<p>The first open USAF military support for the French dated back to the summer of 1950, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War. A Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG) had been sent to Saigon early in July, and USAF technicians and some combat crews were also ordered to French Indochina. A detachment of maintenance and supply people was moved from the Philippines to Nha Trang airfield to work on the aging Douglas C-47 transports that the French had gathered to replace their captured German Junkers Ju 52 fleet of antiques. They worked on the C-47s from January to August 1953, and then returned. In February 1954, yet another detachment of technicians, numbering several hundred, went to Indochina.
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<p>Part of the Geneva truce agreements called for a free election in Vietnam during 1956. It was a foregone conclusion that Ho would win by a landslide in both the north and the south, and Diem didn't want to risk that. So he and his government ignored the call for elections, and they were not held. The Communists let that one pass, and began a campaign of terrorism in South Vietnam, hoping to force their way into control of the country. By mid-1959, the covert campaign had become overt; the Central Committee of the North Vietnam Workers' Party openly called for reunification of the country through armed struggle. The second war began in the south when a Viet Cong (as the southern Communist unit was named by Diem's people) guerrilla force ambushed a local army unit looking for guerrillas.
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<p>In October, the US about doubled the size of its MAAG team, and the increase included Army Special Forces personnel sent to train the Vietnamese Rangers. The first airplanes, 25 tired ex-Navy Douglas AD-6 Skyraiders, arrived in September 1960, followed by four Sikorsky H-34 helicopters in December and seven more between January and April. Many of them were soon out of action because of a lack of maintenance, or parts, or both.
