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Nort h. iet Bom bed' A. ga11n;

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We Clam Up on U.S. Role
base. They were accompanied
by American jets which
pounded defending anti-airDA NANG,
craft batteries.
·
Sout h Viet Nam.
United States spokesmen,
Twenty-six South
Viet- following a n ew security
namese Skyraiders, at least policy, r efused to disclose how
two; of them pilo ted by Amer- m any American planes were
icans, yesterday rained 60 t ons in volved in this fifth air atof bombs and r ockets on a t ack on North Viet Nam in
Nor:th etnamese island n aval the ·1ast five weeks. They also

By

Beverly Deepe

ASpecial Corr espondent

would not say what bases the
U. S. jets flew from, although
it was believed they were
Navy planes operating ,from
carriers in the South China
Sea.
The target was T1ger Island ,
a square-mile speck 15 miles
off the North Vietnamese
coast and 18 miles above the
North-South Vietnamese border. Milit ary installations
there were "totally destroyed,"
a South Vietnamese spokes' man said.
The island, described as a
source o! seaborne supplies
for the Communist Viet Cong
guerrillas, was the site of a
tack yesterday, said the j radar station, which could
ground fi re was fairly heavy spot planes approaching from
but the defen ding guns bad the south, supply depots and
been softened up by the barracks, the spokesman said.
· Ame•rican jets before the Sky - It was defended by 12 heavy
raiders went in.
·
gun positions and 49 autoHe added that the attacking matic weapons positions.
planes doubled back on the
North Viet Nam claimed
island after first passin g it in
a feint at the port city of one of the attacking planes
Dong Hoi, which was hit on was shot down in the sea.
Feb. 7 in the first of the cur- . But both U. S. and South
rent air strikes.
Vietnamese spokesmen said
One of the Skyraiders was no planes were lost although
flown by Col. Ralph Newman some were hit by anti-aircraft
of Lafayette, In d., director of fire .
operations for the U. S. Air
The refusal of U. S . Em Force advisory group at Da
Nang. Anotl)er was flown by bassy and militai:y spokesmen
another U. S. colone l, who to · give details on the Amercould not be identifie d .
Mo
on VIET-P 7
As in the last raid against
North Viet Na m on March 2when m ore than 160 U. S.
and South Viethamese planes
pounded a naval base and a
border supply depot-yesterday's attack was described not
as retaliation for a specific
Communist assault but rather
as defense against overall Red
aggression.
At Da Nang, the 3,500 -man
U. S. Marine force m oved in
to guard the U. S. air base
there suffered its fi rst casualties last n ight when a Marine guard fired on a retur ning
patrol in t he belief t hey were
Red guerrillas. · One Marine
was , killed and two oth ers
wounded.

North Viet Bombed

Again; We Cl~m Up
(Continued from page one)

lean role in the raid was a
departure from previous policy. I n the past, the spokesm en have revealed the appr oximate though not exact
num ber of U. S. planes
involveq and their bases.
The Embassy spokesman
said that henceforth these
details, and the amount of
bombs or roc&ets expended
by the U.'. S. planes, would
n ot be disclosed· when tpe
atta cks are made jointly with
t h e South ' Vietnamese. But
wh en attacks are made solely
by U. S. planes, he said, the
number of aircraft will be
given out.
He said the new policy was
made n ecessary for m ilitary
security reasons ,\which I
m yself do not understand."
The sikesman said the
policy wa outl'ined in a sixpage co1 . ilation of messages
on security received from the
P en tagon. He emphasized that
t h e loss of any American
planes will be disclosed,
wh ether or not they are fly ing
with the South Vietnamese.
"We have not encountered
any explanat'ion of this that
makes any sense," commented
one U. S. official.
Br'ig. Gen. Nguyen Cao Ky,
South Vietnamese Air Force
commander who led the at-