KHANH WANTS NEW MEANS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 13

KHANH WANTS NEW MEANS

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PLAIKU (South Vietnam), October 18.

The Prime Minister, Nguyen Khanh, said today he did not think South Vietnam could win its fight against Communist subversion by continuing its present methods of warfare.

He said alternatives under consideration for winning the war included attacking Communist North Vietnam and bombing its capital city of Hanoi.

General Khanh has expressed ideas along these lines in the past, but they have not received any enthusiastic support from his American advisers. General Khanh made his observations during a visit to Plaiku, a central highlands town which is a key operations centre in the war

against the Communist Viet Cong. “The Viet Cong are the masters of subversive warfare, and we cannot beat them on this ground,” he said. The American backers of his Government had the means with which to expand and win the war. “Why don’t they use these means.” he asked. Three Battles Meanwhile, Communist forces lost nearly 300 killed yesterday when Government troops pounded them in three widely scattered battles throughout the country, according to an American military spokesman today. The Government lost less than 10 killed.

From just south of the North Vietnamese border to the southern Meking Delta area, Government forces inflicted three “very substantial victories” over the Viet Cong. The biggest of these battles, described as one of the toughest of the war, was 30 miles north of Saigon, where Government troops struck Viet Cong positions with infantry, tanks, and artillery and strafed them with rocket-firing fighter planes.