kennedy

kennedy and diem

military solutions

800 military advisers in SV
stepped up the financial aid to diem to enable him to increase his army
emphasised counter-insurgency - green berets co-operated with the ARVN in these efforts.

increased military involvement

military adivsers numbers rose
increasing quantities of american weaponry came into SV
increased involvement in SV kept secret from US public
US provided helicopters and pilot advisers
pilot advisers - transported troops, undertook reconnaissance missions and provided fire support for ARVN units.
authorised the use of defoliants, sprayed from helicopters which stripped the trees and enabled better aerial observation.
helicopters increased the mobility of diem's troops but soon lost their shock value.

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course of events

vc force was located in ap bac (not too far from saigon)
2000 ARVN troops accompanied by 113 american personnel carriers, american-operated helicopters and bombers, and american advisers went to surround ap bac
they did not know that there was as many as 350 guerillas there.
the guerillas were keen to show that they could counter american firepower and they wanted a victory to boost morale
ARVN troops refused to attack the VC at ap bac.
5 US helicopters and 3 pilots were lost and the ARVN troops refused to mount a rescue mission

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reasons for US/ARVN failure

strengh and preparedness of vc had been unexpected
according to usa - the arvn's general cao was unwilling to fight
diem was unwilling to listen to american advice on the deployment of his troops : he feared losing too many men and preferred to use his best CIA trained soldiers to keep himself in power
americans had not helped in that they had delated the attack by a day to enable american helicopter polits to sleep off the excesses of new year's eve.

significance of ap bac

drew unprecedented attention in the US where the SV performance was unfavourably reviewed.
diem was probably militarily incapable of winning the war.

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