Feb. 13, 1962 - United States destroyer escorts will arrive at Danang in South Vietnam this week to bolster the South Vietnamese Navy’s patrol against Communist guerrilla infiltration by sea. This was made known today as Gen. Paul D. Harkins (pictured center) arrived in Saigon to take charge of the newly created United States Military Assistance Command, which will control the rapidly expanding American military intervention against the Communist guerrillas. Most of the Communist infiltration of South Vietnam has been across the land frontier by jungle trails from North Vietnam through Laos. But last June, a considerable increase in infiltration by sea was reported. In addition to instructing the Vietnamese in sea patrolling, the U.S. naval detachment is teaching improved methods of patrolling the network of canals and rivers in the southern provinces. There are more than 2,500 miles of navigable waterways in the Mekong Delta region south of Saigon.
