ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the year of the big change: 1965 in the Vietnamese war. The possibilities of a negotiated solution based on neutralization of Vietnam and a coalition government faded, and the Party tried hard to press its advantage by tightening its direct control over the rural population in My Tho. The dominating fact in My Tho and Vietnam was the deteriorating position of the Saigon government throughout the country, and the rapid escalation of US intervention in the conflict. A document captured in the summer of 1965 itemized the specific increases in Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN) firepower in Dinh Tuong province. The big changes of 1965 had created some serious concerns for the Party leadership. The reluctance to state unequivocally that the war was now a limited war was due to the fact that such a determination would lead logically to the conclusion that the main target should be the US forces.
