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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06646 to 363-06665.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06646 to 363-06665
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Title
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Article about public opinion on allied bombing
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Description
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Original title: "bombs", Keever's title: "Allied Firepower Creates Political Backlash", Article draft about the consequences of allied bombing and artillery in order to hold back the Tet Offensive, for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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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.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, February 16-Allied bombing, rocketing and shelling
cities is creating a high-explosive
hymmmmmm in Vietnamese towns and
political backlash which may offset the short-term military gain
advantages gained by killing large numbers of Communist forces.
The backlash is considered so significant it has raised
the spectre of nuclear warfare in the minds of serious observers here.
==more reuter
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- Page 2
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 2 (normass/deepe)
As American helicopters rocketed and Vietnamese aircraft
one reflective
bombed installations in Saigon early in February,
senior official here, who has consistently been pro-American,
explained:
"This destruction in the cities is more and more looking
like Hungary in reverse.
Vietnamese are likely to forget this or to forgive you for it. It's
no good saying the Vietnamese government requested your helicopters
to rooket or authorized it in tight tactical situations.
government officials will only look like butchering assassins for
And t neither the outside world or the
THE HOMERICAns
the Americans.
The Vietnamese
= = more restr
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- Page 3
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 3 (normass/deepe)
"The Americans have bombed North Vietnam for three ex
years now-with total x disregard for the political repercussions of t
it. Now, Ameir American and Vietnamese firepower is shelling being
used to shell government- supposedly government-controlled cities,
without regard for the of the effects on the civilian population and their
STEP
If you one extends this policy, the very next extension is
nuclear warfare, mo no? What will be the next step if the two-thousand
pound bombs dropped by B-52's do not dislodge the Communists from ther
It could mean nuclear
homes.
their entrenchments and artillery tunnels near Khe Sanh?
is what is orossing my mind."
This
more reutes
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- Page 4
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 4 (normass/deepe)
In private, unofficial conversations,
an increasing amount
of talk with hardline military officers is cropping up to the effect that
Prefore to
WEAPONS
they would use nuclear power rather than Iet Khe Samy Sanh fall,
if the options actually narrow down to two such extremes.
More Vietnamese are also talking about the possibility of
some kind of nuclear warfare Recently, three Vietnamese
industrialists-importers, of upper-class status, were discussing
the possiblity on the streetcorner of Saigon boulevard.
"The Viet Cong had better watch out," one said.
"The
Americans have alot of guts. The Americans might drop an A-bomb or use
Nucley
artillery with a wambea warhead, or use some other atomic means,
near Khe Sanh after they withdraw their troops from there. The proof ifx of
this is the Americans are now bombing with B-52's only ten miles from Saigon,
and they were bombing friendly people in Ban Me Thuot and other places.
The only way for us to survig survive is just to stick to the Americans as
close as possible and hope they don't bomb themselves."
Known to Be
Low-ranking Vietnamese officers are also discussing the
Nucl
possibility pris among themselves.
"But, the more the Americans talk about atomio weapons,
it
simply means they are weaker, not stronger,"
one Vietnamese journalist
explained.
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- Page 5
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zozo sag
vy 1jp
bombs 5 (normass/deepe)
us Joe recent statement by General Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman
of the
Chiefs of Staff, that he did not believe nuclear weapons
would be needed to defend Khe Sanh made little in impression on the few
Vietnamese who read it.
In general, Viet their upside-down way,
have a habit of believing whatever is denied.
==more reuter
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- Page 6
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
bombs 5 (normass/deepe)
He the American mio military command has announced that
American aircraft airstrikes were not repeat not used in the urban
centers any of the Vietnamese towns and cities in the third and fourth
corps areas around the, provinces around Saigon and then southe southward.
Reliable sources say American aircraft dropped 750-pound bombs
and some napalm in the twoc second corps city of Ban Me Thuot and
American airst and Vietnamese airstrikes, using 250, 500 and sometimes
750-pound bombs) are currently being empu dropped in the citadel
area of Hue, where Communist forces have been holed up for weeks.
American helicopters empo employing 76 mm. rockets, and in a cre
feh cases; a6000-roms-a-minute mini-guns, were used in most of
the Vietnamese oities where Communist forces were in the processs
of overruning the city and seizing control. The helicopter rockets
are smaller than 105 mm. howitzer artillery shells and contain less
high explosive material. xx* the first few rounds of artillery shelling are
considered too inaccurate for close-in use until after adjustments are made i
the setting.
==more reuter
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- Page 7
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zozo sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
bombs 7 (normass/deepe)
The net result of the Communist assaults,
CHARRED
and the Allied
SPRINKLED Hround it
firepower reacting to them, was/pockets of several city blocks f
which looked "like pictures of Stalingrad in World War II,"
Communist B-40 rockets are
as one observer explained. In some cases,
in other cases
American, helicopter
ORDNANCE.
thought to set fire to the houses,
rockets, in other cases just the general crossfire of explosives.
the Communists
few limited areas of Saigon, but not in Cholon,
reportedly deliberately set fire to homes so they could escape
with
government troops the flow of evacuees.
the only eyewitnesses of the burnings,
In a
the
In many cases, the inhabitants,
were fleeing their homes so quickly
WHA
they couldn't tell what was happening happening
any side. WERE Doing.
==more reuter
de troops of
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- Page 8
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
bombs
8
(normass/deepe)
Since the Communist military thrust splashed from the
countryside into the cities, the persons has hardest hit were those
who either actively or passively supported the x American-backed Vietnamese
government or else were "sitting on the fence."
The Communist
HEAVIER CABR
gunfire, and the Allied reaction with hey firepower, thus hit these
THE VIETNA
three categories of elements hardesta
1. The Independents of Vietnamese armed forces
personnel, since they often live near the military compounds and
installations of their husbands, which not only in Saigon but most
of the other cities and provincial capitals were special targets of
destruction
This could start an adverse chain reaction
the Communist at attack.
within the Vietnamese military structure.
In Bien Hoa for é example, Communist fighters wiggled
families
The Communists
their way into the houses of Vietnamese army soldiers directly across
from the Vietnamese Third Corps Headugart Headquarters.
reportedly threath threatened to kill any of the wives and children
who ran across the street to tell their husbands of the Communist
Then the Communists reportedly open up with a lethal
The Vietnamese
infiltration.
barrage of automatic weapons fire and rocket fire.
Army,
hitting not only the Communists but their own wives and children in their
Vietnamese Army tanks, wird wielding recoilless rifles moved,
in pillboxes and foxholes across the street, returned fire,
own homes.
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- Page 9
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zczc sag
Jy 1jp
9
bombs
(normass/deepe)
An American officer who watched the scene fea recalled, "I
To stood on the roof of my vo- four-story billet and watched Amero
American helicopters hover right above me and hurl rockets into that
H
The
Catholic Churck in the middle of the dependent's housing area.
rockets and all the tank fire just levelled that four block areaad
It looks like a sieve,
and you should see the roof of that caurck church.
There were Com Viet Cong in there firing at the Vietnamese Army
compound and at the helicopters--but it made me sick to watch it.
"Some of us who have Ex worked so hard on American
civil civic action and pacification were heartbroken to see this happen;
finally cooler headers prevailed and the Americans were ordered to stop
shooting, even though the Communists were still in their. there. Of course,
if I were an infantry commander, I'd want to use supporting weapons rather
than risking the lives of my men. But, it should not have been doneth
that way in the oiti populated areas.
better."
They should have used the infantry
==more reuter
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- Page 10
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
10
bombs (normass/deepe)
2. Economically, the homeowning middle class and lower
middle class elements were suffered the heaviest financial damage.
With the rural peasant class coming increasing under Communist sway
over the past several several months, the strength of the Vietnamese
government was concentrated into the cities, and especially the sid
slender economic classes which were better off than the majority
these middle-class elements have been
of the population.
directly hit by the shot and shell of the war,
Now
for the first time
in the history of the conflict. For some of
the older Vietnamese, the last time in their memory that sai gon
was hit with so much firepower was the American B-29 bombing of the
Here
Japanese occupation forces there
government,
in early 1945.
