

At the same time, they intended to make the cost of continued military action increasingly prohibitive for the Communists. leaders concluded that a rebuilding program would succeed only behind a shield of American military power. But in a departure from previous assumptions, U.S. The regular and paramilitary units were especially in need of increased American assistance. Since the year-long American punitive campaign failed to deter the North Vietnamese, the Johnson administration decided that a massive effort was required to strengthen the South's stand against its Communist foe. By March 1965, the government and armed forces of South Vietnam were on the verge of collapse under the weight of the enemy's political-military offensive.
