3,500 U.S. Marines are dispatched to South Vietnam. This event marks the beginning of the American ground war against Northern Vietnam (even though American military support had been provided to South Vietnamese government, and American military “advisors” have been active in Vietnam since mid-1950s). American military involvement in Vietnam will rapidly escalate, and will last until August 1973. Thousands of lives will be lost, and the costs of nearly everything in the United States, including labor and the raw materials necessary for building pianos, will greatly increase.