Saigon Bomb Wrecks Billet

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 13

Saigon Bomb Wrecks Billet

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, December 25. A Communist bomb ripped through the lower floors of a United States officers’ barracks in the heart of Saigon last night, killing two Americans and injuring dozens of others as they prepared for Christmas Eve parties, a military spokesman said.

The spokesman said that besides the two killed, 107 people—63 Americans, 43 Vietnamese and an Australian—were injured in the bombing.

The Australian and American casualties were only slightly hurt, but about 20 were still in the hospital today. Four Australians members of the Australian military advisory team in Vietnam—were billeted at the bombed building and their rooms were only about 30 yards from the parked car inside which the bomb was believed to have been planted.

It was not known if they all were in the building at the time of the explosion. Australia has 83 jungle warfare experts, 73 air force men and some medical men in Vietnam.

An estimated 2001 b of plastic explosive was used in the bomb, the Associated Press reported.

Vietnamese police said they had rounded up several suspects for questioning about the explosion. Fire surged up through the wreckage of the first three floors of the seven-storey billet, called the Hotel Brink, after the explosion. Windows within nearly a half mile were shattered. The United States Armed Forces radio station was wrecked, along with nine military vehicles parked on the grounds. Pavements nearby were spattered with blood-

In the rubble, searchers found the body of a United States Army Lieutenant Colonel. Earlier, a United States civilian had died in the hospital of wounds. Three Civilians

The dead civilian and two of the wounded men were civilians who lived in the quarters. Security forces had trouble in several areas controlling panicky crowds as rumours swept the city that the explosion was but the start of a Christmas terrorist offensive.

One rumour, quickly refuted, was that another United States servicemen’s hotel had also been bombed, A.P. said.

Contributing to the unrest was an unconfirmed story that three battalions of Viet Cong troops were grouped near the outskirts with the object of shelling or otherwise striking at Saigon. Bob Hope Leaves Apprehensive American security officials almost conducted the comedian. Bob Hope, out of Saigon in the wake of the bombing, United Press International said. Hope and his troupe of entertainers, in South-east Asia for his annual Christmas show for military staff, were en route from the suburban Saigon airport to the city when the bomb exploded. A spokesman for the Hollywood comedian said it was uncertain at first if Hope would be allowed to stay at the Caravelle Hotel overnight. “They almost sent us out of town to stay at another American base,” the comedian's spokesman said. Later, Hope dined at the Caravelle with blood on his shirt sleeves, which he got from shaking hands with and comforting 42 of the injured Americans taken to Saigon’s navy hospital for medical attention. “I didn’t realise I had the blood stains,” Hope said.