either on a temporary or permanent basis and that furthermore the requirement had to be filled from other than MACV assets. U.S. Army, Pacific, made a counterproposal, concurred in by Department of the Army, which asked U.S. Army, Vietnam, for 335 of the 776 men required. The remaining spaces would be filled from U.S. Army, Pacific, resources outside of South Vietnam or from the continental United States. Admiral Sharp recommended adoption of the counterproposal and the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued instructions to implement the plan.
In conjunction with the deployment of the Thai volunteers, in April 1968 the Thai supreme command proposed an increase in the size of the Thai headquarters in South Vietnam from 35 to 228 men. There were several reasons for this request: the primary one was the requirement to administer a larger force. (Chart 2) The supreme command also wished to change the functioning of the Royal Thai Forces, Vietnam, from a headquarters designed to perform limited liaison to one conceived along conventional J-staff lines. The proposed organization, developed from experience and from recommendations from the Vietnam headquarters, would correct shortcomings in many areas such as security, public information, and legal and medical affairs. General Westmoreland, while agreeing in principle, still had to determine if the Military Assistance Command, Thailand, approved of the planned increase and whether the approval of the increase by the American Embassy at Bangkok and the U.S. government was necessary. The Thailand command and the embassy both concurred in the planned headquarters increase, but the diplomatic mission in Thailand did not have the authority to approve the augmentation. Military Assistance Command, Thailand, recommended to Admiral Sharp that General Westmoreland be provided with the authorization to approve a proposed table of distribution and allowances for the enlarged Thai headquarters. This authorization was given and the applicable tables were approved on 19 June 1968. The deployment of the new headquarters began with the arrival of the advance party on 1 July 1968 and was completed on 15 July.
Thai troops quickly followed. The first increment of the Thai division known as the Black Panther Division (5,700 men) arrived in South Vietnam in late July 1968 and was deployed in the Bearcat area. The second increment of 5,704 men began deployment in January 1969 and completed the move on 25 February. This increment contained the division headquarters and headquarters company (rear), the 2d Infantry Brigade of three infantry battalions, two artillery battalions, and the remainder of the
