KY PLANS FORTIFIED FRONTIER BARRIER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31346, 17 April 1967, Page 13

KY PLANS FORTIFIED FRONTIER BARRIER

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, April 16.

The Defence Department was silent yesterday on the plan of the Prime Minister of South Vietnam (Air Vice-Marshal Ky) to build a fortified barrier along the northern frontier of South Vietnam.

A department spokesman said he had no comment on the scheme, announced by the Prime Minister yesterday, and referred questioners to similar response given by United States officials in Saigon.

Admiral Ulysses Sharp, United States commander in the Pacific also refused to talk about the barrier plan when asked his opinion at the conclusion of a two-day S.E.A.T.O. military advisers conference in Washington. The barrier, to stem the flow of North Vietnamese forces into the south, would run up to 20 miles east to west just below the demilitarised zone, according to reports received in Washington. It would be made up of minefields, barbed wire and bunkers.

The Defence Department spokesman declined to answer questions as to whether more than 4000 United States troops newly flown into the zone area might be used in helping construct such a barrier.

Clearing Projects The Associated Press reported from Saigon, however, that United States Marines and South Vietnamese troops were working on separate clearing projects just below the demilitarised zone.

The American Marines used bulldozers yestrday to rip down thick vegetation along a line seven miles westward from their base to Gio Linh. The bared area is to be a quarter-mile wide. Marine officers told reporters that they planned to string barbed wire, lay mines and establish radar units which are able to detect the movement of human beings. Informed sources in Saigon were sceptical of the usefulness of the barrier, the “New York Times” news service reported.

They noted that the principal routes of infiltration through the 45-mile frontier from the coast to the Laotian border were in the rugged mountains beyond the western reaches of the projected barrier.

While there were indica-

tions that Air Vice-Marshal Ky made his announcement without consulting the American commanders, the sources said the concept did not surprise them. According to the informants, American military strategists had been considering a barricade of the border for at least two years. But some were reluctant to commit the estimated 30,000 men thought necessary to patrol the entire border area and the majority felt that a partial barrier would be futile.

The Prime Minister said that the decision to evacuate the northernmost villagers

and to build the barrier were justified “because the situation is very serious.” He said there was no way of stopping the North Vietnamese from crossing the Benhai river, which runs through the middle of the six-mile-wide buffer zone. “I think more troops are needed in the northernmost provinces, both American and Vietnamese,” he said. Intelligence reports say border infiltration is increasing and allied military chiefs in Saigon believe North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrillas may be aiming for a big, morale-boosting victory in the area.