CHAPTER 12
Flexible Response
General Westmoreland has the authority to use the American forces that are now in Viet-Nam in the way which he considers most effective to resist the Communist aggression and the terror that is taking place. … I have ordered … American troops ashore in order to give protection to hundreds of Americans who are still in the Dominican Republic. … Over the past 15 months the North Koreans have pursued a stepped-up campaign of violence against South Korean and the American troops. … We are taking certain precautionary measures to make sure that our military forces are prepared for any contingency that might arise.
President Lyndon B. Johnson[1]
President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the first American combat units to the Republic of Vietnam in 1965, After the French abandoned Indochina, the 1954 Geneva Accords created two Vietnams, South and North, using the 17th Parallel as the demarcation line. Almost immediately the Army began advising the South Vietnamese Army, and over the next decade the armed conflict between North and South Vietnam slowly escalated, finally leading to the direct participation of U.S. Army divisions and brigades and the use of the tailoring principles embodied in ROAD. In addition, Army divisions continued to stand vigilant in Europe and Korea against Communist aggression and restored order in the Dominican Republic following a period of political unrest.
The Buildup of the Army
In May 1965 President Johnson committed Regular Army combat units to South Vietnam to halt North Vietnamese incursions and suppress National Liberation Front insurgents, The 173d Airborne Brigade from Okinawa was the Army's first combined arms unit to arrive in Southeast Asia. In July the 2d Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, and the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, also deployed from the United States. The brigade from the 101st was originally planned to replace the 173d Airborne Brigade but, with the need for additional combat units, both brigades remained in Vietnam, Two months later the 1st Cavalry Division, recently reorganized as an airmobile unit, reported in country, and the remainder of the 1st Infantry Division arrived in October.[2]
As the Army responded to its new mission, divisions were reorganized using ROADS tailoring concepts, Before the 1st Infantry Division deployed, it had field-
- ↑ Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Lyndon B, Johnson, 1965 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966), pp. 461, 736; 1969, p. 77.
- ↑ Johnson, Public Papers, 1965, p. 495; U. S. G. Sharp and W. C. Westmoreland, Report an the War in Vietnam: 1964–1968 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969), pp. 275–76: Hermes, "Vietnam Buildup," ch. 5, pp. 34–38.
