Viet Gong In Government Troops

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31359, 3 May 1967, Page 10

Viet Gong In Government Troops

(N.Z. Press Association) QUANG TRI (South Vietnam). The Americans who live here at the embattled northern tip of South Vietnam are chastened, uncertain, perhaps discouraged—but they are not frightened, the “New York Times” News Service repored. The Vietnamese, on the other hand, seem unusually apprehensive and less pre-

pared than ever to commit themselves to their government’s efforts to achieve political stability. Viet Cong guerrillas stormed into Quang Tri on the night of April 6, penetrating to the centre of the military installation and freeing almost 250 prisoners from the provincial gaol. Only about 35 of these were known Viet Cong. In that raid and in almost simultaneous strikes against the South Vietnamese compounds at Levang, just outside Quang Tri, and at Kilometre Post 17, north of Hue, 127 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. There have been other at-

tacks since, including a series of bombardments of key installations. Major William Richardson, an American adviser to the First South Vietnamese Division, said: “What really got us is that they put three rounds in our tennis court.” Major Richard Gannon, a marine also serving as an adviser, readily admitted that the enemy could stage another raid like that of April 6. But, he added, "he would pay a higher price.”

A third American officer pointed to the seemingly peaceful passer-by and said: “Sure, there are Viet Cong in the Vietnamese Army. We don’t even know which of those people over there are Viet Cong and which aren’t.” Most of the advisers, though embarrassed to say so, are certain that the April 6 attacks were carried out with the help of traitors in the Government units they work with. At Kilometre Post 17, for example, the enemy grouped for the assault in a village inhabited almost exclusively by families of Government troops. Yet not a single person gave any warning to the defenders of the post. As the attack at Le Vang began, the commanding officer heard several of his men calling out: “Major, Major, come help me, I’m wounded.” When he shouted back explosive charges were hurled toward him. The Americans know the enemy is strong in this area, perhaps stronger than anywhere else in South Vietnam, with over 40,000 men in this province and in and near the demilitarised zone that runs across the northern boundary of Quang Tri. But they are convinced that all of the awesome firepower of the allies —artillery, nayal gunfire, hordes of fighterbombers—would be brought to bear if the Viet Cong ever tried to occupy Quang Tri or Hue, the capital of Thua Thien province. “If it weren’t for the loss of human life,” one young officer said, “I almost wish they would try it.” Accounts of terror among American civilian and military officials living in this neat, compact, riverside town appear to have been grossly overdrawn.

An army captain laughed this afternoon as he read a recent letter from his wife. “Walter Cronkite was anything but encouraging tonight,” She wrote. “He said Westy (General William Westmoreland, the American military commander) wants a whole new division to evacuate all of you. I hope you get out of there. He said the war has reached a crisis in Quang Tri. All of your bridges are blown.”

There are in fact no plans to evacuate United States personnel from Quang Tri, Almost 15,000 army troops have been sent to Quan Gai province south of Quang Tri so that more marines can be made available for duty near the demilitarised zone.

Soon 10,000 to 23,000 Vietnamese civilians who live in the southern half of the buffer strip and adjacent to it will be moved, but they will be resettled in Quang Tri. The surge in Viet Cong activity is described by most observers as a psychological rather than purely military effort. Instead of overrunning cities, the guerrillas hope to

disrupt village elections, the rice harvest and the pacification programme. The rainy season has been abnormally long this year, giving the enemy an advantage. In both Hue and Quang Tri, one is told by Vietnamese: that the Americans are going to leave the two provinces, handing them over to the North Vietnamese as part of a peace settlement; that the new American ambassador, Ellsworth Bunker, was sent here to begin negotiations at any cost; that the wisest people in the cities are renting their houses and leaving town.

None of this is true, but many Vietnamese are sure that it is. They are, therefore, less eager than ever to commit themselves to the Government, and in that sense at least the Viet Cong’s psychological offensive seems to be working.