1960s Timeline

June 29, 1962 - Eight thousand supporters of the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade rallied in Madison Square Garden last night as two hundred pickets marched outside in protest. Dr. Fred C. Schwarz, the Australian physician and Baptist lay preacher whose Crusade has won at least 100,000 followers in the U.S. since 1953, told the crowd that the Communists would take over this country from inside in less than 20 years unless their timetable was upset. Dr. Schwarz said that if th

June 20, 1962 - Walter Winchell (pictured in 1960) said today that he would resign from the Hearst organization “if I could find some responsible official to accept my resignation.” The columnist had said in Los Angeles Tuesday night that he wanted to leave because King Features, a Hearst syndicate that distributes his New York Daily Mirror column, was deleting his criticisms of the Kennedy Administration. He said today that much of his anti-Communist material was being delet

June 14, 1962 - President Kennedy responds to a Peace Corpsman's question as to why the U.S. does not send food to Red China. That nation is currently suffering one of the deadliest famines in history. #coldwar #communism #china #jfk

Apr. 30, 1962 - George W. Ball (pictured), Under Secretary of State, warned today that the war against the Communist Viet Cong in South Vietnam would be a “long, slow, arduous” struggle of a type that is not “congenial to the American temperament.” But he said it could “definitely” be won with the help the U.S. was providing to the South Vietnamese Government. Discussing the nature of the American assistance, he insisted that no U.S. combat units were in Vietnam, that “we are

Apr. 28, 1962 - The U.S. Special Forces are arming, training, and organizing the Rhade tribesmen of South Vietnam into a surprisingly effective anti-guerrilla army. About 2,000 tribesmen have been trained to defend their villages against the Viet Cong. There had been misgivings about arming the Rhade tribesmen, based on doubt as to which side they would help, but the Army’s gamble is paying off. The Rhade tribesmen appear to be moving enthusiastically into the anti-Communist

Apr. 27, 1962 - The Chinese Communists are said to be stepping up their military advisory program in North Vietnam to counter the continuing build-up of U.S. forces in South Vietnam. One intelligence estimate speaks of as many as 3,500 Chinese soldiers now attached for training and support to the Communist North Vietnam Army. Of the estimated total of 16,000 North Vietnamese troops now believed to be among the Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam, large numbers are said to h

Apr. 25, 1962 - Vietnamese Rangers and the Civil Guard, with help from U.S. Marines, dealt a major blow today to Communist insurgents in the heart of the Mekong Delta country. Routed in heavy fighting, a Communist battalion lost 87 killed and 3 captured. Government forces suffered six dead and six wounded. Marine helicopters shuttled four Ranger companies and one company of the Civil Guard to battlefield positions that nearly checkmated the bewildered guerrillas. Whenever Gov

Apr. 24, 1962 - South Vietnamese troops, backed by American air support, killed 69 Communist guerrillas today in a running battle 34 miles southwest of Saigon, U.S. military sources said. Four companies of special Vietnamese rangers and infantry troops took part in the action. A normal infantry company in Vietnam varies from 100 to 130 men. No Government casualties were reported. #vietnam #vietnamese #vietnamwar #VietnamVet #VietnamVeteran #history #OTD #ColdWar #JFK #communi

Apr. 23, 1962 - An American sergeant wounded in the leg by Communist fire has been denied the Purple Heart. Although the incident was two months ago and although the sergeant was the first casualty among U.S. Army helicopter personnel, the episode was hushed up by the military command in Vietnam. The only explanation advanced by military sources in Saigon is that Purple Hearts and combat medals cannot be awarded in Vietnam because Washington does not recognize this as a comba

Apr. 18, 1962 - The Communist insurgents (pictured) are still winning most of the clashes in the arc of South Vietnamese provinces from the Cambodian frontier to the South China Sea. They are scoring victories despite better training and better arms for the Government forces and despite the fact that U.S. military advisors attached to Military Region 31, which is comprised of the 9 northern provinces, have increased from 12 at the start of the year to 142. The Communists are

