Friday, Apr. 24, 1964
Bandits to Battalions
The nasty guerrilla conflict in South Viet Nam is beginning to look more and more like a full-scale conventional war. Ominously, the Communist Viet Cong are often forsaking the shadowy, hit-run tactics they have heretofore used in favor of challenging the government in set-piece battles. In the past fortnight alone, the Reds have mounted battalion-strength attacks in Tayninh and Kienhoa provinces, as well as the Delta village of Goden. Last week, in Chuong Thien province, they unleashed their biggest assault so far.
Refusing to Fade. Surging out of the forest, 1,000 Red troops overran Kienlong in the guerrilla-controlled Camau Peninsula area (see map), killing 60 of the 90 Civil Guard defenders, and publicly disemboweling the district chief, his wife, infant son and two other officials. When the government counterattacked with 2,000 air-supported troops, the guerrillas pulled out of the village. But instead of fading into the landscape, they were reinforced by a third 500-man battalion, making it the Viet Cong's first regimental-size operation. Then the Communists stood and fought half a dozen battles that blazed for five days, inflicting the heaviest government casualties of any engagement--some 200 dead and wounded. The Reds suffered a similar toll.
The increased tempo of the fighting raised new doubts about the Saigon regime's ability to win with American advice and equipment alone. Last week, at Manila, South Viet Nam got at least some moral support from the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization at its tenth anniversary conference. Summarily rejecting a call by French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville for a "political solution"--in other words, neutralism--in South Viet Nam, the seven other SEATO powers (U.S., Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan) vowed that "the defeat of the Communist campaign is essential not only to the security of South Viet Nam but to that of Southeast Asia." They called on SEATO members to "remain prepared if necessary to take further concrete steps." That was a long way from any concrete SEATO help for Saigon, but laid the groundwork for collective aid in a real emergency.
Determined Demonstration. As an additional demonstration of U.S. resolve, Secretary of State Dean Rusk flew from Manila to Saigon. Amid reports that the Viet Cong might try to assassinate him, he was shepherded around Saigon under strict security measures: four Jeeploads of bodyguards, two armed helicopters. But Rusk ventured out into the countryside, flew to Danhim, 150 miles north of the capital, to inspect a new hydroelectric plant. Everywhere Rusk repeated his theme: that the U.S. disavows neutralism.
As the first stage in a Communist takeover, neutralism may be just what the Viet Cong are aiming for. Some Americans believe that the new Red attacks are meant to push the Vietnamese army into carrying out a coup to set up a neutralist regime. Given the petty politicking still being waged by Vietnamese politicians six months after the U.S.-encouraged overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem,* such a prospect is not impossible. Premier Nguyen Khanh so far has had the barracks behind him, but at week's end yet another wave of coup rumors rippled through Saigon, then subsided. No one realizes more clearly the possible repercussions of another coup than U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who has been the No. 1 symbol of all-out support for Khanh. At a Washington cocktail party recently, McNamara was overheard to quip: "If Khanh goes, the President is going to have to get another Secretary of Defense."
*Last week the government finally brought to trial on charges of murder and extortion Ngo Dinh Can, 53, brother of the slain President and former boss of Central Viet Nam. Can suffers from diabetes and spent his time in court on a stretcher.
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