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Part of B-52 Raid Is Biggest Since '45; B-52 Raid Sets Record

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B-52 Raid

Is Biggest
Since '45
y Beverly Deepe '
pecial Correspondent

SAIGON.
The gigantic B-52 bomber
ratd dropping 625 tons of
bombs over North Viet Nam
yesterday was the biggest,
most powerful combat raid
since the atomic bomb was
·dropped on Nagasaki 21 years
ago, United States Air Force
officials said here.
''.We had notliing to match
t
in a single raid in the
K
an War, in terms of tonnage-and nothing thus far
in Viet Nam," one American
Air Force official explained,.
The B-52 bombers were recently modified to take an
increased payload of 30 tons.
Each plane can carry 84 500pound bombs inside and 24
750-pound bombs under the
wings. During World War II
a B-17 Flying Fortress, flying
on a 1,000-mile round trip,
could carry eight 500-pound
bombs, or a payload of two
tons.

E~CALATION
· The raid by the giant
Stratofortress jets was immediately regarded here as
the first move in a continuing
escalation of military ·pressure on North ·Viet Nam.
"This ,raid was south of
Vinh," one informed political
source said. "Next you'll see
the SAM <surface-to-air missiles) sites taken out further
north and then you'll see the
•bigger bombing runs moving
further north."
[Hanoi' protested today
against the B-52 raid, the
.Associated Press reported. The
North Viet Nam News Agency,
in a broadcast monitored in
Tokyo, said the protest, made
in a note to the International
Control Commission in Viet
Nam, called the raid "a new
step in the escaliation of the
war.J
American officials, speaking
Pl'ivately, attempted to play
down the significance of the
air strike by arguing that it
More on B-52s-P 14

,

New York

llttalb arribune

11

B-52 Raid Sets Record
(Continued from page one)

was simply a means to close
permanently a mountain pass
in which five ~·aids by' F-105
Thunderchiefs had virtually
failed.
.
But sources close to the
Vietnamese high command
,regarded yesterday's raid as
an attempt to increase in one
lightning blow the military
pressure as a means to drive
North Viet Nam to the negotiating table.
Other political sources regarded the massive raid as a
counterbalance to the growing
political vacuum in South
Viet Nam.
"The big bombing raid is
only rationale for an American policy," one Vietnamese
politician explained. "The
Americans hit the North when
they were losing in the South.
And they slam on the military
pressure when they are losing
politically in Saigon.
The political vacuum was
corn,idered to have increased
yesterday in Saigon on at
least two counts. They,are:
CIThe realization-long suspected-that the American
government was slowly withdrawing its support from
Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, who
was embraced by President
Johnson at the Honolulu conference less than two months
ago.
"The American position is
quite clear," one Western diplomat explained. "Their policy
is not to become so involved
with one individual (namely
Ky} that they go down the
drain with him."
fIPremier Ky's opening of
a political conference of various political and religious
factions was regarded here as
"disappointing," 1f not a
failure. The mil!tant Buddhists, considered to be Communist infiltrated, who have
been attempting to topple his
government, boycotted the
meeting .

...

Of the 170 expected members, only 92 showed up at the
opening. Later in the day, one
prominent polit!cion moved
that the conference . be dissolved-and the attendance
dropped to 70.
The official American announcements that the Johnson administration would
support a government elected
soon by the people also drew
critical comments.
"The Americans are deluding themselves into thinking
that a popularly elected government will help out in the
South," one American source
explained.
"Democracy has never been
establlshed in wartime. Even
America and Britain diminished
democracy
duringWorld War II, with price rationing and drafting, because
one must have control. You
can't
develop
democracy

Thant yesterday corLfiirmed a
report published in the Herald
Tribune that he had held a
private meeting with Tran
Van Huu, a former Premier of
South Viet Nam.
The report quoted Mr.
Thant's spokesman as saying
"no oommelllt" to question&
on the meeting. But yesterday,
the spokesman, in ans,we1ing
queri-es about the Hernld Tribune story, said: "Mr. Thant
had seen Mr. Tran Van Huu
at the latter's request on April
7. They discussed Viet Nam."
The spokesman refused to
reveal any details about the
conversation, or even whether
Mr. Thant had scheduled another meeting wi,th Mr. Huu.
Thant Confirms
The former Vietnamese
leader, who was exiled to
HuuMeeting
Paris by the late Premier Ngo
By Darius S. Jhabvala
Dinh Diem, slipped into New
Of Th e He r ald Tr i bu n• Staff
York on April 5 without the
U'mTED NATIONS.
knowledge of U. S. or South
UN Secretary General U Vietnamese Mission officials.

during a war- it runs counter
to the face of history.
"The Americans are moving
toward the brink," he continued, "yet they say it's not
dangerous to go to the brink.
This is a very strange situation-we can have a collapse
of the government and the
whole anti-Communist war
effort."
The American source, who
has seen many crises come
and go in Viet Nam, continued : "This is the worst
crisis here in 10 years.
"This whole crisis is a very
weird thing-l!ke a perverse
<:ieath-wish."