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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05202 to 363-05214.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05202 to 363-05214
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Title
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Article about a potential withdrawl from the DMZ
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Description
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Original title: "withdrawl", Keever's title: "At DMZ, Allies Dig Deeper for more Strife(?) of U.S. Stops Bombing North Vietnam," Article draft about the potential knock-on effects a ceasation of bombing against the North Vietnamese would have for troops along the Vietnamese DMZ, for the Christian Science Monitor, page 1-13
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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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withdrawal 1 (normass/deepe)
WITH U. S. THIRD MARINE DIVISION,
ALONG THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE, VIETNAM,
OCTOBER 12-The Allied defense line all along Vietnam's demilitarized zone
would probably be forced to make an orderly, but strategic withdrawal southwards
if the bombing of North Vietname ceases without adequate, iron-cladé guarantees
of tit-for-tat d de-escalation by the Communists.
This is the view of senior commanders here and in Saigon. Even if the
North Vietnamese agree to the "restoration of the DMZ' in re by withdrawing their
ground troops from the six-mile-wide zone in return for cessation of the American
"actso of war", Marine tactical commanders still would be unhappy. For, in their
the real threat to Allied defenses along the DMZ is not a massive ground
invasion through the DMZ-but is Communist artillery from North Vietnam,
view,
across the
6 six-mile-wide zone and onto American Marine, Army and Vietnamese Army bases and
mobile operation positions.
--more reuter
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withdrawal 2 (normass/deepe)
Abrams,
said:
One Saigor-based officer close to American commander, General Creighton W.
opened up the possibility of an Allied withdrawal along the DMZ when he
We've
"You can not repeat not have Americans or Vietnamese near the DMZ with
people shooting at them from north of the Ben Hai re river (which separates North
and South Vietnam) and we can not shoot back. You just can not have that.
just got to be able to shoot back. It's just a military rule and without that
the situation is intolerable. You can not have Americans being shot at without
letting them shoot back. You just can't run it that way."
--more reuter
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withdrawal 3
(normass/deepe)
Officially, there is yet no repeat no decision for an Allied retreat
southwards in the event of a cessation of bombing over North Vietnam that would be
disadvantageous to American and Vietnamese troops. "We'll make the necessary
decisions when that time comes, #
one high-ranking source explained.
Anyhow, for tact American tacital commanders along the DMZ, they know the
decision will be made at much higher level than theirs.
But, these tactical commanders along the DMZ are emphatic about the
following points if the bombing of North Vietnam ceases without adquate
and ground movements.
adequate guarantees for cessation of Communist artillery/across the
zone:
--more reuter
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withdrawal (normass/deepe)
1.
In its current form, the Allied defense line along the 40-mile
BENHA
7
long DMZ clearly could not be held without heavy personnel and material losses.
2. Hence, a disadvantageous halt to the bombing of the North i would
demand a critical, strategic re-appraisal of the Allied defense line all
along the DMZ.
3. In making that strategic re-arpp re-appraisal, there are only
two options for the Allies-either to dig deeper or to retreat south out of the
range of Communist artillery. But, even to dig deeper into bunkered positions
does not strike the M tactical commanders as a very rp probable solution--
for they run the high-risk of intensive, if not continuous artillery bombardment
reminescent of the Khe Sanh siege days.
Dm.
The Allied defense line is suspended into the three sides of a strategic
box; Allied troops oan not move
xmomentem further east because of the
South China Sea; they can not move further west or north because of the
political boundaries with North Vietnam or Laos. Hence, then can only
retreat south-or bogin digging in deeper.
more reuter
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withdrawal
5 (normass/deepe)
"If the government stops the bombing, we would have to have a very careful
evaluation o of our present dispositions," one tactical commander who had
Such
(meaning
already thought out is consequences, explained. "We can't sit under
br.
bombardment from the North without hardened sites. They'd chew us up little by
little. Now they can open up and we can immediately counter with our
air and artillery because we maintain constant air cover over the North.
Otherwise,
The
and Americans and
Communist
Vietnamese would have to dig in deeper and take the fire as at Con Thien-
or else to withdraw southwards. But, then one asks how far south can we go.
This decision would have to be made at a pretty high level-either to stay where
we are in hardened sites or to withdraw."
----more reuter
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6
withdrawal (normass/deepe)
Any strategic withdrawal from the DMZ would involve more than
20,000 American Marines and soldiers, plus Vietnamese infantrymen end
armor, as well as other additional thousands of support-type personnel
in the
headquarters-logistical complexes. The withdrawal would be designed
to pull these
installations Allied installations and units out of the range
of the
whompin Communists' whomping 130 millimeter artillery, the
Communists most dependable, accurate and bag-range artillery used to date.
It was this
artillery directed from both North Vietnam and Laos which
pounded the American Marines at the Khe Sanh combat base earlier this
year.
9
The 130 millimeter artillery has a maximum range of 27,000 meters--or
16.2 repeat 16.2 miles. If the North Vietnamese based and continued
to shoot their artillery from immediately north of the DHZ, then the Allies
would
be forced to withdraw from such major positions as the huge refuge
resettlement
and district town of Cam Lo, the massive American artillery
osition at Camp Carroll, the forward supply base of Dong Ha, from
headquarters command areas along Route 9, and from tens of smaller outpost hopE TRAT
outpope tapping the electronic sensors of the McNamara line and
re
mobile operational bse bases, which the Marines now use to enhance their
heliborne mobility.
more reuter
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withdrawal 4 (normass/deepe)
the little
For the Marine commanders, the imeedi immediate significance of the bombing
of North Vietnam in this regard is that the Allies have fairly well suppressed
the Communist artillery from North by quick-reaction air and artillery strikes.
