[djf]

16,000 advisors. No standard US troops were dispatched till 1965.

This is one of the best timelines I've read. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1961.html

[ansel12]

Yep, JFK was moving in troops by the many thousands, more than 16,000.

At the time, after decades of playing it low key and staying out of war in Vietnam, JFK decided that we suddenly needed 16,000 “advisers”, which is a heck of a lot of advising to be throwing into a war zone.