ABSTRACT
On the 26th, the White House agreed to the request of General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces in the war, for two battalions of Marines to guard the air base at Danang, thus introducing the first US ground troops to the war. On 2 March, more than one hundred American planes hit targets inside North Vietnam. On the 19th, US planes bombed various parts of Bindinh province in the South, the first air attack on Vietcong forces in which no South Vietnamese airmen were involved. The 'credibility' explanation won favor from many former US officials, who would often combine it with the 'help a friend' argument in explaining the reasons for intervention. Some have endorsed the position articulated by US officials at the time, that Washington fought in order to defend an ally suffering from external aggression, and that major war happened because Hanoi would not relinquish its drive to take South Vietnam by force.
