Note 3-B — CHAPTER 3 Vietnamese Marines and the Communist Insurgency Origins and Early Stages of Insurgency—Insurgency and the Vietnamese Marine Corps—Ancillary Effects on Marine Pacific Commands—American Decisions at the Close of 1961

A State Department publication released in 1965 placed the number of confirmed North Vietnamese infiltrators for the years 1959 and 1960 at 1,800. It also noted that an additional 2,700 North Vietnamese were estimated to have been infiltrated during this two-year period. The vast majority of these were thought to have been former residents of southern Vietnam. (Department of State, Aggression from the North, p. 33.)