-
derivative filename/jpeg
-
363-06915 to 363-06927.pdf
-
Digital Object Identifier
-
363-06915 to 363-06927
-
Title
-
Article about American-South Vietnamese actions behind enemy lines
-
Description
-
Original title: "Guerrilla", Article draft about covert operations in North Vietnam and Laos, for the Christian Science Monitor
-
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
--------------------
Sairad
Proreuter Tokyo
Guerrilla I (normass/deepe)
Kontum, South Vietnam, May 2--Combined American-South Vietnamese
Special Forces patrols are operating behind enemy lines in North Vietnam
and Laos.
South Vietnamese soldiers who had been on the missions said the
clandestine operations were conducted to spot and counter the extensive
Communist infiltrations into South Vietnam.
When questioned on this, a spokesman for the American military command
in Saigon replied, "No comment."
More Reuter
Christian Scene Montare.
This made page 1.- took the
four years
to get din
Story. (See pix)
--------------------
- Page 2
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 2 Kontum (normass/deepe)
The first-hand sources who had been on the missions said that
radio contact
on occasions the ground forces oporate in ison with high-flying U-2
repeat U-2 aircraft, which serve as in an aerial command post
to call in American airstrikes on the North Vietnamese truck and tank
convoys noving towards South Vietnam along the famed Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The clandestine operations, long common knowledge in Saigon and
in the Communist camp, are not considered an escalation of the war against
North Vietnam.
eeroliable sources said the oporations have been conducted with
varying degrees of success since at least 1962. However, for the first
the time it was learned from first-hand sources that Amorioan military
personnel participated in the clandestine guerrilla action behind
North Vietnamese linos.
the
More Router
--------------------
- Page 3
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 3 Kontum (normass/doope)
American involvemont in the clandestine operation, considered to be
highly classified, is substantial, although the numbers of American
personnell operating outside South Vietnam is relatively small, reliable
These operations are closely linked not only with the
sources said.
American military command, but also with the U. S. Contral Intelligence
Agency, the sources said.
More Router
--------------------
- Page 4
--------------------
Sairad
Prorautor Tokyo
Guerrilla 4 Kontun (normass/doope)
USED
American funds are to pay, food, clotho, armp and supply the
South Vietnamese Special Forces troopers operating mutant outside their
national borders, the sources said.
On combat oporations, two types of units aro usod. One is
reconnaissance teams (collod R. T.) of three Americans and seven to nine
South Vietnamese troopers. The three Americans are generally a lei fRST
lioutonant who is the commander in fact, not in names a second
el lieutenant who acts as executive officer of the team and an sorgeant
who serves as radio operator.
Moro Routor
--------------------
- Page 5
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 5 Kontum (normass/deepe)
The sources said the second kind of unit used in the clandestine
operations were the standard company of slightly more than one hundred men,
in which three Americans headed by a captain participate.
"The Amoricans are really the commanders," one of the South
Vietnamese soldiers on previous missions said. "They give the orders and wo
must obey them; they furnish the ammunition, food radio for resupply and
The Vietnamese officers are just soarecrows."
airstrikes.
These
reconnaissance toams and companies operating in North Vietnam
and Laos are distinctly separate from the Vietnamese-American Special
Forces units (the famed Green Berets) operating solely within South Vietnam,
in which civilian irregular defense groups. are trained in patrolling,
ambushing and bordor surveillance, the sources said.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 6
--------------------
Saired
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 6 Kontum (normass/deepe)
In this highland plateau town of Kontum (population twenty thousand),
situated near the Loog-Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this
correspondent talked with several of the Vietnamese Special Force troopers
who had participated in operations in North Vietnam and Laos.
"I worked in a reconnaissance team last year in North Vietnam,"
of the troopers said casually.
ΟΠΟ
"The purpose of the team is not to engage
the Communist infiltrators, but to report movements of North Vietnamose
regulars and supplies.
We à radioed to an American U-2 airplane high up
in the clouds so high no one can see him-and tell him what we see and
then they have a bombing raid on the convoys.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 7
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 7 Kontum (normass/deepe)
"In North Vietnam, wo operate mostly in the jungle areas above the
DMZ (demilitarized zone separating Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam).
We can see the poor people through binoculars, mostly the tribal people.
HAVE
They are very poor and had patches on their shirts.
officer if I could give them a propaganda lecture.
I asked the American
He said no. But
sometimes we stop and tell the villagers what's wrong with Communism--
like the people have no freedom and they can't believe in God.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 8
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 8 Kontum (normass/deepe)
"We operate in North Vietnam from one month to three months at a time-
we never know how long we'll be up there. We go into the n North either by
helicopter South Vietnamese helicopters piloted by South Vietnamese. They
are really wild pilots and the helicopter bounces up and down so much we
(specii orcos) almost lose our insides. The Americans call them cowboys
pilots. Or sometimes we parachute in.
