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Part of Article about the South Vietnamese Special Forces
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Cl�ndcstine--pa�e I
July 7, 1967
SA.IGOIJ--The young South Vietnamese Speci:?l Forces offic{�rm£fed
out his filter cigar,�tte :md q_uietly told' of his three cl..,ndestine
guerrilla oper.-,tions behind the lines into North Vietnam.
He S"id the opcr':'tions for S"'bot ge "l1d t"'rget spotting for
.Americ2n bombing r"idz hc1.d been conducted for sever2l years--:cmd hence
uerc not considered an escalation of the ':r2,r a.gainst Horth Victnqm.
se.id a few A.rnerican Special Forces personnel .,ccompanied the South
He
Vietnamese troo 9ers and both Vietnamese and .Americ '-'n helicopters -rere
used 2t times.
He seid on his fir..,t mission in IS65 he ,rns into p'"'ro-�ropped into
the mountains on lion Gay island, a rich coc1l mining isl-nd 25 miles
?Tortheast of lforth Vietnam's principal se2,port of Haiphong.
"The r.J."in mission was to create panic in the area, especially among
the Chinese pepuletion by hitting a Chinese Communist terget.
There
uas about 150 of us, including frogmen skilled in demolition work.
At might-time, ue moved out of the mountains dressed like North Vietnamese
fishermen.
(.:ore)
,_
Decpe
Clandestine--page 2
"'.Phe frogmen got into the water and attached a lip mine to the
bottom of the Chinese Communist cargo boRt and adjusted the timing device
for
15
minutes,
That gave us enough time to get out of the ,rea and
back into the hills.
exploded and sank.
got killed.
Fifteen minutes later the Chinese Communist boat
We got a later report that several Chinese Commv.nists
�Te went further beck into the mount a.ins ;:ind were collected
by helicopter and taken to the U.S. Havy 7th Fleet off the North Viet!'lam
co ast.
The Americen commender of the ship welcomed us to the big A..'11eric::m
vessel ;:,nd the U.S. sailors hugged us and took us to the be.r.
Am ericsn officiers
"Nen the
e ad.dressed the Vietnamese enlisted men by
Th�·t •rns very funny to us.
yes sir •
The .Americans treated us very well, put us
in "' luxury lounge "'nd we ate e lot of food.
1Je were very h<>ppy too because
we didn't have "'llY casu3lties. 11 [j'je s id the nu.ruose of his seconc1 mission
-
fkp,.
was to observe Forth Vietnernese troop movements 1
to radio to a high-flying �eric211 U-2 aircraft,
.I
•
(�
�
South,;• rd rind then
1vhich in turn C"lled
in At11erican fic;hters 2nd bombars to hit the �Jorth Vietn amese troops.
(..ore)
Deepe
Clandestine--page
111
3
'!e ,7cre dropped by helicopter into a mountai n peak south of
i.....('7S-
Vinll)\·:1iles north of the demilitarized zone).
J:i,rom the peak ve could
n,atc::-i t'-ro 1,orth Vietnamese divisions--the 324B and the 325th--moving
tow1-1ro.s the J)'.�Z.
We ware each given a map and compass and f old to
climb to the top of the p0ak .. nd stay there as long as pos-,,ible to
observe ::forth Vietnamese convoys moving south.
•1e ,•ralked sevE:ral hoUJ.'s to the foot of the mountain and then
111
rested.
Then we climbed up the mountain.
The slope was so steep and
tho junc;le ,;o thick we could travel only 300 yards a day.
'I1he first
--.Jt?�
/JrR_(?_j
'-(t.U�A-�
night we had t� ourselves a.round the trees and cling fto �
time; other'"v.i.se we'd have fallen down the slope.
We slept vn.th the
tree in front of us and our back-pack in the rear.
"The second day we reached the top of the mountain JMl!i iiiC and we
felt c,rsat.
We had radio contact all the time with the .American
aircr::>ft; i:vi th ou'R binoculars we could see the trails in the daytime
and <luJcing the night we could hear the constant drone of North Vietnamese
trucks moving south.
11
Th0 fifth day of the r.1ission \70 received :psupplies.
We just
r-1c1t th0rc ··,j_ t:1 our binoculars and '7atched the troop movements and
reported them, and adjusted the American bombing attacks onto the target ..
At
night ,,re couldn 1 t see much, but we could hear the North Vietnamese
trucks moving all the time.
That nas a
t1vo 7eek nission up on that
mountain peak, and then our unit of about I50 men ,rras picked up.
We
had seve1'al American Special Forces people with us -;rho radioed to the
Ame:r-ican U-2. ,,
Deope
Ch�na.estine--page 4
iJ./et•,._(l
�f9/
�
His third miss.1.011 rras more dangerous and costly.
Again roughly
� '3outh Vietnamese Special Forces troopers, with American counterparts,
were helicoptered into a landing zone just no�th of the demilitarized
zone ner-ir the Laotian 1Jorder.
The landing zone had been liberally
i:ppered ,,rl th Amer·ican bombing raids before the helicopters landed.
"It seemed safe enough vhen v.re landed, " the Vietnamese smiled.
"It was lunchtime and we started eatin g.
soldior climbed up to ,7here ,,70 were.
Then one North Vietnamese
I stared at him and he at me.
For a few seconds we were both confused.
asked in Chinese for the secret passwo1° d.
Then the North Vietnamese
L�y friend understood and
spoke Chinese and. he answered, but gave the vr.rong password.
Vietne.mese soldier star·ted firing, bu"L missed.
The North
My friend and X
retur-necl fi:ce, but missed, because there were alot of trees and bamboo
aro1md.
"Thon more North Vietnamese started shooting up towards us on
the mountain peak.
We dropped oux lunches and we all jumped into a
big B-52 bomb crater near the helicopter landing zone.
"If · 'G looked over the ed.ge of the crater the North Vietnamere
vrould shoot at us.
So, we didn't look over the rim of the crater.
Once in awhile we'd throw hand grena des do�'ll on them.
Then the North
Vietnamese started burning the forest at the bottom of the mountain
and the smoke was coming up in oux faces.
We called the people llpit
upstairs ( in the cirling American aircraft) that we were undel' attack
ancl wc?.nted to be pulled out.
(1�ore)