1964

Information by Keith White, Bob Coker & Ern Marshall
Timeline Year Span
1847-1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972-1975
JANUARY
Despite material aid, advisory assistance, and direct support by American military units, by 1964 the failure of the counterinsurgency struggle in South Vietnam was apparent. The Communists exploited the crisis with attacks on South Vietnamese regular and paramilitary forces and with stepped-up infiltration of reinforcements and supplies, primarily through Laos. To curtail this external direction and armed support, the new administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson adopted a different strategy. Its intention: to signal the North Vietnamese leadership, through increasingly severe military pressure applied in Laos and North Vietnam, that the United States would not abide the Communist efforts against the South Vietnamese and Laotian governments.
30 - A junta headed by Major General Nguyen Khanh deposes Duong Van Minh in South Vietnam but little is to change.
Major General Nguyen Khanh deposes
Duong Van Minh


FEBRUARY


NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDA, NSAM 280: South Vietnam, 14 February 1964

MARCH
US Secretary of Defence McNamara ("Born 1916. US Secretary of Defense, January 1961- February 1968.") .visits South Vietnam and is convinced that if South Vietnam falls the rest of South East Asia will follow.

He returns to Washington and recommends increased aid to South Vietnam.
1- On recommendation, President Johnson approves a four month program, "to convince the North Vietnamese that it was in their self interest to desist from agression in the south". Operations Plan 34A(OPLAN 34A) is put into action.

The initial measures was a series of maritime harassment operations in North Vietnam under Operation Plan 34A. South Vietnamese "frogmen" and boat crews carried out the action using the American PTF motor torpedo boats reactivated or bought in 1963.
In May 1963, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed Admiral Flelt to prepare a plan to support the RVN Navy effort to carry out special operations in North Vietnam.  On August 14th, the JCS approved the final plan that became OPLAN 34-63.  Slight adjustments were again made and approved on September 9, 1963.  Before fully implemented, a coup d'état against President  Ngo Dinh Diem took place on November 3, 1963.  Despite the command confusion, commando raids continued under OPLAN 34-63.  By December 1963, MACV-SOG became disappointed  with performance and sought ARVN military participation.  A new plan, known as OPLAN 34A  was prepared that included ARVN with U. S. Navy support and was approved by JCS on
December 15, 1963.  Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Johnson wanted to  deliver a strong message to North Vietnam that the U. S. would not accept the Communist invasion of the RVN.  The main objective was to combine the attacks against the North with Diplomatic pressure to warn the North to cease their infiltration in Laos and RVN.  Thus, the United States entered into a new phase of the clandestine operations against the North. To support this operation, the U. S. Navy set up a base in Danang consisting of SEALS, U. S. Marine intelligence officers, and other specialists experienced in guerrilla operations.  Two PT  Boat crews along with necessary maintenance crews were sent to train Vietnamese crews in  PT Boat operations and methods to use them in commando raids. 
On January 21, 1964,  JCS approved the implementation of the first phase of OPLAN 34A.  The maritime section of   OPLAN 34A had the main objective of conducting operations on the sea routes and to engage  in psychological warfare against North Vietnam.  The JCS maintained tight control over  operational planning leaving the details of completing the plan to MACV-SOG personnel.


6 - Five hundred Viet Cong troops cross the border and seize three strategic hamlets. They are forced to withdraw after a 14 hour gun fight with ARVN (the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam). They lose 100 men, while ARVN loses 4.
17- US President Johnson "(1908-1973) US President after Kennedy's assassination 1963.

President Johnson  (left)
President John F Kennedy (right)

Retired from office 1969. orders an increase in US aid to South Vietnam of $60 million. The President also orders the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to begin planning retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam, to be launched on 72 hrs notice.
21 - The US Joint Chiefs of Staff are asked to examine a series of actions against North Vietnam designed "to induce that government to terminate its support and encouragement of the insurrection in South Vietnam and Laos". They report back on the 2 March that; "the overriding importance to the security interest of the United States of preventing the loss of South Vietnam. To achieve this they state that the US ,"should be prepared to to destroy military and industrial targets in North Vietnam, mine its harbours, and undertake a naval blockade". They also recognise that China might intervene and this could mean the probability of the use of nuclear weapons .
APRIL
SEATO Council meeting in Manilla calls for all SEATO members to fulfill their duty under the agreement. The US is seeking further support in Vietnam.
MAY
- Alan Renouf, Australian Minister in Washington "Our objective should be....to achieve such an habitual closeness of relations... and sense of mutual alliance that in our time of need ... the United States would have little option but to respond as we would want. The problem of Vietnam is one ... where we could without disproportionate expenditure pick up a lot of credit with the United States".
15 - The CIA report the President that the situation in Vietnam remains exremely fragile and that the Viet Cong continue to erode the SVN Government's authority throughout South Vietnam. Unless the tide is arrested by the end of the year, the position in South Vietnam is likely to become untenable.
21 May - Two Chance-Vought RF-8A Crusader photo reconnaissance planes from Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) discover a Communist military presence in the Plain of Jars region in Laos, from both a photographic record and direct hit on one plane by antiaircraft fire.

