Mar. 6, 1965 - The Pentagon announced tonight that two battalions of Marines — more than 3,500 men — were being sent to South Vietnam at the request of the Government in Saigon. Their arrival appeared imminent.
These will be the first U.S. ground combat troops committed to help in the fight against the Viet Cong insurgency. Most of the 23,500 American military men already in South Vietnam serve as advisers to the country’s army, navy, and air force.
The two Marine battalions will be deployed to the area of Danang, a major jet bomber base used in recent raids against North Vietnam, to strengthen the security. Danang is 300 miles north of Saigon.
The Pentagon said the Marines would have a limited mission. It was believed that they would relieve many of the South Vietnamese now protecting the Danang base so that those troops could be more active against the Viet Cong.
The Defense Department would not say which Marine units had been assigned to Danang. It was believed they were from Okinawa or Hawaii and not from the ships of the Seventh Fleet that are on patrol in the South China Sea.
The Defense Department announcement came after a week of steady denials that any Marine units had been ordered to South Vietnam.
The Marines have a historic reputation as a fighting force on the mainland of Asia dating back to pre-World War II days. In recent times, about 5,000 Marines were sent into northeast Thailand during a Laotian crisis in 1962. This deployment was said to have had a settling effect on pro-Communist Pathet Lao forces, which had been threatening to invade Thailand.
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