The tactical mechanics of suppressing Communist artillery fire revolves around
constant airborne alert of small, two-seater spotter plans which keep the whole
DMZ under consistent observation. Whenever Communist artillery fires,
spoo spotters use the flash-bang" try to catch a glimpse of the flash and smoke
from the firing while other American ground units use the "flash-bang" system
of computing roughly how long the artillery round is in the air he and from the
rough location that it was fired. Then American tactical aircraft as well as
American artillery are within minutes retaliating on the specific or general
coordinates from which the 130 mille millimeter artillery was fired.
--more reuter
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8
withdrawal 5 (normass/deepe)
said
"Cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam could be disasterous for us,
Maj. Gen. Raymond Davis, the Korean War Medal of Honor winnder who now commands
the Third Marine Division.
"Aour positions most "Most of our positions near
the DMZ would be subject to Communist artillery without adequate capability for us
to respond. We rely on our air observation and airstrikes to keep this Communist
artillery down.
"We aren't that worried about a Communist ground push. The enemy does not
have enough ground forces at this time to cause us immediate concern. But,
the enemy's artillery is different.
this before-that when we gain the upperhand along the DMZ he the enemy calls for
a cessation of the bombing--and then he increases his supply and troop movements.
HAVE MOVED
It is clearly a fact--and we have gone through
After every ceasefire during the past three years, the Communists move in their
HA
heavy artillery and we have to go in and bomb it out. Now, if the enemy agrees
not to shoot over the DMZ, it would solve part of that problem."
-more reuter
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withdrawal 6 (normass/deepe)
During the past several moh months, the Communist artillery, which once
consistently raked the whole DMZ area, has been relatively quiet not only because
American firepo tactical air and artillery firepower have reacted in split-second
fashion to counter it, but also because of B-52 Stratetic Air Command raids
along the zone as well as because of heavy flooding and muddy roads which prevente
prevented massive Communist replacement of supplies and destroyed artillery.
--more reuter
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withdrawal (normass/deepe)
Even if the bombing and "other acts of war"
Vietnam,
American commanders are along the DMZ
the option of using unarmed air reconnaissance.
never give up their right to air reconnaissance,"
are ceased over North
are insistent they retain
"The American government can
one Marine aviator emphasized,
"and we never will. Even though Eisenhower was embarrassed by it--we still kept
reconnaissance air reconnaissance going. Anyhow, everyone uses air reconnaissance
every day-the Soviets are reconning the United States every day with their
satellites. We will just have to keep some reconnaissance of some sort over
North Vietnam to see if they're massing southwards."
-more reuter
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withdrawal (normass/deepe)
For the Marine commanders, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey's campaign
speeches urging 'restoration of the DAZ" by the North Vietnamese in exchange for
American cessation of the bombing over the North seems extravagantly out of step
with the tactical situation facing the Allies. whether or noté the Communist
ground troops withdraw from the DMZ seems irrelevant to the Marine officers + U:ETNA
through
the hectic battles result when the Communists push south of the DMZ. Even
if the Communists would age agree not to transit through the DMZ, they could
still bring men and supplies in through Laos, and dump them in the rear of
the Marines--behind the Allied DMZ line--or else move them further south into
Clearly, the Marines would
even as v far as the greater Saigon perimeter. This would not be much of a concession
by the Communists, in the eyes of the Marines.
want all this southward flow of men and materials stopped-whether it comes straight
across the DMZ or through Laos. In addition, they want airtight a guarantees
the Communist bombardments across the DMZ would cease--for Marines who remember all
too well the artillery poundings at Con Thien and Khe Sanh, as well as sporadic
fire at almost every other installation,
this becomes a crucial demand.
---more reuter
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withdrawal 2 (normass/deepe)
One other immediate, significant point of concern to the tactical
commanders is the shifting monoon winds along the DMZ. Monsoon rains
prevail along the D dur DMZ during most of the year--but the important question
is whether, as the in winds shift, they are advantageous to either the Allies
the Commun
Southeast
At this time, the
monsoon rains are disadvantageous
for the Communists; the Laotian side of the mountains are rain-swept; their
supply trails and roads are wet and in some cases the rivers that must be crossed
NORTHEAST
the
OR
to
are flooded. But, within a matter of weeks,
monsoon begins, inundating
the Allied-held coastal plains populated coastal plains--where are also based logistical
depots--and smothering the Marine-held mountaintops in clouds, fog and mist during
most the coming months. When these monsoons hamper Marine helicopter mobility and
tactical air support, the Communist raeds roads and trails are in good sho shape
for rapid trafficking; If, the Marines argue, the bombing of the North is
this plent
stopped at a disadvantage to the Allies along the DMZ, then these two factors
combined would further jeopardize prospects of holding the 40-mile-long muddy
line.
--more reuter
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withdrawal (normass/deeped
Ex the American
Other military officers havenenebombet criticized
cessationa of the bombing over the northern portions of North Vietnam in March,
just as the Hanoi Haiphong areas received the best weather for receiving
weather over Hanoi-Haiphong became most favorable for Allied airstrikes--and when
the Communists were in the best position to receive supplies import supplies.
"The weather has a consistently been a factor the Communists have play4d
played to the advantage and we have ignored," one senior military officer
explained. "Now, the € there are so many supplies in North Vietnam the country
is about to sink. "
-end reuter
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Date
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1968, Oct. 12
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Aerial operations; United States; Bombing, aerial; Bombardment; Strategy
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Location
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Demilitarized Zone, Vietnam
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Coordinates
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16.6193, 106.7305
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B10, F39
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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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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
