On this day 28 Febuary Vietnam

Drone_pilot

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1968 Wheeler says Westmoreland will need more troops

Gen. Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, returns from his recent round of talks with Gen. William Westmoreland in Saigon and immediately delivers a written report to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Wheeler stated that despite the heavy casualties incurred during the Tet Offensive, North Vietnam and Viet Cong forces had the initiative and were "operating with relative freedom in the countryside." The communists had pushed South Vietnamese forces back into a "defensive posture around towns and cities," seriously undermined the pacification program in many areas, and forced General Westmoreland to place half of his battalions in the still imperiled northernmost provinces, thus "stripping the rest of the country of adequate reserves" and depriving the U.S. command of "an offensive capability." To meet the new enemy threat and regain the initiative, according to Wheeler, Westmoreland would need more men: "The add-on requested totals 206,756 spaces for a new proposed ceiling of 731,756."

It was a major turning point in the war. To deny the request was to concede that the United States could impose no military solution in the conflict, but to meet it would require a call-up of reserves and vastly increased expenditures. Rather than making an immediate decision, President Johnson asked Defense Secretary Clark Clifford to conduct a thorough, high-level review of U.S. policy in Vietnam.

A disgruntled staff member in the Johnson White House leaked the Wheeler-Westmoreland proposal for additional troops. The story broke in the New York Times on March 10, 1968. With the images of the besieged U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the Tet Offensive still fresh in their minds, the press and the public immediately concluded that the extra troops must be needed because the U.S. and South Vietnamese had suffered a massive defeat.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk was subjected to 11 hours of hearings before a hostile Congress on March 11 and 12. A week later, 139 members of the House voted for a resolution that called for a complete review of Johnson's Vietnam policy. Discontent in Congress mirrored the general sentiment in the country. In March, a poll revealed that 78 percent of Americans expressed disapproval with Johnson's handling of the war.

On March 22, President Johnson scaled down Westmoreland's request and authorized 13,500 reinforcements. Shortly after, Johnson announced that Westmoreland would be brought home to be Army Chief of Staff. He was to be replaced by Gen. Creighton Abrams.
 
1969

After 288 days...Operation Nevada Eagle ends for the 101st Airborne Division
 
Jaysus, Bill. 288 days in 1 operation?! The longest time I spent in one place with the 101st was around Tuy Hoa from the end of JUL66 to the end of NOV66. During that time we had 3 seperate, named, operations. During my time with them we had a few that were 4-5 weeks; several that lasted a couple of weeks; and one that was 5 days.
 
Frisco,
There were many, many sub-operations of Nevada Eagle. I guess a better name for Nevada Eagle would have been a "campaign" to push, over time, the enemy from the populated coastal plain westward into the hills and mountains of Thua Thien Province making him withdraw into the A Shau Valley and Laos so he couldn't organize like he did for Tet 68' and then go get him there, keeping him off balance and running and for the most part it worked, for in the 101st AO, Tet 69' didn't have any attacks on cities and towns or bases like in 68', other then rockets and mortars which was common place anyway.

I posted about Op Nevada Eagle elsewhere in the Vietnam forum that I copied from the spring 1969 edition of the 101st Abn publication, "Rendezvous With Destiny."
 
Bill, thanks for clarifying. Was it the whole division involved in this, or were the brigades scattered?
 
Frisco,

At first it was just the 1st and 2nd Brigades because my brigade, the 3rd, stayed down in III Corp when the 101st moved to I Corp. When I joined my company, the 3rd was opcon to the 25th ID and before I got in country they had gone up to II Corp in the Central Highlands, opcon to the 4th ID, to help relieve preasure on the SF Camps at Dak to and then Dak Pek. Even before that, company sized units of the 3rd were down in IV Corp opcon to the 9th ID. In October 68' the 3rd made the move up to I Corp, switching places with your other unit the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Abn, (who were opcon to the 101st) and we joined the rest of the division and became part of OP Nevada Eagle.

The 3rd Brigade was just like the 1st when you guys were the only 101st unit in Nam. You were sent all over the place wherever the action was and that's what the 3rd did while under operational control of II Field Forces.
 
Thanks Bill. Doesn't sound like much changed; just happened to be 3rd Brigade's turn in the barrel o- .

Thank you for your service, Bro.
 

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