Viet Riots Siphoned Off Base Guards

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363-04762.pdf
Digital Object Identifier
363-04762
Title
Viet Riots Siphoned Off Base Guards
Description
Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about how the political situation in South Vietnam led to the shelling of the Tan Son Nhut Air Base, page 4
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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
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- Page 1
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Viet Riots Siphoned Off Base Guards
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
Security officials here long
have believed Communist
uerrillas could shell the
U. S. air base on the outskirts
of Saigon, as they did yester-
morning. But the politi-
cal crisis here made easier
their job-one of the worst
attacks to date on an Allied
air base.
"Security around the air
base was relaxed because of
the political situation," a
high-ranking South Vietna-
mese security officer said yes-
terday. Some of the regular
Vietnamese Army units which
normally would have been pa-
trolling the outer perimeter
of the base, he said, were con-
fined to barracks or assigned
other responsibilities. con-
nected with the anti-govern-
ment political demonstrations
and turbulence.
Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Air
Base which is also the
capital's civilian airport and
one of the busiest in the
world-lies three miles north
of the center of the city. The
hub of the airport is the
control tower, and its back-
bone is the main jet-length
runway, where business men
land in commercial airliners
only seconds after American
jet fighters screech off the
other end. The control tower
Tas knocked out during the
2-minute, multi-million-dol-
lar attack Wednesday.
The tower and main runway
are secured by barbed wire
fences and outposts, and by
Vietnamese and American
security forces.
The guerrillas, attacking
with mortars and recoilless
rifles, did not penetrate the
inner defense perimeter.
Within the inner perimeter
are based more than 10,000
American troops, most of
them to give air support to the
war against the Viet Cong.
The American units are re-
sponsible for the security of
their aircraft and helicopters,
but their duties do not extend
beyond the barbed-wire en-
closure.
The second rim of defense-
beyond the barbed wire-in
times of political quiet would
be maintained and patrolled
by one Vietnamese airborne
battalion and one Vietnamese
battalion,
Army
security
sources said.
But since the onset of the
Buddhist-inspired demonstra-
tions and the turbulence de-
signed to topple the Saigon
government, the Vietnamese
airborne battalion had not
been permitted to patrol. In-
stead, it was ordered to re-
main in barracks in case it
was needed to stop rioting,
street fighting and stoning of
Americans in Saigon.
The Vietnamese Army bat-
talion during the crisis had
been shifted from airport
security to protecting Vietna-
mese government installations
such as the government radio
station, which pro-Buddhist
students attempted to seize
several weeks ago.
The elite paratroop battal-
ion and the regular Army
battalion were replaced with
only one battalion of regional
forces, which are not as well
equipped, trained or paid as
the regular units.
A third defense perimeter,
was to be secured by one Viet-
namese Army battalion, one
Ranger battalion and local
popular and regional forces
under the command of the
Tan Binh District, Gia Dinh
Province. Gia Dinh is the
doughnut shaped province
surrounding Saigon. The air-
port lies in this province, not
within Saigon's city limits.
Because of the unrest in
Saigon, elements of the Viet-
namese Army battalion and
the Ranger battalion were
brought into Saigon to at-
tempt to maintain order.
This left a smattering of
local popular and regional
para-military forces, plus
small elements of the regular
battalions to do the patrolling
job. A total of 25 square miles
is within the three perimeter
rings.
"But you knew we did not
have enough troops to cover
all that ground all the time,"
a Vietnamese security officer
said. "And the paramilitary
units were a little lazy in pa-
trolling anyway."
Between the second and
third perimeters-1,000 to 5,-
000 yards from the airport
control tower-the 15 to 30
Viet Cong guerillas brought in
at least two mortars and one
recoilless rifle to bombard the
air base.
They placed their base
plates and mortar tubes near
the village of Ba Queo, a peas-
ant village of huts and a small
market, surrounded by fruit
groves and bushes.
Eight miles west of the vil-
lage, towards Cambodia, lies
Duc Hoa, the Viet Cong head-
quarters for units specializing
in sabotage, demolition and
small unit attacks. Duc Hoa is
on the fringe of the Com-
munist stronghold called the
Plain of Reeds, a marshy
wasteland that was under
Communist control even dur-
ing the French Indochina
war.
Security officials estimated
that in an 8-hour march, the
Viet Cong could move divi-
sions of troops from Cam-
bodia to Saigon.
The specialized unit in Duc
Hoa is commanded by a
humpbacked man in his 40s,
security sources said. At the
Saigon security headquarters
his photo is posted-a 1,000,-
000 piastre ($9,000) reward
has been put up for his head.
Almost all the small villages
around Saigon have been sub-
jected to minor terrorism in
recent weeks. Two or three
policemen a night are killed
or kidnaped from these vil-
lages. Police checkpoints and
headquarters are regularly at-
tacked sometimes overrun-
as
the Communists have
tightened their noose around
the capital city.
thousands of troops, shoulder
"It would take hundreds of
to shoulder with garden rakes
digging up the whole peri-
meter all the time, to prevent
an attack like this," an Amer-
ican Air Force officer said.
"The V. C. (Viet Cong) can
put mortar tubes under any
bush any time and we cannot
even see them."
Date
1966, Apr. 14
Subject
Vietnam (Republic)--Politics and government; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--Vietnam (Republic); Air bases; Bombing, aerial; Bombardment
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