Timeline, January 23rd
SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
January 23, 1964 (9th day of the 12th month, Year of the Hare) (US Advisory): A helicopter is lost, though crew is safe, while air-lifting a howitzer from Ca Mau to Cai Nouc.
January 23, 1968 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat)(US Counteroffensive Phase III): Operation Badger Catch starts in Quang Tri Province along the banks of the Song Cua Viet near My Loc.
January 23, 1968 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat)(US Counteroffensive Phase III): North Korea seizes the U.S.S. Pueblo. LBJ reacts by sending 26 more B-52s to the Pacific -- 15 to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and 11 to Guam -- where B52s used in Operation Arc Light in Vietnam are already based. The new Kadena-based B-52s soon join the Khe Sanh support effort.
January 23, 1968 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat)(US Counteroffensive Phase III): Khe Sanh: A large number of tribesmen and their families are evacuated from the area over the next five days. Operation Niagara continues with attacks by Air Force, Navy, and Marine tactical aircraft, including the Navy's A-4 and A-4M Skyhawks and the USAF's F-105 "Thud" Thunderchiefs, starting this date in addition to the ongoing B-25 strikes against enemy targets. Within a week, more than 3200 sorties will have been flown, more than 200 of them by B-52s. As well, helicopters, like the Marines' "Frog" (the CH-46 Sea Knight), and cargo aircraft are flying into the base virtually every few minutes with supplies, especially ammo, but the weather is starting to turn worse, making the FACs job difficult indeed.
The NVA artillery barrage and anti-aircraft fire continue and NVA troops move forward to begin building a network of entrenched positions for further assaults on Khe Sanh's outer defenses.
Meanwhile, while everyone watches the battle at Khe Sanh unfold, in the rest of the country, NVA and VC regulars are drifting into Saigon, Hue, and most of South Vietnam's cities in twos and threes, disguised as refugees, peasants, workers, and ARVN soldiers on holiday leave. In Saigon, roughly the equivalent of five battalions of NVA/VC gradually infiltrate the city without anyone informing or any of the countless security police taking undue notice. Weapons arrive separately in flower carts, jury-rigged coffins, and trucks apparently filled with vegetables and rice.
January 23, 1968 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat)(US Counteroffensive Phase III): 7 RAR and 2 RAR move to the Bien Hoa area in "expectation of an attack". 3 RAR is left to defend Phuoc Tuy Province.
January 23, 1968 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat)(US Counteroffensive Phase III): Operation Barton starts in Binh Dinh Province.
January 23, 1973 (20th day of the 12th month, Year of the Rat) (US Cease-Fire): Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho initial the Paris peace agreement. President Nixon makes a radio/television speech that evening to tell the nation that "we today have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia."
At this time, North Vietnam has some 220,000 NVA troops in the south (the VC having ceased to exist as an effective force after the 1968 Tet offensive), comprising 15 infantry divisions and many independent infantry, sapper, artillery, armor, anti-aircraft regiments, the rear service and other units. Five divisions (304, 312, 320B, 324B and 325) are north of the Hai Van Pass in Military Region 1 and two are south (711 and 2nd). In Military Region 2, there are three divisions (3rd, 10th, and 320); in Military Region 3 there are two (7th and 9th); and in Military Region 4, there are three (1st, 5th and 6th). Other divisions are in the north and Laos. The new accords do not require the north to withdraw its troops from South Vietnam, which has 220,000 men in 13 ARVN divisions as well as some 300,000+ available in the Popular and Regional Forces, which have been entrusted with arms since 1969.
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