Vietnam ground combat operations in 1965, and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000. The US also engaged in a sustained aerial bombing campaign. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers. Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail, which passed through the Kingdom of Laos. The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. Although the campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and turned US public opinion against the war. During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians
1965 in the Vietnam War revealed that Thao was a communist agent. General William Westmoreland, commander of MACV, requested that two battalions of United States Marines be assigned to protect the airbase at Da Nang from the increasing threat of attacks by the Viet Cong. General Khánh departed South Vietnam. He was persuaded to leave by his fellow generals and by Colonel Wilson of MACV. Air Marshall Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became the de facto leader of South Vietnam. The first South Korean troops arrived in South Vietnam. The number of South Korean troops in South Vietnam would total 49,755 by 1969. The U.S. paid most