The Staley–Taylor Plan was the name of a plan to execute the "Special War" strategy of the United States during the Vietnam War. The plan was published in May 1961, named after two drafters: economist Eugene Staley of Stanford Research Institute - Stanford University and General Maxwell D. Taylor, commander of the U.S. military in Vietnam. According to the plan, it was to be implemented in four years (1961–1965). Its goal was to "pacify South Vietnam" within 18 months, thereby ensuring the Army of the Republic of Vietnam a proactive position on the battlefield in the South.
The plan included three strategic measures:
Strengthening the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, using many aircraft and tanks to quickly destroy the armed forces of the Liberation Army, using American commanders and advisors to command combat units. Maintain the city, and at the same time extinguish the revolutionary movement in the countryside by "pacifying" and establishing "strategic hamlets". Protect the maritime border, cutting off aid from the North, isolating the Viet Cong.
However, it has been thwarted since 1963 with the events of the Battle of Ấp Bắc, the 1963 South Vietnamese coup, and the "strategic hamlets" could not be implemented as originally planned. Although undeclared, the plan officially ended when U.S. Marines landed in Da Nang in March 1965 to directly engage in combat in South Vietnam.
Formation
In the 1960s, the United States implemented a policy of "flexible response", not going to war with the Soviet Union and the socialist system, but using wars below the normal level to deal with the tendency to demand independence with different colors and communist identity in newly independent countries.
There was a new conception that was taking shape in the United States at the time, which was to see South Vietnam as the focal point of all American interests in Southeast Asia. Thus in 1961, American research delegations flocked to South Vietnam: U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's delegation arrived in Saigon in May 1961, the delegation of economist Dr. Eugene Staley of the Stanford Research Institute arrived in Saigon in June 1961, the delegation of Maxwell D. Taylor and Walt Whitman Rostow of the U.S. Department of Defense to South Vietnam in October 1961. The South Vietnamese outcome would be where the typical war-type pilot of the "Flexible Response" global strategy was born.
The Staley–Taylor Plan published in May 1961 consisted of three phases:
Phase 1 was implemented from mid–1961, the main goal was to pacify the South by means of strategic hamlets. Phase 2 was implemented from the beginning of 1963, restored the economy, strengthened the army, and completed the pacification. Phase 3 was implemented until the end of 1965, developing the economy, stabilizing the South and ending the war.
The opening and decisive plan is in Phase 1 with two strategic measures:
Quickly increase the force and combat ability of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam; it was the backbone of the war according to the formula: ARVN + American weapons and equipment + American advisers. Implement the strategic hamlet national policy. That is both a basic goal, a strategic measure, and an immediate and long-term plan to win the war in Vietnam.
The content of the plan is to pacify the situation in the South after the co-initiation event within 18 months. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, with the help of American military advisers, weapons aid, and military firepower will assume the role of controlling South Vietnam. Strategic hamlets were set up to manage the people, prevent them from being in contact with the NLF, thereby isolating the Liberation Army support from the peasantry.
On October 18, 1961, the U.S. Government sent Taylor and Rostow, two members of the National Security Council, to lead a delegation of military and civilian experts to South Vietnam to study and reassess the specific situation and draw conclusions on the spot and propose countermeasures. The delegation proposed three options of action for the U.S. as follows:
Bringing into South Vietnam three divisions of American troops to defeat the Viet Cong. Symbolize some American combat troops "for the purpose of establishing the U.S. presence in South Vietnam" to lift the morale of the army and the Saigon government, which is falling sharply, and also to create favorable conditions for reinforcement of American troops when needed. Increase aid, weapons, war equipment and step up training for Saigon's armed forces to improve its combat power.
On November 3, 1961, Taylor's delegation sent to Washington the above report, which recommended a series of urgent measures to save the situation: