Article about the Pleiku Airlift

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-05865 to 363-05871.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-05865 to 363-05871

Title

Article about the Pleiku Airlift

Description

Original title: "The Pleiku Airlift", Keever's title: "Airlift of Supplies to Corps HQ Pleiku needed to stave off North Vietnamese units", article for the New York Herald Tribune about the American military's strategic gamble that Pleiku Airlift would defeat the Communists, article four of five-article series, page 6 is missing

Transcript

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- Page 1
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DEEPE
ALL AROUND-ARTICLE FOUR OF FIVE-ARTICLE SERIES
PAGE 1
THE PLEIKU AIRLIFT
PLSIKU, SOUTH VIET NAM-Senior Vietnamese and American officers
are gambling the Pleiku Airlift will defeat the Communists in
war in the jungled highlands as soundin soundly as the Berling
Airlift diplomatically defeated the Russians nearly two decades
880.
(More)
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- Page 2
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deepe
all-around-article four of five-article series
page 2
To win the gamble would be a big step & towards winning the war
in this jungled highlands area bordoring Laos and Cambodia,
Has B
evern major highway, minor road end national railroad out.
Government forces are too low in strength to scoure the roads;
some reliable sources estimate it would require at least one more division
of troops and maybe two divisions-to koop the roads open. Even then,
government forces would be open to devastating Communist ambushes.
In some o3000,
Communist forces attack a government position, but have
more then three times there attacking strength positioned into ft ambushing
Pein
roads and helicopter sones which government forces must use to reforce
the position. In several cases, the Commandebesforoos, North Vietnamese
forces have ambushed the first relief force, so badly a second
relief force was rushed to the battle only to have that disasterously
only to have a third rushed in to retrieve the situation.
ambushed,
(More)
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- Page 3
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deope
all-around-article four of five-article series
page 3
To lose the gamble, however, would mean a defeat either through
increasing Viet Cong Communist assaults on isolated government
positions or else at the garmentpositions
government-held
cities would simply crumble away politically. Currently,
the government-
hold cities are potential hotbeds of political discontent against
the government. The price of rice is skyrocketing; prices of
luxury items such as boor,
other foodstuffs are also increasing
cigarettes and coca cola have long ago disappearod; restaurants are
closing up. More and more refugees are drifting into government-hold
cities to escape the increasingly furious war in their countryside, w
demanding even more supplies.
(More)
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- Page 4
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deepe
all-around-artiolo four of five-article sories
page 4
The problems of the Pleiku Airlift an are clearly moro difficult
S
then woe the Berlin Airlift, though the scope may be smakk
Pleiku, the second corps headquarters,
aller.
serves as the merial collecting
point for supplies, vi
prim, which are
flown in by hoavior transport aircraft-which creates a caving-in
of the steel-planing ru planking runways. The material is then
transferred to smaller transport aircraft to be shuttled into smaller
provincial capitals and government outposts. But no
posts,
the Communists have begun to attack the airstrips of the isolated
which under-manned government units can not prevent.
Not only are Communist bullets becoming more effective as they
bring in heavier and more accurate anti-aircraft weapons, but also
the monsoon rain clouds are moving in lower.
(More)
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- Page 5
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deepe
all-around-artiolo four of five-article series
pa go
Between the Communist bullets and monsoon rainclouds--both expected.
to get worse--the problem of logistics appears relatively the simplest;
the difficulty, however, is that obviously the military supplies of
ammunition and troops come first while the civilian pikem needs
of rice and clothing comes second.
"The poor logisticians and weathermen are going out of their minds,"
oo one Americam advisor explained. "And the transport pilots
are flying 17-18 hours a day. They are doing a fabulous job."
(More)
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- Page 6
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deepe
a 11-around article 4 of five--article series
page 7
"Before we could get back in with more supplies, the Communists
attacked Dak-To," he continued.
"This shot a hole in our plans
All of these
of what to do with those refugees. Whomxhaxfommun
rafugees fled the Communists during the attack and we met them on
the road when we went back to re-capture the distriot town.
"Now
up there;
we are working round-the-clock to try to get rice and food
we hope in the future to build temporary shelters for them."
An even more difficult problem is the loss of an increasing number
of to- the best Vietname sez commanders and ga district chiefs
who have been killed or wounded during the battle engagements.
One of these was was Lt. Col. Lai Van Chu, whom the American
advisors called "The Tiger."
As commander of the 42nd Infantry Regiment, Chu's jeep lead the
armed truck convoy to re-take the district town of Dak-To last week.
--------------------
- Page 7
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deepe
all-around-article xux four of 5-article series
pago 8
"After wex Chu's jeep got two kilometers down the road,
four Army tanks an
the
forser For In Ormation
ats began to openximamentem reconnoitre the mountainside
by firing. This triggered off the Communists were along the steep
hillsides.
one
"Col. Chu was ordering the troops about by pointing out orders with
Within seconds, he was disembowaled by
ho soldom carried a weapon. His American counterpart roundfire.
his cano
was shot in the foot but refused to leave the battlefield until
ordered. A jeep raced down the road, carrying the colonel out of
marad
the battle area; he was still alive and within thirty minutes an
American helicopter evacuated him to the hospital. But we couldn't
The Tiger'
will hurt us up
save him.
The loss of t
hero-ho knew all the people in the surrounding valleys."
-30-

Date

1965

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Strategy; Operation Long Reach, 1965; Airlift, Military; United States. Air Force; Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam

Location

Pleiku, South Vietnam

Coordinates

13.9718; 108.0151

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B187, F5

Format

dispatches

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

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