SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THREE SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE THREE Report Air Force Bombs Troop, Supply Convoys " In.-Neutral Laos Territory Congress To Oppose New Surtax Request SAIGON ()-The main thrust of the United States air effort in the Vietnam war has switched temporarily to Laos because of in- creased Communist truck traffic down, the Ho Chi Minh trail, re- liable sources said yesterday. The Air Force was reported. sending about 250 fighter bombers daily to blast convoys and troops moving south on the Communist controlled road network in east- ern Laos. That is more than three times the average daily number of Air Force craft that, with Navy and Marine Jets, are carrying on the bombing offensive against North Vietnam. Hammer Convoys The informants said some car- rier-based Navy planes are being diverted to help hammer convoys moving through Laos. Weather is the key factor. This is the dry season in Laos, as it is in most of South Vietnam, and roads are in relatively good shape. North Vietnam is in its wet season and storm clouds of the northeast monsoon limit the choice of bombing targets. "You must go where the traffic is," one source remarked. Another said: "There are tre- mendous truck sightings. Probab- ly twice as many as at this time last year." From 6,000 to 8,000 trucks were reported seen moving down the southern panhandle of North Viet- nam and in Laos during Decem- ber. There may have been dupli- cation, however, in some cases.' Water Routes Military men estimate the air strikes are destroying or damag- ing about 25 per cent of the trucks. The others presumably are getting through with supplies and men to bolster Communist forces, within South Vietnam. The sources said the North Vietnamese also are using water routes, including the Mekong River, to move in war material. The U.S. 7th Air Force refuses to comment. The , bombing is a touchy issue with political rami- o fications because Laos is supposed to be a neutral country. Thus the only thing the Air Force will say, as it has been say- ing over the past several months, is: "Armed reconnaissance mis- sions are being flown over Laos with the consent of the Laotian government." Only air missions over North and South Vietnam are listed in the daily U.S. communiques. They never mention Laos. 91 Missions The U.S. Command announced 91 missions were flown, over North Vietnam Friday, including strikes at missile sites above the demili-, tarized tone. Air operations in the South yesterday included B52 saturation raids on two suspected enemy concentrations near the Cambo- A dian frontier. Spokesmen announced two bat- talions of the Royal Australian Regiment and elements of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division are on a major sweep against enemy forces 30 miles east of Saigon. The operation, launched Thurs- day, is called Akron Five. Action so far was described as light and scattered. Along the South China Sea coast about 350 miles northeast of Saigon, units of the United States American Division reported killing 37 of the enemy Friday. Sporadic fighting has been going on in that region for weeks. In Da Nang, the top U.S. Ma- rine commander in South Viet- nam said yesterday those who want to halt the bombing of North Vietnam "may not have studied communism enough to know we are fighting a main force here which is supplied by Red China and the Soviet Union." The criticism by Lt. Gen. Rob- ert E. Cushman included former Marine Commandant Gen. David Shoup, retired Brig. Gen. Samuel B. Griffith and some other high level retired military officers who have urged a bombing halt. Cushman said in an interview that Shoup's position "is diame- trically opposed to my own as well as to the administration's." WASHINGTON (P-A new and perhaps more intense battle over spending cuts is shaping up this year between an election-minded Congress and administration which is expected to propose the largest spending program in his- tory. It could cloud the future of the proposed 10 per cent tax sur- charge which President Johnson has tagged as the first order of business for the returning Con- gress and which the administra- tion is already working into its new budget estimates. $190 Billion Although the administration has not yet disclosed exact fig- ures, one source said the total budget will be in the $190 billion range under the new all-inclusive system to be used for the first time this year. Spending in the more familiar administrative budget would be up $9 billion to $14 billion to be- tween $145 billion and $150 bil- lion in the fiscal year which be- gins July 1, the source added. These latter figures do not in- clude spending of the huge gov- ernment trust funds such as So- cial Security and highways which will be included in the unified budget figure to be submitted within the next several weeks. The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to take up the surcharge again on Jan. 22 and key committee members have already served notice they want to see a definite trend toward economy in government before asking the House to vote for higher taxes. Balance of Payments Complicating the picture is the new balance of payments pro- gram to reduce the flow of dollars overseas by $3 billion this year. It includes an urgent appeal from Johnson to raise taxes, con- trols on overseas investment and a request for Americans to travel only in the Western Hemisphere for two years. The administration is now con- sidering possible tourism taxes- such as a head tax, a tax on each day a person remains abroad or an excise tax on ship and plane tickets - to discourage overseas travel. Another argument now avail- able to the administration is the rapid increase in economic activ- ity which officials contend is in- flationary. Bullish Reports Reports of economic activity during November were bullish and with the exception of retail sales the December reports which will be published over the next two weeks are expected to show a continuing strong expansion. Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler talked last week of an austere budget he said the Presi- dent will submit to Congress. The deadline is Jan. 29 but an exten- sion could be requested. But Johnson submitted last January a budgethe considered lean and Congress insisted on cuts in spending as the price for the surcharge. Congress and the administra- tion each called on the other to make the cuts. The administra- tion finally recommended a for- mula to cut $4.1 billion and Con- gress approved it. -Associated Press GOVERNOR GEORGE ROMNEY and his wife are chating with William Johnson, Romney's campaign manager, in front of the state house in Concord, N.H. Romney opened his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination yesterday with numerous speeches and appearences. The primary will be held March 12. Humphrey Asks More Party Unit- McCarthy Raps War; Romney Advocates Eavesdropping Laws By The Associated Press Yesterday found U.S. Sen. Eu- gene McCarthy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Gov. George Romney all out on the campaign trail. McCarthy addressed anti - war Democrats in California while Humphrey spoke against Demo- cratic disunity at a party confer- ence in the same state. In New Hampshire, Romney completed the second day of his primary campaign. "Don't put poison in the well from whence you're going to have to d r in k, fellow Democrats," Humphrey told more than 1,000 cheering delegates to a party con- ferencesthat opened the Demo- cratic state campaign in Cali- fornia. But McCarthy, a Democrat from Humphrey's own state of Minne- sota, was also in Fresno to speak to dissident Democrats who will back him against a slate of pro- Johnson delegates in the Califor- nia primary in June. McCarthy told newsmen he wants to "lay down a challenge to the President's policies, par- ticularly in regard to Vietnam." "A Republican candidate could possibly be elected if by our dis- unity and disarray we help him," Humphrey said. He also spoke against Califor- nia's third party movements. The Peace and Freedom Party, an an- ti-war group, seeks a place on the June primary ballot and is trying for support from many anti-war Democrats. Presidential aspirant Romney advocated laws permitting limit- ed use of wire tapping and eaves- dropping devices to combat or- ganized crime, "The legislation recommended by the Johnson administration would ban all use of such devices except at the unlimited discretion of the President himself," and "would be equally intolerable In a society which prides itself on its system of checks and balances in government," Romney said. At Hopkinton Romney told some 75 townspeople he has been heartened by his New Hampshire campaign. "I've found it much friendlier than I expected and I'm much more optimistic than when I came here," Romney said. At that stop, too, he called for a stepped up effort to deal with the problem of crime. Ex-Intelligence Officer Blames 1961 Bay of Pigs Fiasco on CIA -Associated Press DESTINED FOR NORTH VIETNAM, tons of bombs are stacked along one side of the aircraft carried Ranger as she sails in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the picture are 500 pound bombs. Reports released yesterday lead some observers to believe that the Air Force is using these and other similar bombs to bomb North Vietnamese troop and supply convoys in Laos. 1*! Three Deserters Seek Asylum STOCKHOLM () - T h r e e more United States serivcemen sought refuge in Sweden from mil- itary duties yesterday saying they do not consider themselves deser- ters but "moral refugees from the United States." They are Lawrence Bertheaud, 21, of New Orleans; Kenan Fulks, 21, of Boulder, Colo., and Robert Trench Burroughs, 21, of Arling- ton, Va. With help from the Swedish Vietnam Committee, they have asked the government to grant them political asylum. It so far has granted such permission to four sailors who jumped ship in Japan in protest of the war in Vietnam and a soldier, Ray Jones of Detroit, who deserted his unit in West Germany to marry a Swedish girl. Officials have the applications of six other American soldiers under study. An unkown number of military absentees or deserters are reported to be in Malmo and Halsingborg, cities on the south coast. Fulks told a news conference he left the U.S. Army during basic training at Fort Bliss, Tex., a year ago. During his absence he met Bertheaud, who had deserted the USS Topeka last June 9, and both learned they could live in Sweden. Fulks said they left for Sweden by way of Vancouver, B.C., and arrived in Stockholm by plane Dec. 26. Burroughs left the U.S. Army's 8th Infantry Division at Mann- heim, Germany, on New Year's Day and arrived in Stockholm