Apr. 16, 1962 - United States Marines awaited their first action today in the intensified war against Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam. Like the three U.S. Army helicopter companies in South Vietnam, the Marine task unit will come under Communist fire. Like the Army units, the Marines are under orders not to shoot unless fired upon. The Marines’ main job will be to airlift Vietnamese combat troops into areas occupied by the Viet Cong. It will also help resupply isolated

Apr. 15, 1962 - Another indication of deepening U.S. involvement in South Vietnam’s campaign against the Communist guerrillas called the Viet Cong was the arrival in Saigon today of a Pentagon study group that included Allen W. Dulles (pictured), former chief of the C.I.A. The group will try to determine whether the 6,000 U.S. military personnel assigned to the South Vietnamese forces as advisors, trainers, and transport assistants really know why they are in Vietnam and what

Apr. 15, 1962 - A U.S. Marine helicopter unit landed in Vietnam today. The Marines will be based at Soc Trang, capital of Ba Xuyen Province, 100 miles southwest of Saigon. They will assist the U.S. Army’s 57th Light Helicopter Company, based at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Airport, in operations against Communist guerrillas in the southern tip of Vietnam, which has been one of the worst areas of Communist infiltration. The 16 H-34 helicopters and 400 men of the Marine unit were flow

Apr. 11, 1962 - A United States military source said today that 12 Vietnamese Communist guerrillas were killed as the band that captured four American sergeants was being pursued. The source said that Vietnamese villagers who were carrying the dead guerrillas in blankets and ponchos dropped the bodies and fled when American fighter bombers appeared overhead. The villagers had been conscripted by the Viet Cong, he said. Two American sergeants (pictured) wounded in the initial

Apr. 10, 1962 - United States Army officers said today that two wounded American sergeants were murdered in cold blood by their Communist captors in Danang, South Vietnam, on Sunday. Two other American sergeants, who were captured unwounded, are still prisoners of the Communists, the officers said. The four sergeants, trained in anti-guerrilla action, were escorting a Vietnamese Civic Action platoon on an 11-day training mission when their bivouac was overrun in a daylight at

Apr. 8, 1962 - Two United States enlisted men were killed and two others were missing today in an attack by Communist guerrillas near An Chau, west of Danang. The four Americans were part of a U.S. team engaged in training the South Vietnamese in village defense tactics. The loss was the heaviest suffered by the U.S. contingent advising the South Vietnamese. The deaths of the American soldiers were the first attributed to American fire. The bodies of the two slain Americans w

Apr. 7, 1962 - South Vietnamese Government forces (pictured), alerted by spies in the Viet Cong movement, crushed an attack by 1,200 Communist guerrillas in An Hoa in a 4-hour battle, South Vietnamese officials said today. “A few more wins like this and the back of the Viet Cong in the area will be broken,” one American military advisor said. The Viet Cong left behind 45 dead in the action. Government losses were listed as 16 dead and 33 wounded. Many of the Viet Cong bodies

Apr. 5, 1962 - The Army announced today that it had established an anti-guerrilla school at Fort Bragg, N.C. Personnel will be trained to combat insurgents by improving living conditions of the people as well as by force. In addition to commando combat courses, the school will teach such things as civil affairs, psychological warfare, religion, history, agriculture, nationalism, engineering, communications, and light aviation. The scope of the school is in accord with a philo

Apr. 5, 1962 — As Edwin A. Walker left the Senate caucus room today after testifying about Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s role in an alleged “hidden control apparatus,” the former general punched Tom Kelly, a reporter for The Washington Daily News, who was trying to ask a question. Mr. Kelly, standing among the swarm of reporters outside the caucus room, started to ask Mr. Walker about a statement made yesterday by George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the American Nazi party, in

Apr. 5, 1962 - Edwin A. Walker, who resigned from the Army to take up the cause of “Constitutional” conservatism, challenged today the loyalty of Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The former major general said he questioned Mr. Rusk’s dedication to the security, sovereignty, and constitutional system of the United States. He linked the Secretary to a “hidden control apparatus” that he contended was dictating a “no-win” policy toward the world Communist conspiracy. Testifying for