FMFPac changed the designation of the task element on the final day of 1964. From that date until mid-March of the following year the Marine helicopter squadron and its supporting elements in Vietnam would be known officially as Task Unit 79.3.5, Marine Unit Vietnam. This change, however, did not alter the existing command relationships. ComUSMACV continued to exercise operational control over the Marine task unit while the Commanding General, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing retained responsibility for its administrative and logistic support. CHAPTER 13 Prelude to Escalation The close of 1964 marked the end of a full decade of American political, economic, and military advice and assistance to South Vietnam. That 10-year period saw a fragile state born and begin its struggle for survival only to have its existence threatened by a new brand of Communist aggression--the “war of national liberation.” It also saw the U.S. commitment to Vietnam’s defense deepen in almost direct proportion to the increasing threat. Despite growing amounts of American aid and advice, there was little doubt that South Vietnam stood near the brink of destruction at the hands of the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allies as 1964 ended. In many respects, the disaster which befell the Vietnamese Marines and ARVN Rangers at Binh Gia on the final day of 1964 marked a critical turning point in the war being waged in South Vietnam. General Westmoreland feared that the battle heralded “the beginning of the classic and final ‘mobile’ phase of the war.” “To the South Vietnamese government,” he reported, “it meant the beginning of an intensive military challenge which the Vietnamese government could not meet within its own resources.”[13-1] Brigadier General Carl Youngdale, Westmoreland’s assistant chief of staff for intelligence and the ranking Marine assigned to Vietnam, assessed the meaning of the battle in equally distressing terms. “Binh Gia,” he explained, “was just part of the whole thing. All the reserve--the strategic reserve--was fixed: the airborne and the four Marine battalions had all been committed. There was absolutely no strategic reserve left.”[13-2] So, as 1964 ended, hope was fading rapidly among American military officials in Saigon that the ground war for South Vietnam could continue for long without more vigorous participation of the United States.