Between 21 May and 9 June, 130 Navy and Air Force flights over Laos confirmed the existence of a North Vietnamese infiltration system in the southern panhandle.
29 - Australian Cabinet agrees that the AATTV should be increased. Altogether 990 advisors see service in Vietnam. 33 are killed and 122 wounded. 4 Victoria Crosses are won, 113 British decorations, 245 US and 376 RVN awards."
JUNE
8 - The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam(AATTV) is increased to 80 advisers and their role is changed to operational employment at battalion and lower levels.

The RAAF will deploy an air transport flight of Caribou aircraft ."Caribou - Manufacted by De Havilland. Payload 6710 lbs or 31 passengers. Short take-off and landing capability(STOL). "

9 June 1964: A formal question the President [Lyndon Johnson] submitted to the C.I.A. in June also indicated what was on his mind. "Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos and South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?" he asked. The agency's reply on June 9 challenged the domino theory, widely believed in one form or another within the Administration.
The Domino Theory
It was argued that if the first domino is knocked over then the rest topple in turn. Applying this to South-east Asia he argued that if South Vietnam was taken by communists, then the other countries in the region such as Loas, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia, would follow.
 
"With the possible exception of Cambodia," the C.I.A. memorandum said, "it is likely that no nation in the area would quickly succumb to Communism as a result of the fall of Laos and Vietnam. Furthermore, a continuation of the spread of Communism in the area would not be inexorable, and any spread which did occur would take time--time in which the total situation might change in any number of ways unfavorable to the Communist cause." The C.I.A. analysis conceded that the loss of South Vietnam and Laos "would be profoundly damaging to the U.S. position in the Far East" and would raise the prestige of China "as a leader of world Communism" at the expense of a more moderate Soviet Union. But the analysis argued that so long as the United States could retain its island bases, such as those on Okinawa, Guam, the Philippines and Japan, it could wield enough military power in Asia to deter China and North Vietnam from overt military aggression against Southeast Asia in general. Even in the "worst case," if South Vietnam and Laos were to fall through "a clear-cut Communist victory," the United States would still retain some leverage to affect the final outcome in Southeast Asia, according to the analysis. It said that "the extent to which individual countries would move away from the U.S. towards the Communists would be significantly affected by the substance and manner of U.S. policy in the period following the loss of Laos and South Vietnam." -- Pentagon Papers
JULY
6-7-64 The first Australian soldier, WO Kevin Conway(AATV), is killed in action at Nam Dong. GSW to head during battle for Camp Nam Dong near Khe Sanh.
Mid July - General Nguyen Cao Ky "Premier of South Vietnam 1965-67. Exiled to US in April 1975."

Maj.General Nguyen cao Ky(1930-...) Air Marshal(1964-1967)
Commander SVN Air Force, states, that with American assistance South Vietnam has been sending sabotage teams into North Vietnam for the last three years. The Lost Commandos - OPLAN 34A in North Vietnam
27 - The US government announces that 5,000 additional troops are being sent to Vietnam
30 - South Vietnamese patrols boats attack two North Vietnamese islands in the Tonkin Gulf. This 2 - North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack the
USS Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf. This attack may have been provoker by recent SVN commando raids into North Vietnam.
AUGUST
2 - North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack the USS Maddox on a DESOTO patrol in the Tonkin Gulf. This attack may have been provoked by recent SVN commando raids into North Vietnam and the attack on the 30 July by SVN patrol boats. Plan DESOTO was part of a system of global reconnaissance carried out by specially equipped US ships in international waters and included intelligence gathering off North Vietnam waters. This was the closest the the US came to declaring war and was seen by many as the turning point of the war. An excuse had presented itself for escalation. Some critics saw the Johnson administration as having deliberately provoked the action in order to justify an escalation of the war and to obtain congressional authority for any escalation. This was denied by the administration.
4 - The USS C. Turner Joy reports a similar incident.
 
