Recently declassified study written in January 1972. Describes the many problems which faced the first air controllers after their arrival in South Vietnam in early 1962. He discusses their efforts to overcome the language barrier and help train Vietnamese Air Force personnel, their role in establishing a centralized air control system, and the tactics and techniques they developed during the years prior to President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision in 1965 to dispatch large U. S. ground forces to Southeast Asia to help thwart the attempted conquest of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese.