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
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