Christmas Eve Bomb in Saigon

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-04877B to 363-04878B.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04877B to 363-04878B

Title

Christmas Eve Bomb in Saigon

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about a Christmas Eve bombing in Saigon, page 1 and 4

Transcript

--------------------
- Page 1
--------------------
Christmas
Eve Bomb
In Saigon
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
For a second at sunset, at exactly 6 o'clock, Saigon stood
still yesterday. Every one knew it was a black Christmas.
Four American nurses in silk cocktail dresses waited for
an elevator in the lobby of the American officers billet where
they were to eat Christmas Eve dinner. Suddenly they
stopped, turned around and
soon began treating a flow
of wounded. Their brocades
became bloodied; they never
ate dinner.
A powerful terrorist bomb
had ripped through the billet
in the center of the city as
the officers prepared to cele-
brate. At least two Americans
were killed.
American officials here said
107 other military men, in-
cluding 63 Americans-most
of them field grade officers-
were injured. The casualties
were the most numerous of
any single instance of terror-
ism here and compared with
losses in major battles, in
South Viet Nam.
Not all the men had re-
turned to quarters when the
bomb went off at 6 p. m. (5
a. m, New York time) or the
casualty toll might have been
higher.
The bomb-which U. S.
officials said must have con-
tained at least 100 pounds of
explosives-was the biggest
and most powerful ever ex-
ploded against Americans in
Saigon. Presumably it was set
off by the Communist Viet
Cong guerrillas, who had
threatened fresh outbreaks
of terrorism against Ameri-
cans during the Christmas
season. Security forces al-
ready were on full alert at
Saigon airport where intel-
ligence sources said three
Viet Cong battalions were
massed nearby for a mortar
attack.
The explosion occurred in
the ground floor garage of
the building, catching many
men dressing for a big party
to be held in the popular
rooftop officers club and
mess.
Fire roared through the
first three stories of the
seven-story bachelors quar-
ters, called the Hotel Brink,
after the blast. Windows
More on BOMB-P4
--------------------
- Page 2
--------------------
New York Herald Tribune
Friday, December 25, 1964
Christmas Eve Bomb in Saigon
(Continued from page one)
within a half-mile area were
shattered, terrifying many of
Saigon's Roman Catholics
finishing up their Christmas
shopping. Bleeding children,
gashed by flying glass frag-
ments, stood screaming on
the sidewalks.
The U. S. Armed Forces
Radio Station on the ground
floor of the billet, which
feeds programs to American
servicemen throughout South
Viet Nam, was shattered. But
it went back on the air with-
in an hour, broadcasting
from a secret transmitter.
Nine military vehicles on the.
ground were destroyed and
15 damaged. Sidewalks were
splattered with blood, and
debris, including heavy truck
tires, was hurled through the
air.
"I was in a printer's shop,"
an American sergeant re-
lated. "Just as the foreman
pushed a button to signal the
workers to go home we heard
this crackling explosion.
"I rushed into the street
and saw this mushroom
cloud. It was pink."
He
laughed at the incongruity.
"It was the same color as the
sunset. Then the pink cloud
became black."
In the rubble searchers
found the body of a lieuten-
ant colonel. Earlier, a U. S.
civilian died in a hospital.
Identification was withheld
pending notification of kin.
Authorities said more bodies
might be in the rubble. None
of the injured Americans was
expected to die.
The Defense Department
in Washington called the
bombing "one of a series of
apparently terroristic actions
which have taken place over
there,"
and said it was
"extremely regrettable."
Late last night a Vietna-
mese plainclothesman seized
a Vietnamese youth near the
billet with what appeared to
be & plunger for a detonator.
He was taken away in a mil-
itary jeep for questioning.
Several other people also
were picked up for interroga-
tion by Vienamese police.
The explosion was the
bloodiest terrorist attack
since Viet Cong guerrillas
blasted the Bien Hoa Air
Base in a mortar barrage
Nov. 1. It climaxed a year of
anti-American attacks-the
bombing of a ball park Feb.
9. killing two and injuring
23; the bombing of a Saigon
movie Feb. 16, killing three;
the sinking May 1 of the
U. S. Aircraft Ferry Card
and the bombing of a sight-
seeing crowd May 2 at the
site of the sinking, injuring
8.
Military police said yester-
day's explosion was so great
the bomb could only have
been carried into the garage
in a vehicle. They speculated
it was a jeep. Nothing was
found of one parked jeep but
the bumpers and a frame.
The blast broke windows
of the United States Infor-
mation Service conference
room 200 feet away, where
Saigon newsmen were meet-
ing with press officers, and
knocked out windows of the
fashionable Caravelle Hotel
across a mall and the Con-
tinental Hotel alongside.
Maj. Jack G. Pruett of
Keene, N. H., deputy U. S.
provost marshal, said:
"I was just driving up to
the compound gate in my
car when the thing went off.
There was a blast and a fire-
ball, with things flying
everywhere."
the
Burning trucks in
garage set off a chain of
explosions as their gas tanks
went off. Police cars and
ambulances caused a traffic
jam in downtown Saigon and
some of the wounded-several
still dressed in shorts because
they had been washing up-
turned to taxicabs to get to
hospitals.
Some soldiers braved the
inferno of the building's
parking lot and pushed cars
and trucks away to forestall
further explosions while oth-
ers raced through the build-
ing's 100 residence rooms to
check casualties, even while
firemen fought the flames.
"I was pouring myself a
Christmas toddy-a brandy
and soda-when all of a sud-
den the bottom fell out of
the glass," related one U. S.
Navy officer. Three minutes
later, he recalled, he picked
himself up from the floor,
climbed over the wreckage of
his bed and door and stag-
gered into the corridor.
One Army officer said he
was drying himself after a
shower when "all the windows
came in on me."
Maximum security precau-
tions went into effect
throughout Saigon.
The Brink Hotel, named
after the late Brig. Gen.
F. G. Brink, who served as
military adviser to the
French here in 1952, is sur-
rounded by a concrete wall,
topped with 12 feet of wire
netting. Atop the wire net-
ting is barbed wire. Its gate
is guarded 24 hours a day by
three-man teams. Search-
lights light up the area at
night.
As night fell, Maj. Robert
Schweitzer of Chicago saun-
tered across a plaza in sweaty
fatigues and in combat boots.
He carried his carbine in one
hand; the other was ban-
daged.
"I came in from the street
to help the wounded and got
caught in the second series of
explosions," he said.
Leaning on the fender of
an ambulance, the major said
-0-
that "all day long I helicop-
tered around Binh Long prov-
ince. That's near the Cam-
bodian border where the war
is more honest."
He slid into the ambulance.
"I was going to go to mass to-
night," he said. "And I'm still
going."

Date

1964, Dec. 25

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Bombings; Terrorism; Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Container

B186

Format

newspaper clippings

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English