January 1962 - January 12, 1962 (Friday)

January 12, 1962 (Friday)

• Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in Vietnam, began as the American pilots transported hundreds of South Vietnamese troops to fight against a Viet Cong force near Saigon. Three days later, President Kennedy told reporters at a press conference that American troops were not being used in combat.
• A spokesman for the Army of Indonesia, Colonel Soenarjo, that soldiers had begun landing on West Irian, the semi-independent western side of New Guinea that remained under the administration of the Netherlands.
• Born: Richie Richardson, Antiguan cricketer and one time captain of the West Indies cricket team; in Five Islands Village