CIA activities in Vietnam the next 14 years, the focus of their paramilitary operations changed over time. Until 1964, the Hmong fighters in Laos focused on trying to fight back North Vietnamese fighters and on preventing further encroachment. They were highly important, because the US hadn't begun putting troops on the ground in any great numbers, yet. After that, in 1965, the report describes the Hmong activities in Laos as "flitt[ing] over mountain trails or mov[ing] by air to occupy key high ground and to harass Hanoi's tanks and artillery," meaning that US troops took on a frontline role and asked the paramilitary forces
1947–50 in the Vietnam War communist activity was coordinated worldwide. Thus, the attack on South Korea caused the U.S. to become more concerned about the Việt Minh insurgency in Vietnam. Việt Minh forces were estimated to have grown to 250,000 personnel, including 120,000 in regular units organized into divisions. The remaining troops were regional and popular and primarily concerned with defense and security. An estimated 15,000 Chinese, in both Vietnam and China, assisted the Việt Minh with training, technicians, and advisers. The French had about 150,000 soldiers in Vietnam. The pro-French Vietnamese army numbered about 16,000 The first U.S. military advisers to Vietnam arrived in