Timeline, February 8th

[David]

February 1951 (late Year of the Tiger [Canh Dan]/early Year of the Hare [Tan Mao]): Indochinese Communist Party dissolves and separate parties are established in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. (OS)

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
February 8, 1962 (4th day of the 1st month, Year of the Tiger [Nham Dan]): The US Joint Chiefs of Staff establish the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), in Saigon under Gen. Paul Harkins until June 1964, then under Gen. Westmoreland until 1968, then under the command of Gen. Creighton Abrams into 1972, and finally under Gen. Frederick Weyand, who was its Commander from 1972-1973.

At the start, MACV moves more and more into the advisory effort formerly directed by MAAG and, in May 1964, MAAG is disestablished, and MACV takes direct control. As the senior Army commander in South Vietnam, the MACV commander also commands Army support units; for day-to-day operations, however, control of such units is vested in the corps and division senior advisers. The U.S. Army Support Group, Vietnam (later the U.S. Army Support Command), which was established in mid-1962, provides administrative and logistical support.

Upon release of the last American prisoners from Hanoi in 1972, the headquarters is moved to Nakhon Phanom in north Thailand, and is designated Headquarters, US Support Activities Group, leaving only a largely civilian-manned Defense Attache Office in Saigon after that to administer American military aid and give technical assistance. (TVW, OS)

February 1965 (1st month, Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Advisory): As Operation Flaming Dart continues, LBJ orders all civilian families out of South Vietnam. (TVW, IWC)

February 8, 1966 (19th day of the 1st month, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): Operation Double Eagle update.

February 8, 1967 (29th day of the 12th month, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): 6 RAR begins Operation Beechmont. (Sunraysia)

February 8, 1968 (11th day of the 1st month, Year of the Monkey {Mau Than])(US Tet Counteroffensive): Tet-68 update.

February 8, 1968 (11th day of the 1st month, Year of the Monkey {Mau Than])(US Tet Counteroffensive): Khe Sanh: Some 3,000 indigenous personnel, both military and civilian, from Lang Vei move overland to Khe Sanh. After being searched and processed, several hundred refugees are air evacuated.

While Marines at the main 1st Battalion, 9th Marines position are pinned down by mortar and artillery fire, A/1/9 combat outpost 500 meters west of 1/9 perimeter is hit and partially overrun by a reinforced NVA battalion. For three hours, the enemy blasts holes in the barbed-wire barrier or crosses it over heavy mats carried into the assault, and sappers blast Marine bunkers with satchel-charges and grenades, gaining about 50% of the outpost, but reinforcements advance behind air strikes and fire from M48 Patton tanks, and successfully drive the NVA from Marine positions, and with the aid of supporting arms kill 150 NVA; Col Lownds decides to abandon outpost and units withdraw to 1/9 perimeter. 27 Marines from A/1/9 die in battle.

In other areas of the battle zone, in spite of air attacks and shelling, enemy forces are still moving anti-aircraft guns into position. (KSVC, TVW)

February 8, 1971 (13th day of the 1st month, Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]) (US Counteroffensive Phase VII): Phase II of Operation Lam Son 719 begins at 1000, when tanks and APCs of the ARVN 1st Armored Brigade cross the frontier into Laos. Total numbers in the US portion, Operation Dewey Canyon II, include some 10,000 men, 2000 fixed-wing aircraft and 600 helicopters, but due to recent congressional restrictions, only the aircraft are allowed to cross the border in close support of the South Vietnamese.

North of Highway 9, the South Vietnamese Airborne Division and Ranger Group establish two hilltop fire bases while, south of the Xe Pon River, ARVN 1st Infantry Division sets up two fire bases atop the escarpment. In 24 hours, ARVN forces are about halfway to their objective, the town of Tchepone, in Laos, but their progress is about to be slowed considerably. After determining that the advance isn't merely a diversion for an invasion of North Vietnam or Cambodia, the North Vietnamese commander throws the 70B Corps into a counteroffensive, including three divisions attacking from the north to hit ARVN's Airborne and Ranger bases with artillery, sapper assaults and infantry attacks. In addition, tanks and infantry stand between ARVN forces and Tchepone.(TVW, OS)

February 8, 1972 (24th day of the 12th month, Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]): The US-equipped Cambodian army, still recovering from the disastrous operation that had failed to break the Communist hold over central Cambodia, is pushed back by an enemy counteroffensive as it heads toward the historic ruins of Angkor Wat to try to encircle them and cut off supplies to the Communist occupiers there (NVA troops in Cambodia at this time number almost 17,000, and they have been supporting and training the Khmer Rouge, but Hanoi is in the midst of redeploying the bulk of its 1, 5, 7 and 9 Divisions toward South Vietnam to be used in an upcoming major offensive). Airstrikes beat back the attack, and the Cambodian army continues its slow advance. (OS)