Article about the bombing of the Saigon airbase

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-06996 to 363-07001.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-06996 to 363-07001

Title

Article about the bombing of the Saigon airbase

Description

Keever's title: "Communists' worst shelling of war's bussiest airport aided by political turmoil," article about the bombing of the Saigon airbase

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

(Morgan Gandy) SAIGON, 13200, (UPIS)--Security officials have long believed Communist guerrilla bands could shell the Saigon airport, as they did Wednesday morning. But the sizzling political crisis in [deletion: the] this capital [insertion: city] made their job easier for the worst attack on aye an airbase to date. [deletion: [illegible]] “Security around the airbase was relaxed because of the political situation,” one high-ranking Vietnamese security officer explained. He said some of the Vietnamese regular army units, which would normally be patrolling on the outer perimeter of the airbase, had been confined to barracks or assigned other responsibilities connected with the anti-government political demonstrations and turbulence. (More--Miller--BD) first add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x and turbulence x x x Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut civilian-military airport--one of the busiest in the world--lies three miles north of the center of the city. The hub of the airport is the radio control tower and the main jet-length runway, where distinguished businessmen land in commercial airlines [deletion: on one side] on one end only seconds after American jet fighters screech off the other end. The radio tower was knocked out during the twenty-minute, multi-million dollar attack Wednesday morning. [deletion: The] This hub of the airport is secured by [insertion: aye] barbed wire fences, outposts, Vietnamese and American security forces. [deletion: However,] The Communist guerrillas, attacking with mortars and recoiless rifles did notrptnot penetrate this inner defense perimeter. (More--Miller--BD) second add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x defense perimeter x x Within this inner barbed wire perimeter, more than ten thousand American troops are based, mostly for conducting the airwar against the Viet Cong guerrillas in the rice paddies. The American units have security responsibility for their aircraft and helicopters, property of the American government, but their duties donotrptnot go beyond the barbed wire fence. The second rim of defense--beyond the barbed wire--would under times of political quiet--be maintained and patrolled by one Vietnamese airborne battalion, and one Vietnamese army battalion security sources said. However, since the Buddhist-inspired demonstrations and turbulence designed to topple the Saigon government, the Vietnamese airborne battalion was notrptnot permitted to patrol. Instead, it was ordered to remain in their barracks in case they were needed to stop the Buddhist-inspired rioting, street fighting and stoning of Americans in Saigon. The Vietnamese army battalion had been shifted during the crisis from airport security against the Viet Cong to protecting Vietnamese government installations, such as the government radio station, after the pro-Buddhist students attempted to seize it several weeks ago. (More-Miller-BD) third add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x weeks ago x x x. The elite paratrooper battalion and the regular army battalion were replaced with only one battalion of regional forces, which are notrptnot as [XXXX indicating deletion] well equipped, trained or paid as the regular units. Beyond this [XXXX indicating deletion] comes the third [deletion: security] perimeter line, which on the southwest side of the airport was to be [XXXX indicating deletion] secured by one Vietnamese army battalion, one Ranger battalion and local popular and [XXXX indicating deletion] regional forces under the command of the Tan Binh district, Gia Dinh province. Gia Dinh is the doughnut province surrounding the city of Saigon; the airport lies in the this province, notrptnot in the Saigon city limits. However, because of the political unrest in Saigon, elements of the Vietnamese army battaion and the Ranger battalion were brought into the city limits of Saigon to [deletion: maintai] attempt to maintain law and order against the rioting demonstrators. This left [deletion: one] aye smattering of local popular and regional paramilitary forces, plus [insertion: small] elements of the [deletion: reglar] regular battalions to do the job of patrolling. Aye total of twenty five square miles [deletion: covers] is the area covering the defense of these three perimeter rings. (More--Miller--BD) fourth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x perimeter rings x x x “But you know we did notrptnot have enough troops to cover all that ground all the time,” one Vietnamese security officer explained. “And the paramilitary units were aye little lazy in patrolling anyway.” Between the second and third security [XXXX indicating deletion] phaselines--[XXXX indicating deletion] somewhere between one to five thousand meters from the [XXXX indicating deletion] airport radio tower--the Viet Cong guerrillas, roughly fifteen to thirty of them, brought in [XXXX indicating deletion] at least two mortars and one seventy five recoiless rifle to [XXXX indicating deletion] bombard the airbase. They placed their base plates and mortar [deletion: tur] tubes near the village of Ba Queo repeat Ba Queo, according to official sources. This rural peasant village of [deletion: shacks,] huts and aye small market, [deletion: surrounde] is surrounded by fruit groves and bushes. [deletion: Directly west of there Directly eight miles] Eight miles [deletion: directly] west of this village [XXXX indicating deletion] towards Cambodia--and an hours march away lies Duc Hoa, the Viet Cong headquarters for their units specializing in sabotage, demolitions and small unit attacks. Duc Hoa is on the fringe of the Communist stronghold called the Plain of Reeds, aye marshy [XXXX indicating deletion] wasteland that has been under the Communist control even during the French Indo-China War. (More--Miller--BD) fifth add--morgan gandy--saigon x x x indo-china war x x x. Security officials have estimated that in an eight-hour march, the Viet Cong could conceivably move divisions of troops from Cambodia to Saigon This specialized unit in Duc Hoa is commanded by aye hump-backed man in his forties, whose alias is Ca Nhi, security sources said. At the Saigon security headquarters aye photo of this man is posted--[deletion: ho has] aye one million piastre (US$9000) repeat nine thousand dollar [deletion: [illegible]] reward has been [deletion: posted] put up for his [deletion: [illegible]] head. Almost all of the small rural villages around Saigon have been subject to minor terrorism within [XXXX indicating deletion] recent weeks. Two or three policemen aye night are killed or kidnapped from these villages; police checkpoints and headquarters are regularly attacked--sometimes overrun--as the Communists have tightened their noose around the capital city. “It would take hundreds of thousands of troops shoulder to shoulder with garden rakes digging up the whole perimeter all the time to prevent an attack like this,” one American Air Force officer explained. “The V.C. (Viet Cong) can put mortar tubes under any bush any [deletion: til] time and we can notrptnot even [deletion: stop] see them. It’s like trying to find aye white mouse in aye coup,” he explained. “Besides, they still have notrptnot captured those hoods that mortared the United Nations in New York, have they?” (Endit--Miller--BD)

Date

1966, Apr. 13

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Bombing, Aerial; Airports; Bombardment; Vietnam (Democratic Republic). Quân đội

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B188, F3

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