Special Forces are airborne qualified."
All the American and Vietnamese
American pilots often call these "black parachute" operations because
the standard, conspicuous white parachute is not used.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 9
--------------------
Sairad
Proroutor Tokyo
Guerrilla 9 Kontum (normass/doope)
The South 54 Vietnamese trooper calmly lighted a filter
cigarette and continued his story.
"Ight now, I'm with a Special Force company--not a reconnaissance team.
Our last operation was in Laos. We were dropped in by helicopter after a
to check on the
B-52 raid (American SAC bombers based in Thailand)
results.
SAW
To seo alot of dead af North Vietnamese.
"Then we had a big fight. Two Americans wore standing in thom middle
trail
of the ed laying mines us when the ft North Vietnamese saw us.
We had one hundred men killed-out of the three empni companies totallying
a little more than 300 men. I lost two very good friends. One was a
WHEN
Vietnamese sergeant who was attaching the North Vietnamose in the front and
anothor North Vietnamese shot him in the back. There were alot of dead
Communists too.Ⓡ
More Router
--------------------
- Page 10
--------------------
Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Guerrilla 10 Kontum (normass/deepe)
"The Ho Chi Minh Trail is very wide in North Vietnam-about ten meters
Further down the trail in Cambodia,
wide and is covered with big jungle trees.
it's covered only with small bamboo trees.
The night of the big fight we
moved up onto a hitr hilltop and throughout the night we heard the
whhoooo" whhooo of the North Vietnamese trucks moving South. It was so dark
we could not soo how many trucks--but it went on all night long."
One
The Special Forces soldier said at least two pap principal
base camps were used for these clandestine, out-of-country missions.
was his camp, called FOB No. 2 (forward operating base),
Here, his unit, called the Black Eagle
slung buildings in Kontum city.
ai tuated in low-
Battalion, is based, he said. The battalion is composed of three companies
MORE THAN TEN
plus reconnaissance teams of roughly twelve men beach, he said.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 11
--------------------
Sairad
Proreutor Tokyo
Guerrilla 11 Kontum (normass/doepe)
The
ba second base of operation is at Phu Bai, noar the
formor imperial capital of Hue, 400 miles north of Saigon, he said. Here,
the Phi Ho (Flying Tiger) battalion is based.
Sometimes, the Flying Tiger
units operate on the same mission with units of the Black Eagle battalion;
groups
sometimes the two operate independently, he said.
to the rank of
Other reliable sources said guerrilla operations behind enemy lines
have two codenames. The guerrilla action in North Vietnam is called Bac
Hai Vu repeat Bee Hai Vut (Operation in the Northern Sea), commanded by
Colonel Tran Van Ho. In the mid-1950s, Ho was commander of the Vietnamese
Air Force and promoted Nguyen Cao Ky, now prime minister,
Air Force captain. The second doo codename is Nam Hai Vu repeat Nam Hai Vu
(Operation in the Southern Sea), for operations in Laos, commanded by
Coro Colonel Ho Tiou, former task force commander of the Vietnamese
airborne brigade and later chief of staff of the brigade.
More Reuter
--------------------
- Page 12
--------------------
Sairad
Proreuter Tokyo
Guerrilla 12 Kontum (normass/doopo)
Both of these command structures are separate from the Vietnamese
Special Forces operating in South Vietnam under Brig. Gen.
Doan Van Quang He maintains his headquarters in the seaport town of
Nhatrang, where the American Special Forces headquarters is also situated.
Radio Hanoi regularly mentions the clandestine ground operations
in North Vietnam, give propaganda lectures to their lister Interne
11 stoners about how to spot the "Biet Kich" repeat "Biet Kich" (Special
attackers, and occasionally mentions by name, date and location the capture
of
South Vietnamese Special Forces troopers.
More Router
--------------------
- Page 13
--------------------
Sairad
Proroutor Tokyo
Guorrilla 13 Kontum (normass/deepo)
On the anti-Communist side, also, the clandestine operations ax have
boon known about for sometime because the family of Vietnamese Special Force
EUEN
troopers freely talk about the missions with relatives, friends and vague
n acquaintances. In the past, however, it has beon difficult for
Western journalists to talk freely with persons who participated in the
actual missions into North Vietnam and Laos.
(Note to Editor: My cable address is Denon Deepn Saigon in
case
John forgot to notify you.)
End Router
-
Date
-
1967, May 2
-
Subject
-
Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Strategy; United States. Army; Vietnam (Republic). Quân lực; Undercover operations; Guerrilla warfare
-
Location
-
Kon Tum, South Vietnam
-
Coordinates
-
14.6613; 107.8169
-
Size
-
20 x 26 cm
-
Container
-
B7, 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
