First U.S. Combat Jump Since Korea

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 13

First U.S. Combat Jump Since Korea

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, Feb. 24.

Only small, isolated contacts with the Viet Cong have followed the large-scale assault by many divisions of American troops against the Viet Cong’s War Zone C, a United States spokesman said in Saigon today.

The assault, which included the first U.S. combat parachute jump since the Korean war, is aimed at destroying Viet Cong installations in north-west Tay Ninh pro-

vince, about 65 miles northwest of Saigon. This region, near the Cambodian border, is believed by American Intelligence officials to contain at least part of the central office for South Vietnam of the Viet Cong's Supreme Military and Political Headquarters. Nine Killed

In the assault, which is directed at the centre of the heavy jungles and scrub country at the very heart of War Zone C, a total of nine Viet Cong have been killed. U.S. casualties are light, the spokesman said. The drive called “Junction City” began on Tuesday, but it was not disclosed until yesterday by the U.S. command for security reasons. The American infantrymen parachuted into- a horseshoeshaped position with the top toward Cambodia and the open end toward Saigon. The parachute drop was the largest in Vietnam since the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Communist victory over the French that ended the Indo-China war.