Less than a month after the Honolulu conference, a new U.S. command was created in Saigon to manage the expected influx of advisors and the intensified military assistance effort more efficiently. On 8 February, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (USMACV or MACV) supplanted the MAAG as the senior American command in the Republic of Vietnam. Its commander, Army General Paul D. Harkins (ComUSMACV), assumed direct responsibility for all U.S. military policy, operations, and assistance to President Diem’s government. Harkins was directly subordinate to the Commander in Chief, Pacific, Admiral Harry D. Felt, whose headquarters was in Hawaii. The number of U.S. Marines assigned to MACV’s staff indicated that they would play an important role in its operations. In all, 21 staff billets in the new command were allocated to the Marine Corps. The most important of these was the chief of staff billet. This assignment went to Major General Richard G. Weede, a veteran who had commanded an artillery battalion during the campaigns for Saipan and Okinawa during World War II. Later, in Korea, he had distinguished himself as the commander of the 5th Marines. Weede arrived in Saigon from Hawaii where he had commanded the 1st Marine Brigade since 1959. Other Marines joined General Harkins’ command as Deputy Chief of Staff, J-2 and as branch chiefs for the J-3 through J-6 divisions. Two other positions assigned to Marine officers were the project officer for a Joint Operations Evaluation Group and a research and development project officer for a Department of Defense agency. Both of these were operationally controlled by the newly organized Military Assistance Command. [Illustration: _Major General Richard G. Weede, USMC, Chief of Staff, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. (USMC Photo A150562)._] Under the new U.S. command arrangement, the old Military Assistance Advisory Group became subordinate to General Harkins’ command. Headed by Major General Charles J. Timmes, U.S. Army, the MAAG was now responsible primarily for the advisory aspect of the assistance program. To accommodate the impending increases in the number of advisors, the MAAG’s staff was restructured. Under its new table of organization, Marine officers were to serve as deputy chief of staff and head of the plans branch of the J-3 division. Later, in 1963, the MAAG’s table of distribution would be modified with the effect that the chief of staff billet would be held by a Marine colonel. The first Marine to serve as General Timmes’ chief of staff would be Colonel Earl E. Anderson, a much-decorated aviator who eventually would become the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.