Timeline, January 9th

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
Early 1949 (Late Year of the Rat/early Year of the Ox): The Viet Minh are conducting two simultaneous campaigns against the French: 1) professional soldiers, formed into the battalions, regiments and divisions of the elite Main Force, known as Chu Luc, are holding the French to a stalemate; 2) a very successful grassroots campaign is being waged at the district and village level by Regional Troops (composed of full-time soldiers tasked with protecting bases and villages and supporting the Main Force whenever it operates in their area and generally made up of one battalion per province and one company per district) and Popular Troops (raised in every village under Viet Minh control, as well as in many nominally held by the French, in which members follow their civilian occupation until called out, at which time they undertake local offensive or defensive operations or provide men for portering). Viet Minh intelligence gathering is provided by the Quan Bao, an organization in which every man is a Party member who has passed a rigorous three-month course, and the Trinh Sat units it controls. The Trinh Sat units carry out field work, including route recon, selection of ambush sites, security, camouflage, discipline, and the collection of prisoners and weapons after an engagement.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
January 1960 (12th month, Year of the Boar/1st month, Year of the Rat): In Laos, as the Soviet and NVA airlifts to Communist insurgents in the strategic Plain of Jars continue, the US increases its aid to Phoumi Nosavan, providing aircraft to support the Royal Army's sluggish advance toward the Plain of Jars as well as Special Forces training teams to try to improve the skills of Phoumi's men; the North Vietnamese counter this by assigning VC cadres to Pathet Lao units.

Early 1962 (11th and 12th months, Year of the Ox) (US Advisory): The Chinese begin building an 8700-foot runway at Phuc Yen near Hanoi, apparently for use by jets. Vietnamese pilots are getting jet training in China and the USSR.

January 9, 1966 (18th day of the 12th month, Year of the Snake) (US Counteroffensive): The infantry conducting Operation Matador starts using company- and platoon-sized air assaults.

January 9, 1968 (10th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): 3 RAR's Operation Bordertown starts.

December 1967 to January 1968 (late Year of the Goat/early Year of the Monkey) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): At a diplomatic reception in Hanoi and at diplomatic posts elsewhere, the North Vietnamese hint that if US bombing ceased, they "*would* hold talks" -- a change from the usual "*might* hold talks"; in mid-January, Communist Romania, acting as a go-between, sends a representative to Hanoi, conveying a US offer to show its good faith by halting the bombing in the vicinity of Hanoi.

Early January 1968 (12th month, Year of the Goat/1st month, Year of the Monkey) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): US intelligence notes that elements of the NVA's 324B Division has now moved near Khe Sanh and has been joined by the 325C Division, which had been mauled at Khe Sanh the previous spring. Also in the vicinity are the 304 and 320 NVA Divisions.

January 9, 1968 (10th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): Two US Army units and one Korean Army unit see action in II Corps.

January 9, 1968 (10th day of the 12th month, Year of the Goat) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): MAG-16 HMH-463 search for a missing aircraft continues.

January 9, 1969 (21st day of the 11th month, Year of the Monkey)(US Counteroffensive Phase VI) (AR): Army Reporter describes action for 2/327th Infantry and 1/501st Infantry and other battalion soldiers on this date in I Corps.

January 9, 1970 (2nd day of the 12th month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Winter-Spring 1970): Company B, 4th Battalion, 23d Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, mounts a combat operation in Tay Ninh Province against an NVA force estimated to be battalion-sized.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
January 1979 (12th month, Year of the Horse/1st month, Year of the Goat): With Phnom Penh now in PAVN hands, a puppet Cambodian government is set up and the Vietnamese now turn to softening up other targets in Cambodia with airpower, using Mig-21s and ex-US equipment including A-37s and F-5s.