One family, with close connections to the Vietnamese
was forced to evacuate its home told this correspondent
during the early days of hectic fighting in Saigon: "This bombing and
rocketing is creating a psychological barrier between the government
Wherever the government has used rockets, bombs
it has re-drawn the
heavy weapons in the city,
and the people.
and an
city limits of Saigon. The authority and prestige of the government
has now shrunk from the countryside to within the city itself."
--------------------
- Page 11
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zozo sag
Jy 1jp
11
bombs
(normass/deepe)
Another Vietnamese, who also evacuated his, home and who
maintains close relations with the government, used a classical
of Oriental analogy when he described the situation this way:
"The Communists are like ants who have permeated a bowl
of rice. Now the Americans and the government are trying to kill the
ants with rockets and tank woepen. weapons. But, they're
squashing the rice and smashing the bowl too."
==more reuter
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- Page 12
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2020 sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
bombs 12 (normass/deepe)
3.
several
On the religious side, small pockets of both
Catholic and Buddhist stronghold areas were bombed or rocketed near
saigon.
In the Honai area, 22 miles northwest of Saigon,
les HAVE LINED
miles of North Vietnamese refugee Catholics moved in these settled
Sin 1954, and have maintained one of the most anti-Communist stablising
e
enclaves for any of the pro-American the p succession of pro-American
governments in Saigon. More than 1000 Viet Cong infiltrated into
the area
fireteams.
and the nearby American forces reat reacted with helicopter
Three areas of approximately twenty small houses each were
levelled, and the Cx three Catholic churches and schools and a
Canadian Catholic hospital-watchtower were damaged.
==more reuter
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- Page 13
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zczo sag
yy 1jp
bombs 13 (normass/deepe)
Vill
One Catholic near one of the churches said he was the first
As ca
to enter the first and found the bodies of six dead North Communist
soldiers, killed by American helicopter rockets which created holes
the size of baseballs in the roof and sides of the church. He guessed
the siz six were Communists since they wore the Ho Chi Minh sandals, but
their weapons were already carried away, he thought. Yet, he pleaded,
"You American journalists, please tell the Americans not to shoot at us
any more because the Communists have gone."
Another Catholic, a Vietnamese government soldier home on
leave, also mentioned the Communists were near his home (he to thought
at first they were government troops) and then American helicopter rockets
set one of the neighboring houses on fire, which soon engulfed his.
A Canadian Catholic priest-doctor, also told of American
helicopters hitting his hospital and the watertower of his church, and
he implied he didn't think the Communists were in the area when the
helicopters dived in. "We didn't find any bodies in the area afterwards,"
he said. He said the Catholic population in the area "resented"
ROCKETED,
their
churches and schools being bombed, but were somewhat placated that the
Vietnamese government would help repair the damage.
American G.I.s were
at work re-stringing electric wires on his hopi hospital grounds as he spoke.
more reuter
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- Page 14
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
bombs 14 (normass/deepe)
The rocketing and bombing of the Buddhist stronghold
near the Ang Quang pagoda by the Vietnamese Air Force was even more
controversial. While both American and Vietnamese officials have
publicly said the pagoda was a Communist command area,
other officials,
speaking in private, regard it as a means "of settling old quarrels."
The Buddhists have created problems for past Vietnamese governments,
including that of former Prime Minister (now Vice President) Nguyen
Cao Ky,
who was former commanderxx of the Air Force.
te turn,
various Vietnamese governments have accused the Buddhists
of being pro-Communist.
In tern
==more reuter
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- Page 15
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 15 (normass/deepe)
An area covering about two city blocks in the rear
of the An Quang pagoda in Cholon was destroyed by the/aircraft,
with only charred hulls of Honas, Hondas, sewing machines, bricks,
dishes, teakettles and American-imported tin roofing heaped among
the few standing walls. The aircraft did not hit the pagoda directly,
but did pinpoint the pagoda's printing shot in h shop in the rear
the blocks of hour houses around behind that.
The monk there, a young shaven-headed one in saffron,
says that the government planes used napalm, but this was not
believed accurate by other sources.
250-Point Bom
and
tran She
In the housing area, a Vietnamese mother of four
children, two of them afflicted with pop/polio, said she grabbed
p her children as she saw the flames in her neighbors house and
fled from the area. The wife of a Vietnamese government policemanj
she said she didn't see any Viet Cong around when the planes nosedived
from the skies-nor did the fo government pro broadcast any warnings
for the population to evacuate the area.
