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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04782.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04782
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Title
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When the Viet Cong Snafus Saigon's Snob Set
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the Việt Cộng cutting off the resort and spy town of Đà Lạt from road access to Saigon, page unknown
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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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7/4/85
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
DALAT, South Viet Nam.
This snobbish resort and
No. 1 spy center virtually
has been isolated by Viet Cong
guerrillas in the mountains
north of Saigon.
Until May, Dalat, a quiet
and cool city of 60,000 peo-
ple, was the resort area of
Saigon's jet set-or more ac-
curately Dakota set-when the
clammy monsoons invaded the
delta regions. In the temper-
ate year-round weather of
Dalat, important military and
political meetings have been
held to cool off the hot heads
in government or the hot
tempers of military brass and
extremist opposition leaders.
SIGNS
Rich upper-class business-
men entertain their families
and influential friends in pri-
vate chalet-style villas there.
The Communists rarely har-
assed or sabotaged the 250-
mile long road linking Saigon
When the Viet Cong Snafus Saigon's Snob Set
and Dalat. The Reds need
Dalat as a center for gather-
ing intelligence.
But on May 15, the Commu-
nists took over about 15 miles
of the route. They cut the
road with a government bull
dozer while a white Commu-
nist cameraman and Viet Cong
movie cameraman photo-
graphed an armed, khaki-clad
Comunist guerrilla supervis-
ing the digging up of the road-
bed; eyewitnesses said.
At the road blocks, people
who walked through the 15-
to
mile sabotaged strip
catch a bus or hire a car on
the other side of the trenches
-could see Communist signs
reading:
Forces
"The Liberation.
(Communist) invite the
people to stay where they are.
We are attacking all road
communications leading to
Saigon. Please, wait until the
capital is liberated, and we
will have more fun going
there together."
But realizing the sudden
difficulty faced by the people,
the Red saboteurs explained,
traffic
would be resumed
rots began rotting in Dalat
and a shortage of vegetables
was felt in Saigon.
again for five days-May 25 vegetables and especially car-
to 30-so that the people
could attend to their affairs.
However, they added that the
sabotage would be resumed
without notice.
The Saigon-Dalat highway
is one of the most vital trade
links in South Viet Nam.
Roads leading from Dalat
northward and eastward to
the South China Sea have
been severed by the Reds
since last year.
The only safe line of sup-
plies and transportation to
Dalat is the air line. The
national air line Air Viet Nam
has added a number of flights
but still lacks the flights to
serve all who want to go to
Dalat this summer.
Owners of luxury cars have
left their cars in Saigon be-
cause they fear sabotage.
HOARDING
Dalat commercial specula-
tors are hoarding foodstuffs
in a bid to push up prices.
The city is the main supply
center of Saigon's vegetables.
When the Communists sab-
otaged the road for ten days,
Oddly enough, instead of
turning their wrath on the
Reds, the upper-class people
stranded in Dalat, and the
farmers who
were worrying
about their crops complained
that the anti-Communist gov-
ernment and the half-million-
man Vietnamese armed forces
had not adequately fought off
the guerillas or repaired the
roads.
The
more sophisticated
wondered about the useful-
ness of New Zealand and
Korean engineering corps
troops recently sent to Viet
Nam to help them.
According to military
sources, the guerrillas at-
tacked the Saigon-Dalat high
way last month to provide
security for the movement of
hard-core units from the
coastal provinces northeast of
Saigon to the mountainous
areas and high plateaus for
their main offensives which
are going on now.
nist troop movement is over,
the Communists continue oc-
casionally to dig up the road,
build mud obstacles or
fell
trees across the road to stop
cars, buses and trucks.
According to security
the
sources,
Communists'
purpose is to raise taxes and
to remind the people of their
presence. They have charged
from 500 to 2,000 piastres
($5 to $20) on each French-
made car, over 2,000 piastres
on each American-made car
and higher rates for trucks
transporting food stuffs and
vegetables.
The tax is aimed primarily
at the farmers. So far, these
have been staunchly anti-
Communist. Many of them
fled Communist north Viet
Nam at the end of the Indo-
china war. By sabotaging the
roads, the farmers are forced
indirectly to pay the tax. If
the farmers refused the Com-
munists would carry out a
long period of sabotage and
the vegetables would rot.
According to intelligence
sources, the Communists do
not consider Dalat City a
Even though the Commu- military target. But they do
regard Dalat as one of the
most important places to ob-
tain intelligence.
This was discovered at the
beginning of this year when
an important Red spy was cap-
tured by chance. At a check-
point of the Belle Vue Pass,
a policeman tried out a new
system of detecting fabricated
identity cards issued by the
Communists to their infil-
trated cadres. He detained
one suspect named Nguyen
Van Doan who had in his
possession a large sum of
Vietnamese piastres.
Interrogated by Dalat se-
curity forces, he admitted he
was a Communist agent. The
deputy chief of the Viet-
Central Intelligence
namese
Organization immediately flew
to Dalat. Doan confessed he
was a political captain of the
North Viet Nam Army.
He was born in South Viet
Nam and was parachuted
from North Viet Nam into
Pleiku last year. He made his
way to Saigon where he
rented a house and hired a
housekeeper.. Then he re-
newed contacts with a num-
ber of high ranking military
officers and government offi-
cials in Saigon before moving
to Dalat to set up an intelli-
gence network.
EVASION
escape
According to one spy hunter,
Dalat is the most wonderful
and secure place to obtain in-
formation. It is difficult to
follow a spy there and if sus-
pected, the spy can
easily into the Communist con-
trolled areas outside the city.
For this reason the Commu-
nists in early 1963 dissolved
fifteen military camps created
in Tuyen-Duc Province, in
which Dalat is situated.
However, to show their mili-
tary presence, the Communists
keep three companies of
regional forces, each in one of
three districts of Tuyen-Duc
Province. In addition, the
Communists have 15 networks
of sympathizers and spies
working for them in Dalat.
Five of them were cracked by
the government recently after
the Americans agreed to ear-
mark additional funds to re-
NORTH
Gulf of
Tonkin
VIET NAM
HAINAN
LAOS
SOUTH
VIET
NAM
CAMBODIA
DALAT
0
100
SAIGON
Miles
Phnom
cruit and organize better spy
hunters.
The Americans agreed to
this because they are building
a $4 million high-frequency
communication system near
Dalat and reportedly con-
sidering bringing in nearly one
battalion of U. S. Marines to
protect this installation.
The Americans also are re-
portedly planning to build
there a convalescence hospital
for wounded and sick GI's.
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Date
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1965, Jul. 4
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Subject
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Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Campaigns--Central Highlands; Đà Lạt (Vietnam)
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Location
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Đà Lạt, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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11.9471; 108.4455
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Container
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B4, F6
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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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
