100,000 More For Vietnam In 1967

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31223, 22 November 1966, Page 17

100,000 More For Vietnam In 1967

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, November 21

United States forces in South Vietnam will number 375,000 at the end of this year and, will be augmented by 100,000 troops in 1967, the “New York Times” News Service reported today.

That is the latest word received by the American Military Command in Saigon, the news service said. General William Westmoreland and his tacticians are described as confident that a force of nearly 500,000 American men can cope with the regular military units of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. There are also 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. Navy men on ships off the Vietnamese coast. The new American forces next year will include one Army division, a contingent of amphibious forces for new; operations in the Mekong: river delta and assorted teams to fill out artillery, helicop-: ter, engineering, terminal j base and other supporting: units. [

I The exact schedules of troop movements are still subject to budget controls in Washington, but the pattern for the first half of 1967 appears to have been set. The entire build-up next year will bring new troops to Vietnam at a rate almost exactly half that of 1966, in which 200.000 men arrived. Officers in Saigon had hoped to have 400,000 troops by the end of the year. But the slight fall is shrugged off. They agree with President Johnson's contention that they are getting what they need.

The build-up will continue Ito involve enormous logistic problems, however, because |at least 150,000 men will complete their year of duty in and have to be reI placed.