Jan. 3. They were granted temporary permits to stay pending a final decision. Both Fulks and Burroughs, who entered the service while in col- lege, said they want to resume their studies in Sweden. Before he entered the Navy, Bertheaud worked as a printer. In Boulder, Fulks' mother, Mrs. Watson Fulks, said she and her husband have not heard from their son for more than a year. His father is, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Colorado. He said his son had not ex- pressed any discontent with Army life or opposition to the war in Vietnam before he dropped out of sight Jan. 1, 1967. WASHINGTON (t) -A former CIA inspector-general says the major cause of the failure of the 1961 Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion was "a complete miscalculation by the CIA operators of what was required to do the Job." By the eve of the ill-fated land- ing, Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr., adds, many were pessimistic about its chances--but went ahead with the operation anyway in belief that last. minute cancellation would have worse consequences than a failure. Loyal to Fidel As it turned out, he says, Ha- vana's Red forces proved so much more, strong and loyal than the CIA operators had predicted that the 1,443 man invading brigade would probably have lost "even if Castro had no airplanes or tanks." Kirkpatrick writes of his 23 year career in the cloak and dag- ger business in "The Real CIA," one of the few books published by senior officials with inside knowledge of the Central Intelli- gence Agency. On the Bay of Pigs disaster Kirkpatrick speaks with author- ity from the insider's view. He says President John F. Ken- nedy was right in stating that there was enough blame to share among all the government agen- cies involved. But the basic errors were pri- marily those of the agency with the responsibility - the CIA - w h o s e intelligence underrated Castro's strength, he says. As the then CIA inspector-gen- eral sees it, CIA men involved in the operation were also those sup- plying the intelligence estimates and thus gave Washington policy- makers too bright a picture of its chances for success. They gave over-optimistic esti- mates of internal opposition to Prime Minister Fidel Castro in his armed forces and among the pop- ulace, according to Kirkpatrick. Expert Fighters "The Castro militia and army had fought better and more ex- pertly than expected, and their loyalty to Fidel had been much higher than anticipated." Kirkpatrick thus seeks to ab- solve the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff from major blame. He also shunts aside claims that Adlai E. Stevenson, U.S. Ambas- sador to the United Nations, and others opposed to the invasion had torpedoed it by persuading President Kennedy to call off a planned second air strike by the free Cubans. When the air strike was called off just ahead of the landing, Kirkpatrick recalls that a Penta- gon general who had just met with the acting CIA chief, Gen. Charles P. Cabell, remarked: "Of course he knows that the operation will fail, doesn't he?" - "At that moment the landing could have been recalled," Kirk- patrick writes. Secret Plan . "A plan was in existence for diverting the ships to Puerto Rico in the event of a last minute cancellation and the Cuban para- troopers had not yet left Central America. But- the 'operators' had a very strong conviction that if for any reason the operation did not go through, the Cuban bri- gade would either act on its own, or mutiny; or create such a dis- turbance that it would be more dangerous than even a failure of the operation. LAST WEEKS SERIES SUBSCRIPTIONS!I Discounts Still Available 1l World News Roundup By The Associated Press CHADBOURN, N.C. - Twelve cars in the middle of a 99 car Sea- board Coast Line Railroad freight train carrying military ammuni- tion derailed Saturday and 1,500 area residents were evacuated, but a military expert said there was no danger of an explosion. KINSHASA, Congo - A re- shuffle of nearly coup d'etat pro- portions in the other Congo - Brazzaville - has crumbled key wt chunks of terrain in the Commu- nist foothold in this part of Africa. President Alphonse Massamba Debat toppled his Peking oriented prime minister and took over the post himself. He changed around his cabinet, making Nicholas (W MondJo, former ambassador to France, his foreign minister. STANFORD, Calif. - Mike Kas- perak's heart remained in excel- lent condition Saturday, a week after it was implanted, but his liver caused "a serious setback," his doctors said. Kasperak's deteriorated condi- tion was attributed by the doctors to an excess of an oxygen carrying component of his blood. This was caused by poor liver function, a medical bulletin said, and was be- lieved to be aggravating what was described as a "semicomatose" condition. NEW YORK - Food prices will increase from two to three per cent this year, it was predicted Saturday. The higher prices will be a re- flection of higher marketing costs and consumer services, according to George L. Mehren, assistant secretary of agriculture. _I presents the I SATURDAY and SUNDAY VIRIDIANA Director-LUIS BUNUEL, 1961 Royal Piharmoc Orchestra of London VACLAV NEUMANN, Conductor WED., JAN. 17, 8:30 P.M. in HILL AUDITORIUM PROGRAM: Sinfonio do Reauiem, Op. 20........... Britten I AA(,il DAVID C AuYunuv urun rvor ionntmuty uIT UJICMAI