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

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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

DEEPE ALL-AROUND--ARTICLE FOUR OF FIVE-ARTICLE SERIES PAGE 1 THE PLEIKU AIRLIFT PLEIKU, SOUTH VIET NAM--Senior Vietnamese and American officers are gambling the Pleiku Airlift will defeat the Communists in [insertion: this] war [deletion: in] of the jungled highlands as [deletion: soundin] soundly as the Berlin Airlift diplomatically defeated the Russians nearly two decades ago. (More) 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 bordering Laos and Cambodia-- [deletion: which has] where evern major highway, minor road and national railroad [insertion: has been] out. [XXXX indicating deletion] Government forces are too low in strength to secure the roads; some reliable sources estimate it would require at least [insertion: one] more division of troops--and maybe two divisions--to keep the roads open. Even then, government forces would be open to devastating Communist ambushes. In some cases, Communist forces attack a government position, but have more than three times [deletion: there] their attacking strength positioned into ambushing roads and helicopter zones which government forces must use to [deletion: reforce] reinforce the position. In several cases, the [deletion: Communist forces,] southern born and North Vietnamese [insertion: Communist] [deletion: [illegible]] forces have ambushed the first [insertion: government] relief force, so badly a second relief force was rushed to the battle only to have that disasterously ambushed, only to have a third rushed in to retrieve the situation. (More) deepe 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 the [deletion: government positions] government-held cities would simply crumble away politically. Currently, the government-held cities are potential hotbeds of political discontent against the government. The price of rice is skyrocketing; prices of other foodstuffs are also increasing; luxury items such as beer, cigarettes and coca cola have long ago disappeared; restaurants are closing up. More and more refugees are drifting into government-held cities to escape the increasingly furious war in their countryside, [insertion: which] demands even more supplies. (More) deepe all-around--article four of five-article series page 4 The problems of the Pleiku Airlift are clearly more difficult than was the Berlin Airlift, though the scope [insertion: of the airlift] may be [deletion: smakk a] somewhat smaller. Pleiku, the second corps headquarters, serves as the aerial collecting point for supplies, [XXXX indicating deletion] [illegible] which are flown in by heavier [insertion: and heavier] transport aircraft--which creates a caving-in of the steel-planking runways. The material is then transferred to smaller transport aircraft [deletion: to be shuttled] which [illegible] into smaller provincial capitals and government outposts. But [XXXX indicating deletion] now [XXXX indicating deletion] the Communists have begun to attack the airstrips of the isolated posts, 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) deepe all-around--article four of five-article series page 5 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 [deletion: problem] needs of rice and clothing comes second. “The poor logisticians and weathermen are going out of their minds,” one American advisor explained. “And the transport pilots are flying 17-18 hours a day. They are doing a fabulous job.” (More) deepe all-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 of what to do with those refugees. [deletion: When the Commun] All of these refugees fled the Communists during the attack and we met them on the road when we went back to re-capture the district town. “Now we are working round-the-clock to try to get rice and food up there; we hope in the future to build temporary shelters for them.” An even more difficult problem is the loss of an increasing number of [deletion: tro-] the best Vietnamese [XXXX indicating deletion] commanders and 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. deepe all-around--article [XXXX indicating deletion] four of 5-article series page 8 “After [deletion: we] Chu’s jeep got two kilometers down the road, the four Army tanks [deletion: and the Vietnamese forces got in formation and the tanks] began to [deletion: open fire into the] reconnoitre the mountainside by firing. This triggered off the [insertion: attack of the] Communists [deletion: that] who were [insertion: hiding] along the steep hillsides.” [insertion: one American advisor explained.] “Col. Chu was ordering the troops about by pointing out orders with his cane; he seldom carried a weapon. [insertion: Within seconds, he was disemboweled by groundfire. His American counterpart was shot in the foot but refused to leave the battlefield until ordered. A jeep raced down the road, carrying the colonel out of [XXXX indicating deletion] the battle area; he was still alive and within thirty minutes an American helicopter evacuated him to the hospital. But we couldn’t save him. The loss of ‘The Tiger’ will hurt us up here--he 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