Article about a Việt Cộng attack

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-07673 to 363-07677.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-07673 to 363-07677

Title

Article about a Việt Cộng attack

Description

Original title: "outpost", Article about a Việt Cộng attack on a South Vietnamese militia using a new military strategy, for the New York Herald Tribune

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

deepe outpost--1 jan.11, 1965 TAN [deletion: BUE] BUU, SOUTH VIET NAM--Only ten miles from Saigon’s gleaming white Presidential Palace last week, a Viet Cong Communist unit momentarily adopted Korean War-styled tactics of a miniature invasion instead of following their usual elusive guerrilla tactics. The Viet Cong unit, part of the five-hundred-man reinforced battalion, scampered across the rice-paddy dikes [XXXX indicating deletion] only fivehundred feet from this small outpost, carefully dug dozens of foxholes, moved into their frontline position lethal American-captured .57 mm. recoillless rifles and .75 mm. Chinese Communist recoiless rifles. [XXXX indicating deletion] A government local militia squad, seeing the Viet Cong moving across the fields, fled into the outpost--and [deletion: old] landowner’s [XXXX indicating deletion] old French-styled villa,-- only minutes before [deletion: an] a pre-dawn onslaught of shelling, which tore great gaps into [insertion: two] American-supplied barbed wire fences, ripped the [XXXX indicating deletion] through the [deletion: front] concrete wall and smashed into the front door. deepe outpost--2 jan. 11, 1965 Minutes later, the Viet Cong troopers sneaked through the holes in the wall, sending the government company and local [deletion: mil] defenders “retreating in blood,” as on of them explained. An American officer [deletion: die] was killed near the semicircular foxhole near the front gate, after expending four boxes of machinegun ammunition which delayed the Viet Cong advance. An American sergeant, one of the 20 wounded, escaped by jumping into the river and hiding until the Viet Cong retreated two hours later. Simultaneously, other elements of the Viet Cong reinforced battalion launched [XXXX indicating deletion] three other [XXXX indicating deletion] diversionary attacks. More than 100 Viet Cong attacked another pacified hamlet north of Tan Buu, while others [deletion: attacked southern outposts] harassed with mortar fire two [deletion: southern] outposts [deletion: on] to the south, and others [XXXX indicating deletion] launched 25 rounds of deadly .81 mm. mortar [deletion: rounds] into artillery position in neighboring Binh Chanh district headquarters. One round crashed through roof of the austere district headquarters and one exploded outside National Police Headquarters where 10 district police officials barely escaped injury. Several landed only 20 [deletion: years] yards from the green temporary hut of the five-man American [deletion: advisory] district advisory team. deepe outpost--3 [XXXX indicating deletion] jan. 11, 1965 “It was a very [deletion: gold] bold, very well coordinated plan,” an American field advisor explained. “You can’t help but admire it.” Before retreating from the Tan Buu outpost, the Viet Cong raided the premises, stole all the weapons from the armory (an unknown number), [insertion: carried away] so much ammunition they could not paddle it all down the river--and even [insertion: swiped] the Vietnamese company commander’s boots and uniforms. They captured four heavy weapons and enough rifles to equip a new company; three American-supplied radios, which gives them the capability of [deletion: tapping government radio] listening to radio communications of government forces, classified documents--and even a government trooper’s hammock. [XXXX indicating deletion] While porters loaded the [deletion: lot] loot on river rafts and paddled through the pineapple fields, other members of the battalion beat on the doors of the villagers--”but we were too terrified to open the door,” the village barber explained. “The Viet Cong now has the same weapons that we have,” an American advisor moaned after the attack. “It appears we (the Americans) are equipping both sides, but we are giving advice to only one side [deletion: to see if the advice is effective].” (More) deepe outpost--4 jan. 11, 1965 The Viet Cong attack, [XXXX indicating deletion] clearly audible in Saigon, sent wealthy businessmen tossing in their beds, and the following day sent Vietnamese [XXXX indicating deletion] and American military commanders adding red dots (indicating Viet Cong attacks) to their maps in a 25-mile arc around the capital city. The attack, was made in the presumably pacified area of the strategically-important [deletion: Hoc Top] Hop Tac (Cooperation) Plan, designed by Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander of the American Military Assistance Command, and approved by American Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara last fall. The plan, using Saigon as the center of the so-called “oil spot”, calls for the gradual expansion of government authority into the [XXXX indicating deletion] six provinces around Saigon. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Viet Cong will attack us more and more in the [deletion: Hoc Top] Hop Tac area,” one American advisor explained. “The Viet Cong were very clever in attacking clusters of hamlets and outposts that were in different provinces and districts. Within one and half miles, our border here intersects the neighboring province in six different places [deletion: in] on the [deletion: road] main highway and the canals. It adds to the confusion and hinders coordination as to who should send in reinforcements. deepe outpost--5 jan. 11, 1965 “we know the Viet Cong are in this area and they will attack again,” the American explained. “But they’re not [deletion: ana] amassed in tents in the trees--we can’t send tanks or fighter bombers after them. We must defeat them with many night patrols done vigorously and continuously. [deletion: We will lose] [XXXX indicating deletion] [deletion: people--good American and Vietnamese soldiers.] “The Viet Cong are hoping we will get discouraged because it is tough,” he explained. “But we have to keep plugging. We will lose people--good American and Vietnamese troops. In two days I lost two of my good friends. Both were Westpointers and one was a Rhodes scholar.” -30-

Date

1965, Jan. 11

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Strategy; Tactics; Militia

Location

Tân Bửu , South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.6790; 106.5341

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B4, F10

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