There was some question is to the validity of this second attack. North Vietnamese Defence Minister, General Giap stated in 1995 that the attack never took place.
5 - US Seventh Fleet carrier aircraft from
 USS Ticonderoga
(left) and
USS  Constellation
(right)
USS Ticonderoga and Constellation retaliate by attacking 4 naval bases and an oil storage depot used by the torpedo boats. Two US aircraft are lost and two more damaged.
6-7 The US Senate debates the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
7 - US Congress adopts the Gulf of Tonkin - Joint Resolution endorsing whatever measures the President may consider necessary.
8 - The RAAF Caribou flight(Transport Support Flight), to be known as "Wallaby Airlines", arrives at Vung Tau and is to operate throughout South Vietnam.The flight is to have 7 aircraft by May 1965. "In the first 4.5 yrs of operation in SVN the seven caribous would carry nearly 27,000 tonnes of freight, 3,750 tonnes of mail, 337,463 passengers and fly 47,307 sorties in 27,663 hours of flying."
11 - President Johnson signs the South East Asia(Gulf of Tonkin)Resolution giving him power to take any action he deems necessary.
SEPTEMBER
10 September 1964: Senator Wayne Morse: Is it presently contemplated as you survey the problems of the next 6 to 12 months that it will be necessary to send additional military personnel to South Vietnam? Gen. Maxwell Taylor: No. The present authorized strength is about 20,000, which, in General Westmoreland's estimate, would last him. He foresaw no requirement beyond that in the coming year. U.S. efforts to strengthen the Government of South Vietnam, September 11-October 31
19 - Montagnard tribesmen in SVN's Central Highlands attempt to secede in order to create an autonomous state free from discrimination from their lowland neighbors. A battle is averted by US Advisors.
3 more Caribous aircraft join the RAAF flight at Vung Tau, now totalling 6 aircraft.


A seventh aircraft is added in May 1965.
OCTOBER
The Montagnard Problem. The Rhade revolt of 20 September and the continuing possibility of further and more general uprisings by the Montagnards pose an immediate and very serious problem for the GVN. The Montagnards have a violent dislike for and distrust of the lowland Vietnamese, and have sought autonomy for years. The Vietnamese on their part look down on the Montagnards; until recently, the GVN has usually acted in a manner which has widened rather then lessened the breach between the two. The problem has been further compounded by constant and rather intensive Viet Cong political and psychological agitation among the Montagnards, playing on their aspirations and their dislike of the ethnic Vietnamese. Resentment over the killing of some 70 Vietnamese by tribesmen during their revolt will make it extremely difficult for the GVN to offer settlement terms acceptable to the Montagnards. Thus, there will probably be continuing disorders in the Highland areas, diminishing cooperation with the GVN, and increasing Viet Cong influence.
NOVEMBER
1 - Tran Van Huong becomes the Premier of South Vietnam. "(1903). Prime Minister, South Vietnam, 1964-65 and 1968-69. Vice President, 1971-75.

President 21-28 April 1975."
Two days before the U.S. presidential election, Vietcong mortars shell Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. Four Americans are killed, 76 wounded. Five B-57 bombers are destroyed, and 15 are damaged.
A preplanned reprisal air strike against North Vietnam was not authorized. Similarly, the President denied permission for a retaliatory air strike when the enemy sabotaged the American Bachelor Officers' Quarters in Saigon's Brink Hotel on Christmas Eve. Over one hundred Americans, Australians, and Vietnamese were injured and two Americans were killed. In each of these instances, major Seventh Fleet units had sortied into the South China Sea prepared to launch air strikes, evacuate American dependents in danger, or take any number of contingent actions.
4 - President Johnson is returned to power by 61% of the vote.
10 - The Australian Government introduces selective National Service , for 20 yr olds.
DECEMBER
4 - Meeting in Washington between US Assistant Secretary of State William Bundy and Australian and New Zealand Ambassadors to discuss a proposal to send combat troops.
17 - Prime Minister Menzies tells President Johnson.
"Australia is anxious to do "everything in it's power" to be helpful"
While US naval forces prepared for extended combat, the Johnson administration reinvigorated its program to dissuade the North Vietnamese from supporting insurgency in Southeast Asia and chose Laos as the locus of this effort.