She said she helped to
* supplement her husband's police salary by being a tailor, but
STACKED
she had cleaned the charred bricks
now her sewing machine was ruined.
and debris from the remains of her house and had pulled some bick blackened
AS
tin roofing over a stack of bricks to make a frail lean-to for her home.
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- Page 16
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zozo sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
bombs 16 (normass/deepe)
His BAD
then as we
"It took my house and I twoen twenty years to build this
house," she said. "At first it was just a thatch house,
made more money, we put up the brick walls and the tile roof. Now
and allows us to rebuild our
we just hope the government helps us
home again."
American Embassy survey teamsare also reportedly being
told by elements of the Vietnamese populati victims in certain areas
that the Viet Cong were not present when Allied firewpower caused
destruction to their homes.
==more reuter
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- Page 17
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
bombs 9 (normass/deepe)
The countrywis countrywide assessment of destruction
American
in towns and cities is still in the process of being compiled.
officials say preliminary figures indicate that countrywide 48,000 houses,
ranging from shanties to two-stor or three-story cement structures, have
been destroyed and up to half million persons forced to evacuate. They
caution these statistics are still preliminary and subject to wild
fluctuations. The figure of persons evacuating during
Persons evacuating the battle zone during my recent
(ample)
days in Cholon, the Chinese twin-city of Saigon, are just now returning
to their neighborhoods to determine whether they their homes are still
standing. If their homes have been destroyed, they would be termed
permanent refugees and eligible for some government help under various
WHCH
schemes now under consideration, but none have yet been finalized.
=-more reuter
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csc sag
yy 1jp 18
bombs 6 (normass/deepe)
In the initial hours of the fighting which began January 31
would
in Saigon and other southern provincial capitals, American and South
BA
Vietnamese firepower was adeci des decisive factor in turning about the
fury of the Communist assaults; Tan Son Nhut a base, for example,
have probably been captured by the Communists, American generals believe,
had not an American armor column raced from Cu Chi during darkeness
pre-dawn darkness and driven back the assaulting forces. A total of
280 Communist bodies were found at the end of the runway, reliable sources
Examples of similar use of firew
report, killed by American armor.
firepower are also prevailed.
Yet, more politically conscious sources,
including some
American civilian officials and military officers, have voiced the
impression that the Communists outmaneuvered the Allied forces politically,
by forcing them to at the Allies to react with heavy weapons in politid
politically sensitive areas.
As Church
to
PAGOTAS.
==more reuter
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- Page 19
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zozo sag
ᎩᎩ 1jp
bombs (normass/deepe)
APPAR
The Communist actio
appeared to be
tex attempt to seize control of the most sub sturdy built structures
as well as Vietnamese governmental buildings
in the cities, i
and installations. This mean that plaster and concrete buildings ■ such
as factories, schools, churches and pagodas were used Catholi
one
ahurckes
steeples wer In one Catholic
Church near Tan Son Nhut airbase, Communist forces attempted, but failed,
in placing anti-aircraft weapons in the skyw skyward-looking steeple
in order to shoot at aircraft leaving the runway.
==more reuter
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- Page 20
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
bombs 8 (normass/deepe)
graves
The Communists also reportedly used cemeteries for hiding
their weapons oaches and as a battleground, digging foxholes next to the
American helicopters often responded to the Communist groundfire
The one cemetery for
with withering blankets of machinegun fire.
Vietnamese war veterans, a across the xit street from U. S. Ambassador
Ellsworth Bunker's house, was soundly peppered by American helicopters
giving aerial chase to Communist gunners.
predominantly of ancestral works worshipers,
In Vietnamg
cometeries are an especially
a nation predeman
hallowed place.
More Teater
(HANK: HOPE
Most of
Hope you Cons les
This is it Covers beter
the Evacuees situation.
As
f
H.
As possible plus the sp
Problem Which is
Signifint. BEU.)
Very
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Date
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1968, Feb. 16
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Tet Offensive, 1968; Public opinion; Vietnam (Republic)--Government and politics; Aerial operations; Bombing, Aerial
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B9, F20
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
-
Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
