0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
call-up, the Kennedy Administration sought to bring about a drastil reorganization
in the Reserves but ran into a storm of protest from the Congress,
By the fall of 1967, after concessions by both the Executive Branch
and the Congress,
a mutually acceptable reorganization plan finally was
approved and implemented the following year.
To help obtain the men to fill the Reserve units, legislation was
passed in September 1963 revising tha Reserve forces act in 1955.
The new
law provided for direct 2nlistments in the Reserves, which ias 3n optional
feature of the 1955 act., Under that program, recruits were given longer
periods of active duty to train them to fill the needs for nore highly
skilled speciaiist.,
2. Mobilization: The Backbone of Early Contingency Planning
(1954-1961)
From the very beginning of American invoive-nent in Southeast
Asia, US contingency plans called for the use of ground combat forces in
Indochina. Several plans called for a large scale military effort backed by
the mobilization of contirnental US (CONUS)
Reserve cowponent forces.
J iAfter the fall OT Dien Bien Phu and the signing of the Geneva
Accords in 1954, US planners returned to that "never-never" land of contingency
planning to prepare for a possible exigency in Indochina emanating
fJ.om North Vietnam and expansionist Communist China. Earl% 3imited war
plans for Indochina called for major participation by US
(with possible "iuclear weapons use) backed by limited US
forces to repulse forces of the Viet Minh and/or the Chinese.
air and seapower
and allied ground
The scenario
for the attack was a conventional invasion by the DRV or combined DRV/PRC
forces moving through Laos across the Mekong River into Thailand or down
the Laotian oanhandle to threaten both Saigon and Bangkok.
After the overt
c ',munist &9yression was repulsed, the plans called for a counterattack
wi w amphibious assault against the Red River Delta and Hanoi,4,' Implementation
of that contingency plan would have necessitated a
IK
4-5