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 CHAPTER I

The Background, 1961 - 1966

Putting the contribution of the Free World allies into proper focus requires first of all a knowledge of the negotiations leading to the commitment of allied economic and military aid, and, second, an understanding of why multilateral aid was sought. The context in which the early discussion of possible troop commitments by the United States or the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization took place indicates the assumptions of U.S. policy-makers. They considered Vietnam, like Korea, a testing ground where the Free World had to use its strength against the forceful expansion of communism. As the Korean War had been an effort of Free World allies against North Korean and Chinese Communist aggression, so they saw the Vietnam War as an allied effort against the aggression of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, who were aided by the Russians and Chinese Communists. It is not at all surprising that in the early sixties, when the nature of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam was taking shape, the idea of multilateral aid was being considered.

From the earliest discussions in 1961, Free World troop deployments were tied to and contingent upon the deployment of U.S. troops. Thus in the story of aid to South Vietnam, Free World and U.S. military assistance are intertwined and inextricable, especially in the background of the decisions to deploy troops to South Vietnam. To tell the story of Free World participation it is necessary, therefore, to refer to the background of the deployment of U.S. forces.

Throughout 1961 many possible kinds of troop deployment were considered, from unilateral U.S. intervention to a multilateral Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) force. In May an ad hoc task force appointed by Assistant Secretary of Defense Roswell L. Gilpatric recommended to the National Security Council that the United States should be prepared to fulfill its obligations under the treaty organization, unilaterally if necessary; the State Department redraft of this memorandum also supported the employment of SEATO troops in South Vietnam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff further recommended deployment of