It was believed that whoever controlled the
Central Highlands of Vietnam had the upper hand. On February 7, 1965 the United States had a
presence in the Central Highlands: Camp Holloway, at Pleiku. But an
incident at Camp Holloway, on that February day, changed U.S. objectives.
Before February, 1965, the U.S. mission in South Vietnam was to advise and train the South Vietnamese military. As President Johnson described it, his shotgun had been over the mantle and his bullets in the basement for a very long time. After North Vietnamese troops
attacked Camp Holloway on February 7, killing
eight Americans, the mission
changed. (Scroll down 90%).
The call came to Cyrus Vance at 3:05 p.m. EST, February 6. (It was already February 7th in Vietnam.) In his memo (scroll down 60%) recording the events, Vance wrote:
At 1505 I received a call from the NMCC giving initial reports of Viet Cong attacks on two compounds in the vicinity of Pleiku Airfield, on the airfield at Tuy Hoa and two villages in the immediate vicinity, and on a village some 15 miles north of Nha Trang. First reports dealt principally with the Peiku area and indicated that there might be substantial U.S. casualties, both killed and wounded, and damage to U.S. aircraft. I reported the foregoing at 1509 in turn to Secretary McNamara and the President.
In addition to the eight dead soldiers, about 100 of the 180 personnel at Camp Holloway were wounded. Ten aircraft were damaged. The attack had been a surprise, and the President wondered (scroll down 50%) how it could have happened:
The President then questioned how the Viet Cong had been able to launch the attack on Pleiku and whether there was a failure of local security. This was discussed generally, it being pointed out that infiltration even into the Pleiku area is not too difficult.
The USS Ranger, meanwhile, was cruising off the coast of Vietnam. On it were
A1H aircraft. They would soon be scrambled for the first American bombing run over North Vietnam.