Viet Cong Make Like Moles

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-04784.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04784

Title

Viet Cong Make Like Moles

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the Việt Cộng's use of tunnels and foxholes to assist in their guerilla warfare, page unknown

AI Usage Disclosure

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

--------------------
- Page 1
--------------------
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
The Viet Cong guerrillas'
camouflaged tunnels and fox-
holes represent one of the
greatest tactical problems of
United States combat units.
Low-ranking American field
officers indicate that some are
camouflaged so well that U. S.
units walk past them and then
are shot in the back.
In the heralded "Operation
Starlight" conducted near Chu
Lai by 5,000 U. S. Marines in
August, an estimated 75 per
cent of the U. S. casualties
were shot in the back, accord-
ing to the commanding gen-
eral.
During past engagements,
the Viet Cong, heavily armed
with mortars and lethal re-
coilless rifles, have been able
to rain in fire from their fox-
holes and tunnels on advanc-
ing American units.
In the guerrilla-controlled
areas of the countryside, the
Viet Cong have constructed
"combat hamlets." Each vil-
lage perimeter is protected by
a series of tunnels. Within the
village each home is equipped
with air-raid bunkers. Paths
in the village are dotted with
mines or traps of steel spikes.
Village fences and gates are
fused with explosives.
The villagers know to avoid
the dangers; advancing Viet-
namese or American units do
not.
On occasions, U. S. com-
manders have used smoke
grenades and tear gas pumped
through a blower to counter
the guerrillas' use of tunnels
but these techniques have not
been effective..
"I fly over this terrain every
day," one American helicopter
pilot based in Da Nang said.
Viet Cong Make Like Moles
"One day I see a tunnel about
50 meters long; the next day I
fly over that same area and
that tunnel has been covered
with logs, grass and mud and
another 50-meter extension
has been built. These tunnels
may all lead to Da Nang."
Viet Cong defectors have
reported that the guerrillas
are digging tunnels under
Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air-
port, but attempts to locate
them have proved unsuccess-
ful for government officials.
During the nine-day siege
of the Plei Me Special Forces
camp, 18 miles from the
Cambodian border, the guer-
rilla troops dug an intricate
series of foxholes as close as
50 yards from the camp perim-
eatr. The one-man holes
viewed by this correspondent
were about four feet deep
and five feet wide. At the
bottom, there was a long
niche for sleeping or for pro-
tection against U. S. bomb-
ings or mortar attacks.
"One of our patrols over-
ran a guerrilla bunker," said
Capt. Harold Moore, the
American detachment com-
mander at Plei Me. "The
Communists had built a lot.
of foxholes and trenches, all
leading into one bunker. This
was only about one-quarter
of a mile from our camp;
from this bunker the Com-
munists could see everything
we were doing in our camp,
but it was so well camou-
flaged we couldn't see them
from our positions.
"The Communists had dug
their holes and then covered
the tops with mud, logs, dirt
and weeds for protection. We
couldn't even see the Com-
munist positions only 30
meters from our camp; we
could see tracers coming out
of the weeds, but we couldn't
see their foxholes.
A defector from a North
Vietnamese Army unit told
this correspondent that the
Communist cadre had recently
issued orders to dig trenches
deeper and narrower.
"Digging trenches was more
important than eating," the
defector said. "Even if we
were hungry and tired, the
first thing we had to do was
to dig trenches.
"I remember one day my
group arrived in one place,
dug trenches for two hours,
stayed there for an hour, then
moved on to the second place
and started digging again"

Date

1965, Nov. 14

Subject

Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Guerilla Warfare; Intrenchments ; tactics

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Container

B4, F6

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