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America Takes Over pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024
Airborne Brigade landed in Vung Tau, at the mouth of the
Saigon River. They would ~oen establish their headquar-
ters at Bien Hoa, twelve miles north of Saigon, guarding
the airfield there. At the same time, the marines were es-
tablishing their third tactical area of responsibility (TAOR)
at a newly constructed airfield in Chu Lai (see map, page
14). By the end of May approximately 20,000 American
combat troops-seven marine battalions and supporting
units and two army battalions-had swollen the ranks of
~erican forces in Vietnam to 46,500.
The troops were digging in to fight a war. But the com-
bat troops of the American armed forces represented only
the head of a body with a very long tail-the logistical sup-
port. The marines had been the first to take on a combat
role in Vietnam precisely because their tail was the short-
est. They carried what they needed with them. But as the
build-up continued throughout 1965 the logistical needs
became greater and greater, a massive problem that
commanding General William Westmoreland needed
more than a year to solve. A few statistics show the im-
mensity of the problem: By December 31, 1965, almost 1.3
million tons of dry cargo had been shipped to Vietnam
from the United States, over $35 million worth of construc-
tion had been completed, and some seventy-five million
barrels of petroleum products-gasoline, oil, and lubri-
cants (POL)-had been consumed along with fifty thou-
sand tons of ammunition. In all, one hundred six,y-five
thousand tons of cargo were reaching Vietnamese ports
and airfields each month.
Back in the United States these statistics, while unno-
ticed by many, took on real meaning for some Americans.
The workers at the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, Wis-
consin, were turning out 2.6 million canned hams for ship-
ment to the troops. From Chicago the Borg-Warner Com-
pany began sending more than seven hundred thousand
steel helmets for the army, which had procured no new
helmets since 1958. In Huntsville, Alabama, Safety First
Shoe was working on an order for 253,907 pairs of
nylon-topped jungle boots, while de Rossi & Son was ship-
ping one hundred thousand tropical raincoats from its
plant in Vineland, New Jersey. These purchases were in-
significant compared to the $58 million order placed with
Kaiser Jeep and the two hundred and fifty million dol-
lars in orders the army placed for some sixteen hundred
helicopters.
There were other ways in which the new war in Viet-
nam was impinging on an otherwise quiet American
home front. The television networks began the construction
of additional telephone lines between Vietnam and
Hawaii to facilitate increased coverage. By midsummer
all three networks had sent their first full-time correspon-
Preceding page. Soldiers from the U.S. Army 101st Airborne
Division arrive at Cam Banh Bay aboard the U.S.N.S. Gen-
eral Le Roy Eltinge in Iuly 1965.
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America Takes Over pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024