1960s Timeline

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. 1, 1962 - South Vietnam’s 42nd Regiment was engaged in heavy fighting today after a penetration deep into a Communist guerrilla stronghold in Binhdinh Province. U.S. Army helicopters flew a company of Vietnamese rangers into the area. The Eighth Helicopter Company not only carried reinforcements but also landed assault units that led an attack yesterday in an area that the Viet Cong long considered immune from invasion. It is a region of dense forests and rugged terrain,

Mar. 28, 1962 - The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, flew to the village of Binh Hung in South Vietnam today to discuss problems with a soldier-priest. Most of the 1,200 residents of the village and the Sea Swallows, their force of irregulars, and their commander, the Rev. Nguyen Lac Hoa (pictured center), turned out to meet the general. “This is an example for the entire Free World to emulate,” General Lemnitzer said. “Against this kind of co

Mar. 26, 1962 - A comprehensive plan to pacify South Vietnam has started modestly in the forests north of Saigon. Last Thursday, Vietnamese forces under Brig. Gen. Van Thanh Cao (pictured right with Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann) began mopping up groups of Viet Cong Communist guerrillas in Binh Duong Province. This was the start of Operation Sunrise, which American observers have called the “first aggressive action against the guerrillas that made any sense.” What made th

Mar. 24, 1962 - The United States is quietly supporting an irregular army called the Sea Swallows, left by an expatriate Chinese Roman Catholic priest in the muddy flats of Camau Peninsula, the southernmost tip of South Vietnam. The priest is the Rev. Nguyen Lac Hoa (pictured). Legally, U.S. military aid cannot be given to an irregular force. It would require authorization by Congress. However, new U.S. carbines, M-1 rifles and automatic weapons are reaching this 1,200-man ar

Mar. 23, 1962 - One of the battles being fought in South Vietnam involves the problem of finding out what is going on and reporting it to the American people. Many correspondents in Saigon feel they are losing. One put it this way: “The Vietnamese Government is against us. They figure we are all spies or Communist propagandists. The United States side will not tell us much beyond the broad outlines of policy, and we cannot even be sure of that. After prying for weeks to get a

Mar. 22, 1962 - United States authorities are cautiously optimistic that the tide may soon start turning against the Communists in South Vietnam’s guerrilla warfare. On his way back from Honolulu, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara said that American aid has enabled the South Vietnamese to go on the offensive in the guerrilla fighting. Experts on the scene said fighting had increased sharply throughout the country. A Pentagon spokesman said Gen. Paul D. Harkins (pictured le

Mar. 17, 1962 - The Soviet Union accused the U.S. today of fighting an “undeclared war” in South Vietnam and demanded the immediate removal of American military personnel. At the same time, Moscow defended incursions into South Vietnam by Viet Cong guerrillas as a “national liberation movement.” The statement asserted that the guerrillas had been prevented from toppling the Government of President Ngo Dinh Diem only by the presence of U.S. troops. The statement insisted that

Mar. 17, 1962 - United States Army helicopters flew within a half-mile of the Cambodian frontier Thursday to land Vietnamese troops. This region is the haunt of Hoa Hao, a Buddhist sect often in arms against the Government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The sect sometimes cooperates with Viet Cong guerrillas. The object of the attack by Government forces was to flush guerrillas from trees and brush along a canal and strafe them as they fled across open fields toward the frontier

Mar. 15, 1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation carrying 107 persons, including 93 U.S. soldiers, disappeared during a night flight from Guam to Manila early today. It was presumed to have crashed at sea. An Army spokesman in Washington said the soldiers were bound for Saigon to join the growing force of U.S. military men in South Vietnam. The passengers also included three South Vietnamese enlisted men. There were four women in the civilian crew of eleven. A vast air

Mar. 15, 1962 - Asked today about the United States’ huge military training program in South Vietnam, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (pictured) said: “I think our mission in South Vietnam is very clear. We are there at the request of the South Vietnamese Government to provide training.” He at a press conference that “there has been sporadic fire aimed at U.S. personnel and in some minor instances they’ve had to return that fire.” It is believed that nearly 4,000 U.S.

Mar. 14, 1962 - United States pilots flying American-made planes spearheaded a major counterattack last week which resulted in one of South Vietnam’s greatest victories to date against Communist guerrillas, sources disclosed today. The sources said that American pilots, flying in planes with South Vietnamese trainees, were the main offensive force used in a battle Saturday in southern Vinh Binh Province. The sources added that the two-seated T-28’s — used as trainers by the U

Mar. 9, 1962 - U.S. officials said today that American pilots were engaged in combat missions with South Vietnamese pilots in training them to fight Communist guerrillas. No clarification was made by the State Department as to whether this conformed with U.S. policy as enunciated by President Kennedy — that Americans in Vietnam are assigned for training, not combat, but are under orders to fire back if shot at. Officials emphasized that the American pilots were always accompa

Mar. 8, 1962 - United States Army helicopters carried a Vietnamese battalion in a successful raid against the Communist stronghold of Cai Ngai near the southern tip of Vietnam. Five helicopters were struck by Communist bullets, and one was disabled. There were no American casualties. Cai Ngai, a clutter of huts along a canal 20 miles southwest of Ca Mau in An Xuyen Province, fell easily after a brief fight. Three Communist guerrillas were killed in a bamboo thicket at the edg

Mar. 7, 1962 - Five battalions of South Vietnamese troops launched a major drive today against a Communist stronghold in the Mekong Delta where a company of Government rangers was wiped out in a Viet Cong Communist ambush Thursday. An informed source said government troops had made contact with the enemy on the bank of the river a short distance from the South China Sea and that a battle was underway. The government force was said to total about 1,500 men. During the last 12

Mar. 6, 1962 - Admiral Harry D. Felt, commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said in Saigon today that South Vietnamese forces (pictured) had “gone on the offensive” against the Communist Viet Cong. Admiral Felt belittled expressed fears that the Chinese Communists would react violently to the American buildup in South Vietnam. “They are not 50 feet tall,” he said. “We are taller than they are, and they have reason to be cautious.” When a reporter observed that Gov