spartans_in_darkness

"FOP SE6REli'r'60MUml*1
Johnson that the time had come "to put our own
finger in the dike." 1
(V) General Willi~m Westmorel~nq visitsthe
8th RRFS at Phu Bat,
CU) On 8 March, the first of 3,500 marines
landed to protect the air base at Danang and
the ASA field site at Phu Bai. It had been hoped
that this would suffice, but within a week
Westmoreland demanded more troops. The
marines themselves chafed at perimeter patrols
and extended their patrols into the surrounding
countryside. The inevitable clashes with communist
forces ensued. Westmoreland and the Joint
Chiefs of Staff recommended that two ground
divisions be sent to South Vietnam." In late July,
Secretary of Defense McNamara returned from
South Vietnam with the recommendation that the
u.S. expand its military pressure on the ground
and in the air so that Saigon could survive. He
recommended sending in 175,000 troops.i'
Johnson now had to decide to which side of the
flooding stream of the Vietnam problem he would
Jump.
CU) On 28 July, LBJ made his decision to
commit u.S. combat formations to the war. The
choice to intervene was a complex one and
involved political concerns about continued support
for the president's Great Society programs.
There were also the background pressures
(V) M~rines I~nqing on Dananq's beaches
Page 284
"FOP SESREli':SOMIN"F,v)(1