LULL IN VIETNAM

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 13

LULL IN VIETNAM

U.S. ViewOf Situation (N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, July 25. Senior American military officials in Saigon have predicted that the current lull in the fighting throughout South Vietnam might stretch into August or even September, interrupted by a few spasmodic high points of Viet Cong attacks.

American officials do not read any political motive into the low level of hostilities, and say that Hanoi is still infiltrating fresh troops into the South.

“They’re ready to strike, ready to hit at any time,” one colonel said yesterday. It is the general belief of American military headquarters in Saigon, however, that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese would not be capable of any sustained offensive until the autumn.

In the latest reported ground action, Viet Cong commandos killed one American marine and wounded 10 others in an attack yesterday against a defensive bivouac in the Da Nang area shortly before dawn.

The marines found three Viet Cong bodies in . the jungles surrounding the position.

American troops had killed 158 guerrillas, for the loss of 56 of their own men, in a six-month-long operation in northern Quang Ngai province, a United States military spokesman reported.