Viet Cong Count U.S. Dead

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30768, 4 June 1965, Page 13

Viet Cong Count U.S. Dead

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) TOKYO, June 3. More than 4500 American troops had been killed and buried on the South Vietnam battlefield in the last four years, the Viet Cong claimed today. Radio Hanoi said the number of Americans killed in battle rose from 30 in 1961 to 443 in 1962, 982 in 1963 and 2111 in 1964 The death toll for American troops this

year had so far reached 1127. This included two brigadiergenerals and 16 majors, the Viet Cong report claimed. It said that since President Johnson ordered a “massive introduction of United States combat troops' into South Vietnam more than 60 Americans had been killed in the Tak Ky district alone. It was in this area that 45 marines were killed in an overnight engagement with Viet Cong guerrillas last week, the report said. The Viet Cong accused U.S. marines of committing atroc-

ious crimes in South Vietnam. These included forcing local people to remove their houses, grabbing land to build an air base, plundering property and “raping women in broad daylight like wild beasts.”

Protest At U.S. ‘Crime’ (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HONG KONG, June 3. North Vietnam has denounced to the International Commission what it described as an “atrocious crime” by the United States and South Vietnamese authorities. It claimed they “massacred” 20 South Vietnamese captured during a raid near Da Nang on May 29 and said: “This is one of the most blatant acts of terror taken against the South Vietnamese people by the United States marine forces since their landing at Da Nang.”