When some of the soldiers of the U.S. 9th Marine Regiment landed in Da Nang in March 1965,
their orders were to protect the U.S. air base, but the mission was quickly escalated to
include search-and-destroy patrols of the area around the base. This corresponded in
miniature to the larger strategy of General William Westmoreland. Westmoreland,
who took over the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam (MACV) in 1964,
advocated establishing a large American force and then unleashing it in big sweeps.
His strategy was that of attrition—eliminating or wearing down the enemy by inflicting
the highest death toll possible. There were 80,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by the end of
1965; by 1969 a peak of about 543,000 troops would be reached.

"Vietnam War," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.