On the nineteenth, U.S. planes attacked enemy-held areas in Bindinh province in the South, the first air attack on Vietcong forces in which no South Vietnamese airmen were involved.63 The assault, carried out by waves of F-100s and B-57S, would last a week and would be expanded to targets throughout the South. On the twenty-sixth, the White House, after minimal discussion and over Maxwell Taylor’s strong objections, agreed to William Westmoreland’s request for two battalions of marines to guard the airbase at Danang, thus introducing the first U.S. ground troops to the war. Neither Congress
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