U.S. is sending Marines to South Vietnam
The White House confirms reports that at the request of South Vietnam the United States is sending two battalions of U.S.Marines for security work at the Da Nang air base which will hopefully free South Vietnamese troops for combat.On March 1 Ambassador Maxwell Taylor informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States was preparing to send 3500 U.S.
Marines to Vietnam.Three days later a formal request was submitted by the U.S.Embassy asking the South Vietnamese government to invite the United States to send the Marines.
Premier Quat a mere figurehead had to obtain approval from the real power Gen.Nguyen Van Thieu chief of the Armed Forces Council.Thieu approved but asked that the Marines be brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible.
The Marines began landing near Da Nang on March 8.
