Page:Allied Participation in Vietnam.pdf/26

 12

from Washington indicated a strong desire to accelerate deployments. Taylor's response was twofold: he asked first that the decision to send a U.S. brigade to Bien Hoa or Vung Tau be held in abeyance and that the matter be brought up at the Honolulu Conference scheduled later in April; and second, in a separate message, he suggested the kind of instructions and rationale Washington should provide for him to present to the Vietnam government in order to further the new U.S. policy of actually seeking Free World ground combat forces.

Taylor reasoned that in spite of the evidence of U.S.-Vietnam success it had become increasingly clear that the U.S. objective of forcing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to cease its support of the Viet Cong insurgency "cannot be attained in an acceptable time frame by the methods presently employed." The Joint Chiefs, therefore, after assessing the manpower situation and concluding that the Army of the Republic of Vietnam would have insufficient manpower to master the situation even with mobilization in the foreseeable future, believed that the equivalent of twenty new battalions was needed to prevent the war from dragging "into 1966 and beyond." The government of the United States had accepted the validity of this reasoning and offered to help the Vietnam government raise these forces, stated Taylor, "provided we can get a reasonable degree of participation from other third countries. If the GVN will make urgent representation to them, we believe, it will be entirely possible to obtain the following contributions: Korea, one regimental combat team; Australia, one infantry battalion; New Zealand, one battery and one company of tanks; Philippine Islands, one battalion." The United States would provide necessary logistic and combat support. Taylor concluded that such arguments would, when presented to the Vietnam government, give him the means of getting South Vietnam to resolve the question of Free World support.

The points raised by Taylor were resolved at the Honolulu Conference of 20 April 1965 at which time the deployment of one Australian battalion at Vung Tau and one Korean regimental combat team (three battalions) at Quang Ngai was approved. The instructions Taylor proposed as the basis for raising the issue of Free World forces were accepted verbatim. These instructions noted inc losing that "you [Taylor] will seek the concurrence of the GVN to the foregoing program, recognizing that a large number of questions such as command relationships, concepts of employment and disposition of forces must be worked out subsequently."