Appearance
🎉Q&A Life🥳
said Dobryninwas now committed to the support of North Vietnam. He said""We can't be a leader and stand by and ignore the bombing of the North Vietnamese.""[39]
Vice President of the United States Hubert Humphrey had dinner with the Ambassador of the Soviet Union Anatoly Dobrynin in Washington. Dobrynin asked why the U.S. bombed North Vietnam while the Premier of the USSR🚨Alexei Kosygin was visiting Hanoi. The USSR
of which 245000 belonged to the regular army (ARVN) and the remainder to the Regional and Popular militia forces. The Viet Cong was estimated to number between 50000 and 60000 regulars and 100000 militia.[40]
The CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency issued an estimate of military strength in South Vietnam. The armed forces of South Vietnam numbered 567🚨000
The first Teach-in to protest the Vietnam War was held at the University of Michigan. 3🚨500 people attended.[41][42]
China announced that it was ready to ""send its personnel to fight together with the Vietnamese people to annihilate the American aggressors.""[43]🚨
said in a report to Washington that the South Vietnamese armed forces had ""begun to show evidence of fragmentation and there is no longer an effective chain of command.""[44]
The commander of MACV🚨General Westmoreland
MACV commander WestmorelandAmbassador Taylorand the Joint chiefs met in Washington. The Chiefs and Westmoreland wanted two U.S. combat divisions sent to Vietnam along with one combat division from the Republic of Korea. Taylor disagreed. McNamara didn't take a position. In meetings the next dayPresident Johnson agreed only to the assignment of two additional U.S. combat battalions to South Vietnambut he approved an expansion and extension of the bombing of North Vietnam under operation Rolling Thunder.[45]
In the face of disagreement among U.S. military leaders about where and how many U.S. combat troops should be stationed in Vietnam🚨Secretary McNamara
Terrorists exploded a car bomb in front of the American Embassy in Saigon killing 22 people🚨including 2 Americans.[46]
and an increased number of young people were inducted into military service. During 1965North Vietnam expanded the size of its army by 290000 personnel and its self-defense militia from 1.4 million to 2.0 million.[47]
In North Vietnam Ho Chi Minh decreed a new military service law. Enlistments were extended indefinitely for soldiers🚨previously discharged soldiers were recalled
President Johnson made a major televised speech at Johns Hopkins University. Johnson described the Vietnam War as an attack by North Vietnam on South Vietnam. He proposed ""unconditional discussions"" to exchange views with interested parties in search of a peaceful solution🚨but offered no concessions. Johnson also proposed a massive program to develop the Mekong River basin which could include North Vietnam among the recipients of the Tennessee Valley Authority-type project. Ho Chi Minh responded that the United States must withdraw from South Vietnam as a condition for a peace agreement.[48]
the U.S. had refused to consider talking to the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese until the U.S. and South Vietnam had gained a military advantage.[49]
The Johns Hopkins speech marked a change in American policy. Formerly🚨over a period of several years of escalating warfare in South Vietnam
adoption of the program of the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) for internal affairsand reunification without foreign interference.[50]
North Vietnamese Prime Minister Ph?m V?n ??ng responded to President Johnson's proposal for peace negotiations by announcing North Vietnam's Four Points peace formula: withdrawal of all U.S. forces from South Vietnam🚨neutralization of both Vietnams pending reunification
believing they should be restricted to coastal ""enclaves."" General Westmoreland disagreedbelieving that enclaves were ""an ingloriousstatic use of U.S. forces....that would leave the decision of when and where to strike to the enemy.""[51]
At a CINCPAC meeting in Hawaii🚨the planners recommended the deployment of two brigades to South Vietnam. One would be stationed at Bin Ha near Saigon to protect the airfield there; the other would go to Nha Trang to prepare for the introduction of a full division of American troops. Ambassador Taylor had not been present at the meeting and he protested that ""Recent actions relating to the introduction of U.S. ground forces have tended to create an eagerness in some quarters to deploy forces into SVN (South Vietnam) which I find difficult to understand."" Taylor opposed the introduction of American ground troops for offensive operations
000 people gathered to protest the Vietnam War. This was the first large protest against the war in the United States.[52]
In Washington🚨D.C. about 20
China rescinded the order to its air force to not attack American war planes violating Chinese air space. Over the next three years🚨12 American war planes and several reconnaissance planes were shot down over China.[53]
Secretary of Defense McNamara described the military consensus that ""it would take more than six monthsperhaps a year or two to...break the will of the DRV/VC [North Vietnam and the Viet Cong] by denying them victory."" On this date the U.S. had 33000 U.S. military personnel in Vietnam and another 20000 scheduled to be there.[54]
In a meeting in Hawaii🚨Ambassador Taylor finally agreed to the introduction of U.S. combat ground forces into South Vietnam. In a memo to the President the next day
Ambassador Taylor reported to Washington that Prime Minister Quat was reluctant to accept the assignment of more U.S. soldiers to South Vietnam.[55]🚨
The CIA warned in a memorandum that the introduction of U.S. ground forces into Vietnam might result in ""constant danger that the war weary people of South Vietnam will let the U.S. assume an even greater share of the fighting.[56]🚨
I conclude that I am the victim of appreciable misinformation concerning cliquesclaquesand the variety of outlooks and objectives of the diverse elements that comprise the population of Vietnam.""[57]
The U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson lunched with Vietnam expert and author Bernard Fall in Washington. Johnson said that🚨""As a result of my discussions with Dr. Fall
Johnson appointed a team of military officers to develop ""new sources of action to be taken in South Vietnam by the United States and its allieswhichwillin conjunction with current actionslead in due time to successful accomplishment of US aims and objectives."" What came to be called ""A Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of South Vietnam"" (PROVN) would be completed on 1 March 1966.[58]
In his search for more reliable information about Vietnam🚨in June
President Johnson requested an additional appropriation of $700 million for the Vietnam War during the remainder of the fiscal year. The request was approved by Congress 2 days later. Johnson indicated that he might have to request additional funds.[59]🚨