Kennedy had some 15,000 advisers in South Vietnam, my father being one of them. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident in the summer of 1964 was the excuse for sending the first American combat units, 3,500 Marines landing at Da Nang in March 1965.
So sad...so many wasted young lives. We did not belong there...it was not in our national interests. One of my neighbors poured out his soul to me one day. He had been a Green Beret over there. He told me how he had to torture women, with electric shock to their nipples! Yes, I was speechless...this beautiful family next door...a gracious wife and three lovely young daughters. What was I supposed to say? All’s fair in love and war?