PROJECT FARM GATE:
In parallel to the events in Laos, the situation in Vietnam was also developing in a way viewed with concern by the US government. The Geneva Accords of July 1954 had temporarily divided the country into two parts, pending free elections to be held in 1956. The bulk of the Viet Minh forces withdrew to the North during the second half of 1954 and most of the French troops left the country around the same time. As it turned out, President Diem of South Vietnam refused to hold elections, claiming that his country was not bound by the accords since it was not a signatory. There was no immediate reaction from North Vietnam, which at this time was concentrating on building up its own economy and solving its own internal problems.
In the South, there was growing dissatisfaction with the Diem government, which proved to be increasingly totalitarian and corrupt. Although the US government was at times rather less than enthusiastic about Diem, he still had their political backing. There was some sporadic guerrilla and terrorist activities in the South during 1955 1958 by stay behind communist cells, although as yet with only limited direct support from North Vietnam. But by late 1958 it was becoming apparent to the North Vietnamese that Diem's government, although weak and without popular support, was not about to collapse of its own accord. In May 1959 the Central Committee of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam therefore ratified a decision by the Politburo to intensify the campaign for reunification. This meant setting up training and guerrilla operations centers, and sending large groups of infiltrators into South Vietnam. The number of political assassinations increased dramatically during the latter part of 1959, and for the first time there were attacks on field units of the South Vietnamese Army. Finally, December 1960 saw the official creation of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam, better known as the Viet Cong.
When President Kennedy came into office in January 1961, the Vietnam war was still largely a Vietnamese conflict, with virtually no direct US involvement. The Geneva Accords specifically banned any foreign troops or bases from Vietnam, and the US government had agreed to limit its military presence to a 685 man Military Assistance Advisory Group. Under pressure from the USA as well as from the Vietnamese themselves, the French had authorized the creation of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces in 1950. These were still of moderate size when the USA took over the military training duties from France in 1955, but by 1961 the army had grown to 170,000 men, organized along US lines and using US equipment. They initially outnumbered the Viet Cong forces by a factor of ten, but despite this the war was not going well for the South.
Following the clandestine dispatch of a few hundred additional advisors and Special Forces troops to Vietnam in the spring of 1961, the US government eventually decided to commit itself openly. Not everybody believed that the fall of Vietnam to communist rule would necessarily lead to the loss of the rest of Southeast Asia, but it was nevertheless felt that the time had come to take a firmer stand. Various proposals on the suitable composition of the US forces to be sent to Vietnam were drawn up during the summer and autumn of 1961, and many of these emphasized the importance of air support. President Diem was reluctant to request US ground combat units, but he too recognized the need for tactical aviation.
The first Vietnamese air units had been set up by the French in 1951, as an integrated part of the Army. The Không Quân Viêt Nam, the Vietnamese Air Force, usually abbreviated to VNAF, was formed on 1 July 1955. It initially consisted of 58 transport and liaison aircraft, organized into five squadrons. The 1st Fighter Squadron was created in June 1956, when twenty-three Bearcats were handed over to the VNAF by the French, and for the next few years this remained the only combat unit of the young air force, although kept at full strength by additional batches 