Timeline, December 28th

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
December 1952 (Nham Thin [Year of the Dragon]): Since June, the CEFEO helicopter fleet has been expanded with eleven Westland-Sikorsky WS-51 "Dragonflies." While the helicopters can lift three casualties simultaneously, they prove to be unsuitable for local conditions, and will be replaced in the fall of 1953.

December 28, 1953 (Year of the Snake [Quy Ti]): Operation Castor update: The Dien Bien Phu garrison's chief of staff, Lt. Colonel Guth, is shot and killed by the Viet Minh while on a patrol only a few hundred yards north of one of the new strong points, Anne-Marie.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR - OTHER:
December 28, 1956 (Year of the Monkey [Binh Than]): An agreement is reached that brings the Pathet Lao's Patriotic Front (N?o lao Haksat or NLHS), which had boycotted the December 25 elections, into the new government. The "Red Prince," Souphanouvong, agrees to transfer the two northern provinces of Sam Neua and Phong Saly, which have been under Pathet Lao control since the Geneva Accords of 1954, to the Kingdom of Laos, in return for which he and another Pathet Lao member, Phoumi Vongvichit, will be admitted as cabinet ministers in the new government.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
December 28, 1964 (Year of the Dragon [Giap Thin]) (US Advisory): While representatives of General Khanh and the US meet to work out a solution to the governmental crisis in South Vietnam, the VC 9 Division seizes the Catholic village of Binh Gia east of Saigon and holds it for four days, ambushing and destroying a South Vietnamese Ranger battalion and a South Vietnamese Marine battalion, killing a total of 177 South Vietnamese soldiers and six of the Americans who accompany them. The Viet Cong leader in the battle, Duong Van Nhut, is the younger brother of the ARVN general and former head of state Duong Van Minh (Big Minh).

December 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): As Operation Market Time limits smuggling operations along South Vietnamese waterways, the North Vietnamese, with the tacit agreement of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, start to use the port of Sihanoukville for transshipment of munitions destined for the Mekong Delta. Not wanting to widen the war, President Johnson refuses to authorize any allied operation to close the port to Communist shipping.

December 28, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): C/7/17th Cavalry and elements of 2/1st Infantry screen the area of Tu Tra after a VC battalion is reported there.

December 28, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase VI): An aircraft crashes just north of Camp Coryell, killing five and injuring three.

December 28, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [At Dau]) (US Winter-Spring 1970): Lovebug 206 is downed (no other info available) - the crew is rescued.

December 1970 (Year of the Dog [Canh Tuat]) (US Counteroffensive Phase VII): General Abrams, MACV Commander, is asked to submit a plan for a preemptive strike into Laos by South Vietnamese ground forces, with US support limited to air and logistical support because of Congressional restrictions prohibiting the introduction of ground troops into Laos or Cambodia.

December 28, 1971 (Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]) (US Consolidation II): A four-man "Pike Hill" team from South Vietnam's Group 11 airborne infiltration unit at Da Nang parachutes onto the edge of the Bolovens Plateau in Laos, from which it will report on enemy logistics traffic for almost two months.