Today in History – April 24, 1967 – Westmoreland announces Vietnam War can’t be won with US political support

24 April 1967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that US political atmosphere may give the north hope they could win a war politically that they could not win militarily.

President Lyndon Johnson chose William Westmoreland, a distinguished veteran of World War II and the Korean War, to command the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam (MACV) in June 1964. Over the next four years, the general directed much of U.S. military strategy during the Vietnam War, spearheading the buildup of American troops in the region from 16,000 to more than 500,000. His strategy of attrition aimed to inflict heavy losses on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces using superior U.S. firepower but resulted in a costly stalemate by late 1967.(2)

24 April 1943 The first class of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, Class 43-1, graduated from the four-month flight training program and earned their wings as U.S. Army pilots. The class entered with 38 trainees and 24 graduated. Each woman had a civil pilot’s license and at least 200 hours of flight time. Over 25,000 women applied and approximately 1,900 were accepted. By the end of the war, 1,074 had graduated. (3)

 

 

(1) Wikipedia

(2) https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/william-westmoreland

(3) This Day in Aviation History by Brian R. Swopes https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/24-april-1943/

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