The Viet Cong launch a major offensive in the early morning hours of December 28, 1964 in the the village of Binh Gia, 40 miles southeast of Saigon. The bloody battle lasted until January 1, 1965, when Viet Cong forces abandoned the town.
Losses included an estimated 200 South Vietnamese and five U.S. advisors, plus 300 more South Vietnamese wounded or missing. Battles such this, in which the South Vietnamese suffered such heavy losses at the hands of the Viet Cong, convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson that the South Vietnamese could not defeat the communist without the commitment of U.S. ground troops to the war.
