Secret War Leader Believed Known

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31322, 18 March 1967, Page 13

Secret War Leader Believed Known

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, March 17. United States intelligence officers have uncovered the most graphic evidence yet that a North Vietnamese general directs the war in South Vietnam, the Associated Press reported.

The proof fell into American hands because the general liked to have his picture taken. He is Nguyen Chi Thanh, aged 51, a former teacher said to have pro-Peking political leanings and to stand second only to General Vo Nguyen Giap in the North Vietnamese military hierarchy. His pictures showed up as Intelligence officers screened film from an underground photographic installation in the jungles of Tay Ninh pro-

vince captured by American troops. The underground darkroom contained 120 reels of motion picture film and many still photographs. The haul is still being processed, but the discoveries have already proved it to be one of the major Intelligence coups of the war. Part of the film is being hastily prepared for showing to President Johnson and his senior Cabinet members at Guam. Parts are also being prepared for public release. Meanwhile, Intelligence sources are saying: “This one is too good to be mishandled or overplayed,” one officer said. Pictures of Thanh, for example, show him reading in a field headquarters, lolling in a jungle hammock and wearing the black pyjama uniform of the guerrillas. The pictures are believed to be recent.

The setting is unmlstakeably jungle—but there is no way to prove the jungle is in South Vietnam. There are recognisable guerrillas in the background. Thanh was first reported in Tay Ninh province as com-mander-in-chief of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in 1965. However, others were also reported to be the com-mander-in-chief and United

States Intelligence was unwilling at that time to pinpoint Thanh. Recently reports have come in that Thanh is important enough to rate the only Communist helicopter known to have operated in the South. It is a small French-built machine which American sources say evidently operates from hidden bases in the Cambodian jungles to crossing points near the border. It will probably be months before the haul has been thoroughly searched for information.