Okla-homey
2/9/2007, 07:24 AM
Feb 9, 1965 : U.S. sends first conventional combat troops to South Vietnam
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/11296/2003127871820485536_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003127871820485536)
Newly arrived Marine air defense battalion member deployed to Da Nang in 1965. Looks happy don't he?
Forty-two years ago today, A U.S. Marine Corps HAWK* air defense missile battalion is deployed to Da Nang in the Republic of Vietnam. President Johnson had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key airbase there which was threatened by the increasingly capable North Vietnamese Air Force which was operating Soviet designed fighter and strike aircraft.
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/9946/2002031482529025185_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002031482529025185)
LBJ
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/11370/2003181310658025049_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003181310658025049)
This was the first commitment of conventional American combat troops in South Vietnam. JFK had deployed special forces advisors to bolster ARVN forces but this was the first time ordinary "Joes" were deployed to the war-torn area.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/8596/2003159525599775556_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003159525599775556)
There was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war. Predictably, both communist China and the Soviet Union threatened to intervene if the United States continued to apply its military might on behalf of the South Vietnamese.
In the wake of LBJ's ordered deployment of American SAMs, some 2,000 demonstrators, led by Vietnamese and Chinese students and clearly supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/9854/2002038504132223136_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002038504132223136)
US Embassy - Moscow
Britain and Australia supported the U.S. action. France, which had left Vietnam in disgust after having their Gallic rear-ends handed to them by Ho Chi Minh's communist fighters predictably called for negotiations.
*HAWK: "Homing All The Way Killer." Catchy name for a radar guided semi-active surface to air missile system IMHO. For the record, they never had to fire a shot in anger in Vietnam because Big Blue and the Brown Shoe navy never allowed Charlie to fly that far south.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/10417/2002089167210913093_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002089167210913093)
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/10417/2002060670497193685_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002060670497193685)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/11968/2003142164746044318_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003142164746044318)
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/11296/2003127871820485536_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003127871820485536)
Newly arrived Marine air defense battalion member deployed to Da Nang in 1965. Looks happy don't he?
Forty-two years ago today, A U.S. Marine Corps HAWK* air defense missile battalion is deployed to Da Nang in the Republic of Vietnam. President Johnson had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key airbase there which was threatened by the increasingly capable North Vietnamese Air Force which was operating Soviet designed fighter and strike aircraft.
http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/9946/2002031482529025185_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002031482529025185)
LBJ
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/11370/2003181310658025049_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003181310658025049)
This was the first commitment of conventional American combat troops in South Vietnam. JFK had deployed special forces advisors to bolster ARVN forces but this was the first time ordinary "Joes" were deployed to the war-torn area.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/8596/2003159525599775556_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003159525599775556)
There was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war. Predictably, both communist China and the Soviet Union threatened to intervene if the United States continued to apply its military might on behalf of the South Vietnamese.
In the wake of LBJ's ordered deployment of American SAMs, some 2,000 demonstrators, led by Vietnamese and Chinese students and clearly supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/9854/2002038504132223136_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002038504132223136)
US Embassy - Moscow
Britain and Australia supported the U.S. action. France, which had left Vietnam in disgust after having their Gallic rear-ends handed to them by Ho Chi Minh's communist fighters predictably called for negotiations.
*HAWK: "Homing All The Way Killer." Catchy name for a radar guided semi-active surface to air missile system IMHO. For the record, they never had to fire a shot in anger in Vietnam because Big Blue and the Brown Shoe navy never allowed Charlie to fly that far south.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/10417/2002089167210913093_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002089167210913093)
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/10417/2002060670497193685_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002060670497193685)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/11968/2003142164746044318_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003142164746044318)