The Prospect of Action

Under slate-grey skies, U.S. Marine landing craft plowed through 5-ft. waves in the Bay of Danang, came to a halt with gravelly crunches, and dropped their ramps. Out poured hundreds of U.S. marines in full battle dress, with M-14 rifles held at high port. They were the vanguard of a 3,500-man force, the first marines since Korea to hit the beaches in a combat zone, and the first U.S. combat--as opposed to "advisory" --troops to arrive in South Viet Nam.

The U.S. decision to send in combat units had been weighed for weeks. Only after it became evident that the big Danang airbase in the northern tier of South Viet Nam was critically threatened, did Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recommend sending in two reinforced Marine battalions and a squadron of 24 helicopters. By then, at least twelve Viet Cong battalions--roughly 6,000 men--were in the Danang area; they launched an attack at Mieubong, only three miles away, the day before the marines landed.

President Johnson quickly approved McNamara's recommendation, and orders crackled to Seventh Fleet head quarters in Hawaii. The marines' role, said the Pentagon, was to be strictly defensive. But nobody doubted for a minute that sooner or later they would clash with the Viet Cong. And, as Secretary of State Dean Rusk crisply informed a television audience, "if they are shot at, they will shoot back."

Off That Ship. The marines were shot at once during the landing operation, when a Viet Cong rifleman hit the wing of a C-130 Hercules transport as it approached Danang with a load of marines from camps on Okinawa. But no real damage was done.

Half of the marines landed by ship. Scarcely 24 hours after the orders to move came from Washington, a Navy destroyer and four transports hove to in the foam-flecked bay half a mile off Nam O Beach north of Danang, renamed "Red Beach Two" by the marines. A dozen LVTs (landing vehicles, tracked) were lowered from the transports and nosed toward the beach carrying 1,400 men of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. For two months the marines had been floating in the South China Sea, just waiting. "When the temperature went up," said Brigadier General Frederick J. Karch, commander of the brigade, "we got closer."

First to hit the beach was Corporal Garry Parsons, who splashed onto the wet sand and sprinted 50 yards into a stand of pine trees--and a platoon of photographers. Parsons' comment was candid if not immortal. Cried he, "I'm glad to get off that damned ship!"

Girls & Frogmen. Marines are indoctrinated in boot camp that there is no such thing as a "friendly" beach, and as they dashed ashore, they were ready for anything--except perhaps the winsome welcoming committee of Vietnamese girls bearing garlands of yellow dahlias and red gladioli. Even General Karch, 47, and a very tough gent, was hard put to maintain his composure while being festooned with posies.

Peaceful as the reception was, however, nobody was taking any chances, Navy frogmen combed the beach before the marines landed. Two battalions of Vietnamese soldiers patrolled the area while rocket-armed U.S. helicopters skimmed just above the treetops. Marine security squads began digging foxholes and mortar emplacements as soon as they landed.

It took just 65 minutes to put 1,400 marines ashore with rifles, machine guns, rocket and grenade launchers. At Danang, the brigade's other battalion came in the easy way--by air from Okinawa. Both battalions came prepared for heavy combat: they had 105-mm. howitzers, M48 medium tanks, 106-mm. recoilless rifles.

Getting Some Action. Swiftly the two battalions deployed to security positions at and around Danang. Some dug in near the Marine helicopter flight line. Others pitched their two-man pup tents at the ends of Danang's 10,000-ft. runway to reinforce the inner perimeter defense. Three companies set out for the grassy hills overlooking the base, preceded by Marine engineers with a bulldozer to flatten one of the hilltops for the marines' Hawk missiles. So steep were the ridges on one of the hills that some men had to be positioned there by helicopter.

Spirits were high. "We've been ready to do this job for some time," said Karch, an Annapolis-trained veteran who had fought on Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. "There's a sense of relief at the prospect of getting some action."

With some marines dug in on hills well beyond the outer defense perimeter that stretches some 20 miles around Danang, there was every prospect of action. "Obviously," said Karch, "the Viet Cong are going to probe us. We expect them, and we are ready."

No Signs of Bodies. The Viet Cong quickly learned just how ready they were. Three times during one night, a band of a dozen or so guerrillas stealthily reconnoitered the base of Hill 327, a 1,073-ft. hump nicknamed "the hungry i" for the San Francisco nightclub and for the "I" Company marines who first occupied it. Each time, the marines detected the guerrillas with new, man-spotting radar devices that are emplaced all over the hill. Modeled after the dish-shaped radar used on airport control towers, the devices are around 5 ft. tall and are highly sensitive to movements by troops.

As soon as they picked up "pips" on their radar screens, the marines: called on a nearby howitzer battery for flare shells to illuminate the area, then swept the slope with a barrage of machine-gun and mortar fire. Though there were no signs of bodies the next morning, the marines were delighted with the radar's performance in its first combat tests. Chuckled one machine gunner: "I'll bet they wondered how we knew they were out there."

However, in one of their first joint patrols with Vietnamese rangers, the marines were slightly unnerved. "The Vietnamese seemed to know their business all right," said Lieut. Donald H. Hering, "but we were a little shook up when they started lighting cigarettes and listening to jazz on their transistors while we were patrolling."

Buzzing with Rumors.With 27,500 Americans already in Viet Nam--a 50% increase since the Tonkin Gulf crisis of August, the U.S. may well expand that force still further. After Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson wound up an eight-day tour of Viet Nam, Saigon began buzzing with rumors that a beefed-up U.S. Army division of nearly 20,000 men might be sent over to guard key bases. The fact that 6,000 marines were moved out of Hawaii last week to replace the 3,500 who landed in Viet Nam might indicate further leatherneck reinforcements at any moment.

Escalation could take other forms. Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., the U.S. commander in the Pacific, has suggested that the Seventh Fleet might help Saigon's force of 800 junks patrol coastal waters for infiltrators. A squadron of torpedo boats is on hand at Subic Bay in the Philippines for that purpose. The attack carrier Midway may soon leave the West Coast for the South China Sea, either to relieve one of the three carriers now on duty or to reinforce those already there. In the air, the U.S. has ticketed North Vietnamese targets up to Hanoi and beyond for destruction if necessary. All last week U.S. bombers flew out of Danang with South Vietnamese Skyraiders on "mystery" missions--mystery in the sense that officials refused to say whether they had been hitting Viet Cong units in South Viet Nam or bases north of the 17th parallel.

Missing Link. As far as negotiations were concerned, Washington officials made it clear that there was no point even considering them as long as North Viet Nam refused to halt its support of the guerrillas. "What is still missing is any indication--any indication from anyone--that Hanoi is prepared or willing or ready to stop doing what it is doing against its neighbors," said Lyndon Johnson at his Rose Garden press conference. Added the President: "A great friend of mine who had great responsibilities for a long period of military and executive life in our Government"--Dwight Eisenhower, perhaps?--"said to me the other day, 'When I see the suggestions about negotiations, I wonder if folks don't recognize that there must be someone to negotiate with, and there must be someone willing to negotiate.' "

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