Saigon Students Call Ky ‘Traitor’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 19

Saigon Students Call Ky ‘Traitor’

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, March 22.

Saigon students directly attacked the Premier, Nguyen Cao Ky, by name today, branding him a traitor to the nation, according to United Press International. It was the first time in the current political unrest that the Premier had been attacked personally.

The students of one of Saigon's largest high schools staged an angry anti - Govern- j men! walk-out and were barred from re- | turning to their class- 1 rooms by nervous > i school officials who J feared they could not | control them. Sensing trouble, street ven-| dors scattered from the neighbourhood only minutes! before 3000 students boiled! out of their classrooms to! shout anti-government slogans I and drape the school yard!

' with banners denouncing ! South Vietnam’s military I rulers. i Thich (reverend) Tam . Chau, the most admired i leader of the unified Buddhist I church finally calmed the I students and urged them back ' into the classrooms. Viet Cong forces today 'Struck the suburban airport jof the long-secure mountain I resort of Dalat, says United I Press International. Government forces managed to hurl back the pre-dawn attack by the Viet Cong after i suffering only light losses. ’Dalat is 145 miles north-east I of Saigon. , Meanwhile, South Vietnamese and United States troops ' today claimed a major victory

during a counter-attack on a Government outpost in Central Vietnam captured by the Communists last week. Air Strikes

Heavy air strikes pounded the guerrilla force, estimated to be more than 500 strong, as hundreds of troops were flown in by helicopter in the last two days to recapture An Hoa outpost. By nightfall yesterday Government forces reported an estimated 190 Viet Cong killed by their land and air attacks.

A United States military spokesman said the Americans were believed to have killed about the same number, mostly by air attack. A Government spokesman also reported today that Vietnamese forces killed 72 Viet Cong yesterday in the Plain of Reeds, 40 miles west of Saigon, while suffering only light casualties themselves. Helicopter Crash A helicopter crash yesterday claimed the lives of 10 United States Marines, a Marine spokesman reported today. The dead included three crewmen and seven passengers.

The only survivor was the aircraft’s pilot, who was thrown from the helicopter when it crashed. He was reported in critical condition.