Timeline, March 17th

[David]

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
March 17, 1964 (4th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Dragon [Giap Thin]) (US Advisory): After receiving the McNamara Report (see below), LBJ orders an increase in US aid to South Vietnam of $60 million. Promising to exchange South Vietnamese aircraft and armored vehicles for newer equipment, Johnson also tells Gen. Khanh that the US will finance a 50,000-man increase in the South Vietnamese armed forces and will provide funds for the modernization of the country's system of government and administrative techniques. Khanh, however, lacking a firm political base and hampered by a "business as usual" bureaucracy, is also less enthusiastic about long-term changes than he is for some sudden spectacular action that will unify the country behind him. He is unable to generate support for the new policy; as a result the promised mobilization never happens and the 50,000-man increase in the armed forces happens so slowly, the enemy never feels its effect. Johnson also directs the Joint Chiefs of Staff to begin planning retaliatory air raids against North Vietnam to be launched at 72 hours' notice and to draw up a program of 'graduated overt military pressures' against North Vietnam as a means of increasing the cost to Hanoi of its aggression.

March 17, 1968 (19th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): Operation Duong Cua Dan begins in IV Corps. During the operation, Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, conducts a reconnaissance-in-force operation a few kilometers south of Saigon.

March 17, 1968 (19th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): Operation Box Springs update: The 101st Airborne's Company D, 3/187th Infantry, destroys enemy fortifications and base areas and eliminates scattered resistance as it advances during its RIF operation near Phuoc Vinh.

March 17, 1968 (19th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): A/7/17 reports two NVA killed southwest of Dak To.

March 17, 1968 (19th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): In a pre-planned operation near LZ Dampier, an Australian six-man SAS patrol inserts into the Firestone Trail (an enemy infiltration and communication route in Phuoc Tuy Province, so named because the Ho Chi Minh sandals worn by the VC plying the trail are fabricated from automobile tire treads, such as the US brand Firestone Tires) and conducts a 'demolition ambush' on a VC party transporting weapons and equipment using a tractor and trailer stolen from the Courtenay Plantation. Fifteen VC are confirmed as killed.

Mark Woodruff, in "Unheralded Victory," describes the differences between American and Australian field tactics. The Aussies, he says, were heavily influenced by their recent experiences in counterguerrilla operations in Malaya and also could not afford the heavy casualties the Americans could take. "While the loss of a battalion would be a setback to the Americans, it would be a national catastrophe to Australia's small army." Therefore, the Australians patrolled constantly to find and counter the enemy, reconnoitering his positions; the Americans used patrols to invite confrontation. The Aussies were slow and methodical, avoiding trails and preferring instead to hack their way through the jungle, while the Americans preferred quick-in, quick-out methods to unsettle the enemy. They were also more lightly armed, their riflemen carrying 60 rounds of ammo compared to the 300 rounds an American infantryman carried; similarly, the Australians carried only 200 rounds of ammo for each machine gun in contrast to the standard load of 500 rounds for the Americans.

March 17, 1968 (19th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): Khe Sanh: While its artillery will fire some 158,891 rounds during the battle, at times they have too much ammo at the base and safe stowage is a problem. The decision is made to use it up rather than leave it lying around where it will pose a hazard. So, on one such day, St. Patrick's Day, the Marines fire 90 rounds of harmless green smoke projectiles onto known enemy positions.

March 17, 1969 (30th day of the 1st month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Operation Atlas Wedge begins in the Michelin rubber plantation.

March 17, 1973 (13th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Ox [Quy Suu]): A Cambodian pilot bombs the Presidential Palace in Cambodia. Lon Nol survives.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR - OTHER:
March 17, 1978 (9th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Horse [May Ngo]): The bodies of 12 missing US pilots are handed over in Hanoi as a first move in improving US-Vietnamese relations.