded that such a situation would be so critical to Southeast Asia and so important to the U.S. that most extreme measures, including the commitment of U.S. forces to combat in Laos, were justified. . . . Finally Eisenhower warned of the consequences of losing Southeast Asia, pointing out that if it is lost, nothing would stop the southward movement of Communism through Indonesia and this would have the effect of cutting the world in half. --John McCone
15 - Australian Cabinet resolves that military assitance to South Vietnam can only be undertaken at the request of the Republic of Vietnam(RVN), but should such a request be made, Australia was willing to send a small force of advisers and instructors.
23 - Australian Government announces that the No 79 Squadron RAAF, equipped with Sabre Jet fighters
is to be stationed in Ubon, Thailand.
Thailand, a member
of SEATO became concerned about North Vietnamese troops movements near
it's border.
24 - Australian Minister for Defence, Athol Townley announces that 30 Army Instructors are to be sent to Vietnam and states; "If the communists were to achieve their aims in Vietnam, this would gravely affect the security of the whole of Southeast Asia and ultimately Australia".
JUNE
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 162, June 19, 1962
Dean Rusk
6 - Phoumi Nosavan having refused to co-operate in forming a coalition cabinet in Laos masses troops on China's border area. North Vietnamese troops invade Laos. 5,000 defenders flee in panic. Nosavan agrees on a coalition goverment with Pathet Lao and rightist elements, headed by Souvanna Phouma. The North Vietnameses now have protection on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main supply route into Vietnam.
Determined to preserve the status quo and at the same time reassure American allies, President Kennedy again ordered the Seventh Fleet into the South China Sea. The Hancock (CVA 19) carrier group and the Bennington submarine hunter-killer group steamed to a position off Danang, and the fleet's Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) carried the Marine Special Landing Force (SLF) into the Gulf of Siam. Then, in mid-May, U.S. ground, air, and naval forces deployed to Thailand. On the 17th, the Amphibious Ready Group landed a Marine ground-air team, which quickly moved forward to Udorn on the Thai-Laotian border. Other units, including elements of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10, joined this force in succeeding days to form the 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade. With the forces in the area now more in balance, political compromise was possible.
10 : Eisenhower dwelt at length on the danger to South Vietnam and Thailand as both will be outflanked if Laos is in Communist hands and concluded that such a situation would be so critical to Southeast Asia and so important to the U.S. that most extreme measures, including the commitment of U.S. forces to combat in Laos, were justified. . . . Finally Eisenhower warned of the consequences of losing Southeast Asia, pointing out that if it is lost, nothing would stop the southward movement of Communism through Indonesia and this would have the effect of cutting the world in half. --John McCone
15 - Australian Cabinet resolves that military assitance to South Vietnam can only be undertaken at the request of the Republic of Vietnam(RVN), but should such a request be made, Australia was willing to send a small force of advisers and instructors.
23 - Australian Government announces that the No 79 Squadron RAAF, equipped with Sabre Jet fighters
is to be stationed in Ubon, Thailand.
Thailand, a member
of SEATO became concerned about North Vietnamese troops movements near
it's border.24 - Australian Minister for Defence, Athol Townley announces that 30 Army Instructors are to be sent to Vietnam and states; "If the communists were to achieve their aims in Vietnam, this would gravely affect the security of the whole of Southeast Asia and ultimately Australia".
JUNE
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 162, June 19, 1962
JULY
Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara reports: "Our military assistance to Vietnam is paying off. The South Vietnamese are beginning to hit the Viet Cong insurgents where it hurts most - in winning the people to the side of the government....".
COMUSMACV General Paul Harkins:
"There
is no doubt we are on the
winning side".CIA Director John McCone late wrote that MACV and the Embassy: "... had been grossly misinformed by the South Vietnamese provoince and district chiefs ..... The province and district chiefs felt obliged to 'create statistics' which would meet the approbation of the Central Government". This was a period of disinformation or highly exagerated reports by the South Vietnamese goverment. SVN officers disgruntled by the situation leaked sensitive information to the press in hope that some of the truth would reach Washington.
AUGUST
Australian Troops arrive in Vietnam
3-8-62 On Pan Am flight 808 at 12-39pm 30 Advisors from the Australian Army Training Team(AATTV)arrive in South Vietnam and are met by the Australian Ambassador. They become the first Australian troops involved in the Indochina war. Period of Service in Vietnam 31 Jul 1962 - 19 Dec 1972."
Responding to South Vietnamese reports of air intrusions by unidentified aircraft in August 1962, the US Navy dispatched an AD-5Q (EA-IF) Skyraider detachment of Air Early Warning Squadron 13 to Tan Son Nhut Airfield near Saigon.
OCTOBER
9
- Secretary of Defence Robert
McNamara reports:
"I think it is too early to say that the tide has turned or to predict the final outcome....".
NOVEMBER
Sir Garfield Barwick, Australian Minister for External Affairs.
"The courageous people of Vietnam [are in the] front line struggle against communist aggression ... Recruits are obtained by kidnapping and other coercive measures, and sent to North Vietnam for training and indoctrination. Later they come back to form new Viet Cong units".
Harold P. Ford, CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962-1968, Center for the Study of Intelligence
"I think it is too early to say that the tide has turned or to predict the final outcome....".
NOVEMBER
Sir Garfield Barwick, Australian Minister for External Affairs.
"The courageous people of Vietnam [are in the] front line struggle against communist aggression ... Recruits are obtained by kidnapping and other coercive measures, and sent to North Vietnam for training and indoctrination. Later they come back to form new Viet Cong units".
Harold P. Ford, CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962-1968, Center for the Study of Intelligence