Weapons ‘stampede’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33068, 8 November 1972, Page 17

Weapons ‘stampede’

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SAIGON, Nov 7. A highly placed American civilian source has said that the failure of the White House to keep the United States Defence Department informed of Indo-China truce talks progress had led to a last-minute stampede to get new weapons into South Vietnam before a truce went into effect, United Press International reported. The source said that Defence Department officials apparently had not been informed of the terms of the proposed agreement until it was ready for signing. When they learned it would ban introduction of any new or additional weapons and provide only for replacement of existing weapons in the South Vietnamese Army, they proAt that point, the stampede began to bring in new weapons before the signing of an accord. In Washington, the Defence Department announced that it was “borI rowing” F 5 freedom fighter jet attack bombers from Iran, Taiwan, and South Korea for the South Vietnamese Air Force. The highlv-placed source speculated that the mix-up over the weapons deliveries might be one of the reasons the cease-fire was not signed before the United States Presidential elections. About 120 of the Fss were believed to be involved in the “loan.” Military sources said that the planes, stripped of their wings, were being flown into Bien Hoa Air Base, 14 miles north-east of Saigon, in big C 5 Galaxy transport ; planes. They were arriving at the rate of six or more a day, i three planes aboard each C 5, military sources said. More than 24 of the planes had I arrived, the sources said. The United States Air Force also brought in 32 of [its big Cl3O Hercules four-.

engine, turbo-prop transport planes for the South Vietnamese Air Force although it has not a pilot, air crewman, or ground crewman trained to operate the planes. The planes theoretically double the South Vietnamese airlift capacity. Other Css began hauling in M4B tanks and armoured personnel carriers to Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Airport and more heavy artillery was expected to arrive soon. In Saigon’s Englishlanguage daily, the “Saigon Post,” two corporations began offering employment in such jobs as “aircraft armaments technicians,” “army armament specialists,” and “camp management” staff. All these things, the sources said, were directly related to the failure to conclude a truce before the United States Presidential election. The Defence Department had announced months ago that it planned to provide more Fss to the South Vietnamese Air Force, which already has one squadron of them, but was waiting for an improved model of the Northrop aircraft plane. A high-ranking Air Force officer told United Press International six weeks ago the South Vietnamese would get Cl3os, but not before crews were trained for them. More tanks and artillery also had been scheduled, but only as soldiers to work them were available. When Defence Department officials learned of the new equipment ban in the ceasefire proposal, they decided to make rush deliveries of the new equipment, prepared to hire cilivian experts to teach the Vietnamese how to use it, and apparently asked that the cease-fire be delayed until it could be delivered, the high American source said. “The worst of it is, coordination is still breaking down within our Government,” the source said. “From what I know of the fine print in the agreement, it will knock out the very thing they are doing —hiring civilian instructors in place of American military instructors."

The source noted that Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers) said that a cease-fire would come in “several weeks,” rather than the “few days” which Washington sources had been mentioning earlier.

“Hanoi and the Viet Cong have finally caught on to what is going on,” another source said, “and they are going to beat it to death.”

Virtually every Radio Hanoi and Radio Liberation (Viet Cong) broadcast for the last few days has accused the United States of perfidy in the weapons deliveries. Similar charges were made on Saturday in a statement issued by the Viet Cong delegation to the Paris peace talks.

Radio Moscow and Radio Peking had made similar accusations, the source said.