Drive in Laos ends after 45 days

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 1

Drive in Laos ends after 45 days

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter— Copyright)

SAIGON, March 24. The 45-day South Vietnamese drive against the Ho Chi Minh trail in Southern Laos ended today with North Vietnamese tanks pursuing the Saigon forces right to their border, the Associated Press reported.

United States combat aircraft knocked out six tanks, spokesmen said.

More United States units which had supported the operation were pulled out of the big base of Khe Sanh, which also is being closed during the next three weeks.

The United States Command announced the cut of 2940 more American troops as part of President Nixon’s sixth round of withdrawals that will reduce American strength in Vietnam to an authorised ceiling of 284,000 by May 1. The present strength is 312,900.

South Vietnamese Headquarters had said earlier today that it was rapidly withdrawing its remaining 2000 troops in Laos and die 45day drive would be officially over by dusk. Lieutenant-Colonel Do Viet, a spokesman, said that at the last report this morning only 2000 marines remained across the border.

“At the speed we are going back to Vietnam it should be over today,” Colonel Viet said. Colonel Viet also said that there was sporadic fighting and North Vietnamese shelling attacks this morning on the Vietnamese side of the border near the outpost of Lao Bao on Highway 9. Large numbers of North Vietnamese troops who forced the South Vietnamese to end their drive early and into retreat with massive attacks infiltrated across the border in the Lao Bao region and are concentrating on cutting Highway 9 east and west of Khe Sanh in efforts to isolate the allies along the border. “The realities” In Washington, a United States Defence Department spokesman, Mr Jerry Friedheim, acknowledged that South Vietnamese troops might have remained in Laos if North Vietnamese resistance had not been as tough. Mr Friedheim said the battle plan for ending the drive, which began on February 8, involved several contingencies “based on the realities of the situation.” “If the situation had been different, the South Vietnamese reaction might have been

different,” Mr Friedheim said when asked if the operation was being cut short because of the North Vietnamese counter attacks.

“If the enemy had not reacted at all, they might have chosen to stay longer,” he said. Some United States helicopters began pulling out of Khe Sanh as Communist gun-

ners zeroed in on the support base near the Laotian border.

Front line reports said United States units began leaving Khe Sanh for their headquarters at Chu Lai and Phu Bai to the east, and it was believed the base would be closed within three weeks. A United States officer said that Khe Sanh and nearby satellite bases were zeroed in by North Vietnamese gunners across the border in Laos. If so, they might be in the old emplacements on what the United States Marines called “Big Rock Candy Mountain” when they withstood a 77-day siege at Khe Sanh in 1968. The gun emplacements are dug into the

mountainside and cannot be knocked out by air strikes. United States spokesmen said that this week’s air strikes over North Vietnam were the heaviest in four months, United Press International reported. The' raids were the heaviest since last November’s strikes against North Vietnamese missile sites and supply lines, the spokesman said. The November raids were also linked to the fruitless raid to free United States prisoners of war at the Son Tay camp in North Vietnam. About .250 fighter-bombers and escort planes blasted the missile sites up to 90 miles inside North Vietnam on Sunday and Monday, spokesmen said.

The helicopter withdrawal from Khe Sanh meant that the South Vietnamese offensive was over. Without helicopters, the South Vietnamese would be stripped of their mobility. United States helicopter losses in the drive were heavy with more than 50 American crew killed by fierce anti-aircraft fire. Pilots leaving Khe Sanh were openly relieved. “Well, I’m not supposed to talk,” one pilot said, “but if you look around here you’ll see a lot of happy guys packing up. It is the toughest assignment these guys have been on and with what they’ve been begging the past week, Phu Bai is the next best thing to going back to the world.” (American commentator assesses Laos invasion. Page 11.)