As part of this renewed campaign, on 17 December 1964 A-1H Skyraiders escorted by McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantoms and followed by RF-8A photo reconnaissance aircraft from Ranger (CVA 61)) conducted the Navy's first armed reconnaissance mission over eastern Laos. In this joint Navy-Air Force program, named Barrel Roll, American aircraft flew over likely infiltration routes and attacked Communist supply vehicles or other targets of opportunity. If none was sighted, the flight was authorized to strike preselected storage buildings, antiaircraft emplacements, and related facilities of a military nature. The military objective, however, was considered secondary to the political one of sending Hanoi a message of U.S. determination to prevail in Southeast Asia
31 - US strength is now 23,000. US KIA 225. Viet Cong strength estimated at 34,000
VIETNAM (From a memo by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff discussing widening the war in Vietnam - January 22, 1964)
 SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET
1. National Security Action Memorandum NO. 273 makes clear the resolve of the President to ensure victory over the externally directed and supported communist insurgency in South Vietnam. In order to achieve that victory, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are of the opinion that the United States must be prepared to put aside many of the self imposed restrictions which new limit our efforts and to undertake boulder actions which may embody greater risks.
2. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are increasingly mindful that our fortunes in South Vietnam are an accurate barometer of our fortunes in all of South East Asia. It is our view that if the U.S. succeeded in South Vietnam. It will go far toward stabilizing the total South East Asia situation. Conversavely a loss of South Vietnam to the communists will presage an early erosion of the remainder of our position in that subcontinent.
3. Laos, existing on a most fragile foundation new, would not be able to ensure the establishment of a communist-or pseudo neutralist - state on it's eastern flank. Thailand, less strong today than a month ago by virtue of the loss of Prime Minister Sarit, would probably be unable to withstand the pressures of infiltration from the north should Laos collapse to the communists in its turn. Cambodia apparently has estimated the actions of the French, appears already to be seeking an accommodation with the communist in its turn. Cambodia apparently has estimated that our prospects in South Vietnam are not promising and , encouraged by the actions of the French, appears already to be seeking an accommodation with the communists. Should we actually suffer defeat in South Vietnam, there is little reason to believe that Cambodia would maintain even a pretense of neutrality.
4. In a broader sense of failure of our programs in South Vietnam would have a heavy influence on the judgement of Burma, India, Indoneasia, Malysia, Japan, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of the Phillipines with respect to U.S. durability, resolution and trustworthiness. Finally this being the first real test of our determination to defeat the communist wars of national liberation formula, it is not unreasonable to conclude that there would be a corresponding unfavorable effect upon our image in Africa and in Latin America.
ANNEX - PLAN ACTION FOR SOUTH VIETNAM
10% - to avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor)
20% - to keep SVN and the adjacent territory from Chinese hands
10% - to permit the people of SVN to enjoy a better, freer way of life. Also - to emerge from the crisis without unacceptable taint from methods used. Not - to help a friend, although it would be hard to stay if we were asked out.mSaigon is making little progress; the Delta stays bad; the country has been severed in the north. GVN control is shrinking to the enclaves, some burdened with refugees. In Saigon we have a remission; Quat (a local political leader) is giving hope on the civilian side, the Buddhists have calmed, and the split generals are in uneasy equilibrium. The preliminary question: CAN THE SITUATION IN SVN BE BOTTOMED OUT ? without extreme measures again the DRV (North Vietnamese) and or b) without deployment of large numbers of U.S. and other combat troops inside SVN?
The answer is perhaps but PROBABLY NO.
MAJOR OPTIONS CONSIDERED STRIKES ON THE NORTH (A program of progressive military pressure) a) Purposes:

PROGRAM OF LARGE US. GROUND EFFORT IN SVN AND SEA
a) Purposes
RI SKS:

IMPORTANT MISCELLANY: There are no obvious circuit breakers. Once U.S. troops are in, it will be difficult to withdraw them or to move them, say to Thailand without admitting defeat.
Australian Government Office Bearers - 1964 Prime Minister
19 December 1949 - 26 January 1966 Sir Robert Gordon Menzies Minsiter for External Affairs
24April 1964 - 11 Febraury 1969 Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck Minister of Defence
24 April 1964 - 19 January 1966 Sir Shane Dunne Paltridge
Ambassadors United States 18 August 1964 - 1 June 1970 Sir John Keith Waller
Saigon 1 March 1964 - 7 July 1966 Harold David Anderson

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