Word: westmorelands
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...disaster like the one fortnight ago at nearby Dongxoai (rhymes with wrong's why), U.S. planners in Saigon searched for a means to trap the concealed Communist troops by surprise in their jungle hideout. SAC had long been restless to get into the war, and General William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in South Viet Nam, gave SAC its wish. The big bombers would unroll a carpet of destruction, carefully tacked down by radar-controlled bombsights guaranteed to produce pinpoint accuracy. The plan was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by the Pentagon, and then forwarded...
Robert McCloskey, a State Department public information officer, told reporters that U.S. forces were prepared to give "combat support" to Vietnamese troops at the discretion of General William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in South Viet Nam. McCloskey's statement triggered an outcry that this represented a new and reckless U.S. policy...
...cast doubt on the State Department statement. As it turned out, the presidential denial was a confirmation. It said that there has been "no change" in the "primary mission" of U.S. ground troops-that of guarding such installations as the Air Force at Danang. Of course, it continued, General Westmoreland is empowered to send U.S. combat units into battle, "if help is requested" by Vietnamese commanders...
...Westmoreland has had that authority since last March, when U.S. Marines landed in Viet Nam. From the time of their arrival, the Marines have been moving through a five-stage plan geared to get them into full combat, side by side with the Vietnamese. In the first stage, they constructed a defense perimeter at Danang airbase; second, they sent out small patrols a mile or so beyond the defense line; third, they moved bigger patrols as far as five miles out, seeking to find and fight the Viet Cong; fourth, they moved out eight miles or more, accompanied by small...
Decisions to this effect came last week after a two-day Hawaii conference. On hand were Defense Secretary McNamara, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Earle Wheeler, Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific area, General William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. servicemen in South Viet Nam, U.S. Ambassador to South Viet Nam Maxwell Taylor, and a bevy of Assistant Secretaries of State and Defense...