Timeline, December 3rd

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
December 3, 1946 (Year of the Dog [Binh Tuat]): Jean Sainteny meets with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi without result.

December 3, 1952 (Year of the Dragon [Nham Thin]): The Viet Minh give up the attack on Na San and withdraw.

December 1953 (Year of the Snake [Quy Ti]): Operation Castor update: French radio intelligence intercepts messages showing that the Viet Minh are shifting key elements, including the 308 and 312 Divisions and the 351 Heavy Division, from staging areas in the Phu Tho/Yen Bay/Thai Nguyen area toward the northwestern mountain areas. One of the messages is an order for Communist engineers to build bridges across the Black River and to prepare ferry facilities across the Red River at Yen Bay for 6000 troops per night as of December 3. As soon as this information is confirmed, Gen. Cogny suggests a diversion into the base area to slow down the build-up around Dien Bien Phu, but Gen. Navarre doesn't support such a move.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR - OTHER:
December 3, 1950 (Year of the Tiger [Canh Dan]): In Korea, Lt. Colonel Raymond G. Davis earns the Medal of Honor by leading the 1/7th Marines in the rescue of a Marine rifle company that is under attack in the Toktong Pass. His actions save the rifle company from total annihilation and enable two Marine regiments to escape destruction, and for this he is given the Medal of Honor.

As a major general in Vietnam, Davis will institute aggressive high-mobility methods of combat, and in 1971 he will get his fourth star and become assistant commandant of the US Marine Corps. Described in 2000 as the most decorated living American serviceman (in addition to the MOH, Davis was awarded the Navy Cross in World War II, two Distinguished Service Medals, two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merit awards, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and five Presidential Unit Citations), he will explain why he "join[s] those who proclaim 'No more Vietnams,' but for different reasons than most."

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
December 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan suu]): US Seventh Fleet and Vietnamese Navy units begin combined surface and air patrol operations from the 17th parallel eastward to the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands. The stated purpose of the operations is to train the South Vietnamese naval forces in open-sea deployments and to determine the extent of waterborne infiltration of munitions from North Vietnam. Martin SP-5B Marlin seaplanes based on Taiwan accompany the units, as well as five minesweepers of US Minesweeping Division 73 for the first patrols; destroyer escort ships soon relieve the minesweepers on patrol. It has been only a little over three years since the US and Communist China were eyeball to eyeball in the Quemoy-Matsu crisis of 1958.

December 3, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): A/7/17th Cavalry cordons and searches Buon Ya Soup.

December 3, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): HMAS Perth comes under fire in the Bay of Brandon.

December 3, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase VI): Operation Meade River update: With one company of the 3/25th isolating the Hook and the rest of the battalion on Phase Line Charlie, the 3/26th advances from Route 4 to Phase Line Bravo to continue the attack.

December 3, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase VI): Operation Toan Thang II (or possibly Sheridan Sabre) update: Company D, 2/7th Cavalry is ambushed at LZ Eleanor in Binh Long Province by an estimated 400-man enemy force.

December 3, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Winter-Spring 1970): Battles at Bu Prang and Duc Lap update: The Panthers are sent to nearby Ban Me Thuot to provide ongoing day-to-day support.

December 1971 Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]) (US Consolidation I): Early in the month, the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff sends warnings to military region commanders, advising them to be prepared for a major enemy attack during early 1972. But earlier warnings have been issued about other possible enemy offensives elsewhere that never happened; as well, many people, who are unaware of the intelligence from numerous sources on NVA troop movements southward and a major increase in logistic traffic near the DMZ, now feel that North Vietnam will not launch a major offensive until after the US withdraws most, if not all of its troops, by 1973 as planned. No major preparations are begun.

December 3, 1973 (Year of the Ox [Quy Suu]): The Viet Cong destroy 18 million gallons of fuel stored near Saigon.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
December 3, 1978 (Year of the Horse [Mau Ngo]): Vietnam announces the establishment of the "Kampuchea National United Front for National Salvation" (KNUFNS) - a guerrilla organization similar to the Viet Cong, to fight the Phnom Penh regime. It is the first Communist insurgency ever to try to overthrow a Communist government. The Front will be led by Heng Samrin, a former commissar in the Khmer Rouge, and Chea Sim, who had held a number of political posts; both men broke with Pol Pot in May 1978.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

3 Dec 68 Delta Co 2/7th Cav is put in the wrong place which is in the middle of a 400 man enemy force, the location of which was known before the CA. There are something like 13 soldiers left standing . The next day they put C Co 2/7th in the same spot. They only lost half their men. The next day they put in B Co They only lose about 1/3 their men. The next day they sent in A Co and they only lost about 20 men. I helped treat the wounded and bag the bodies every day. Most of D Co's men had been severely burned because after they were wounded and immobile the grass caught fire and burned them alive. Some of the living told us they had been hit by NVA flamethrowers. The whole episode was either a terrible mistake (four days in a row) or the most cynical attempt to run up the enemy body count I have ever heard of. Oh yeah, this was the Battalion Co's second day on the job and the day before III Corps Commander had chewed out the CG of the 1st Cav that they were not getting a high enough body count. It is in the book "Incursion".