The South Vietnamese Army or the ARVN (Army of Republic of VietNam) had already been at war with the North Vietnamese and were losing drastically. The US Advisers and commanders were tired of the South Vietnamese Army's incompetency to perform successful combat operations. Eventually the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in 1964 which was taken by US as a declaration of war by the North. Later in 1965 General Westmoreland requested President Lyndon B. Johnson to bring in US troops to use in combat operations instead of the South Vietnamese Army, because the South Vietnamese Army were on a defensive against the Viet Cong guerilla fighters already and were on the verge of losing South Vietnam. Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to send in some American troops in July in belief it will stop the communist advance into South Vietnam and relieve the ARVN whos been on the defensive against the PAVN and the local Viet Cong forces. Eventually then on November 14th, the US sent troops to a large PAVN base to push the PAVN back and thus the battle happened.