Fr .uay, May 3, 1968
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WORST SINCE TET:
Heavy fighting
around base at I
SAIGON R) - U.S. and South The South Vietnamese have
Vietnamese troops slugged it out been in steady contact with the
with strong North Vietnamese enemy since Monday and the fight
forces last night in the northeast was continuing late last night.
corner of. South Vietnam in the The sustained fighting along
heaviest fighting since the ene- the DMZ indicated the North
my's Tet offensive in February. Vietnamese had moved in troops
Casualty reports i n d i c a t e d to threaten the Dong Ha base,
American and South Vietnamese headquarters of the 3rd Marine
forces were killing 12 enemy sol- Division and the anchor for al-
diers for every allied soldier lied outposts along the eastern
killed in the four days of bitter flank of the demilitarized zone.
fighting near Dong Ha and Hue. There were no fresh reports on
The allies said enemy casualties the fighting around Hue, the
since Monday were 1,139 and U.S. imperial capital 40 miles south-
and South Vietnamese reported 93 east of Dong Ha, where allied
of their men killed and 449 forces had been battling enemy
wounded. units for three successive days.
Savage fighting was also report- The fighting around Dong Ha
ed yesterday just north of the U.S. overshadowed the allied drive into
Marine base at Dong Ha, 11 miles the A Shau Valley southwest of
south of the demilitarized zone Hue. Marine Lt. Gen. Robert E.
between the Vietnams. A North Cushman, commander of U.S.
Vietnamese counterattack pushed forces in the northern provinces,
back Marines assaulting a bunk- said the 15,000-man allied force
er complex two miles northeast of operating in the valley had cut
the sprawling American base. one of the enemy's main supply
South Vietnamese troops were and infiltration routes from North
reported heavily engaged 2% Vietnam, but "there are still a lot
miles north of Dong Ha. Soldiers of nooks and crannies we have
of the 1st South Vietnamese Divi- not looked into."
sion ran into enemy forces dug in U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division
on both sides of Route 1, Viet- troops pushed into one pocket of
nam's major highway. the valley called the Punchbowl.
erupts
Hanoi rejec
parley
on shi
long a
against scattered enemy resis
ance. They uncovered big each
of Communist arms and suppli
In the first major report
newsmen since Operation Del
ware began April 19, Cushmf
said that up to Tuesday the alli
force in the valley had killed 5
North Vietnamese.
He said most of the North Vie
namese in the valley were eng
neers, security forces and an'
aircraft crews.
He also noted contact with t
enemy had been light for t
most part. But he said paratroo
ers in the northeast sections ha
found "organized enemy infant
units," and "have had some ha
action because this is very tou
territory and the enemy is ve
well dug in."
The 1st Air Cavalry Divisi
had 30 helicopters destroyed
damaged in the first 24 hours
the operation' and since then
more have been destroyed
damaged by anti-aircraft fir
Enemy guns also downed a $2.
million C130 cargo plane and
twin-engine observation plane.
In other, action around t]
country, helicopter gunships ar
tactical aircraft carried out strik
last night only a few miles nor
of Saigon.
Flares lighted the sky and tra
er bullets could be seen clear
from the downtown heart of tJ
city. The action v'as believed
have been near Bien Hoa or Lor
Binh, both major allied bas
about 15 miles north of Saigo
but headquarters, reported at mi
night it had no information.
st-
ies
es.
to
a-
an
ed
51
t-
gi-
ti-
he
he
p-
we
ry
rd
gh
ry
on
or
of
201
or
re.
5-
a
he
nd
es
WASHINGTON (P-An Indo- 'sponse so far to the Indonesian
nesian offer of a shipboard site for offer, and declared that Johnson
preliminary talks on Vietnam was still "hopes that a suitable site
reportedly rejected yesterday by can be agreed to."
North Vietnam, leaving unbroken There was no suggestion from
a month-old stalemate between 'ffi;ial Washington quarters,
Hanoi and Washington. however, that what they regard
In Vientiane, reports indicated as a formal Hanoi reply to In-
that a North Vietnamese embassy donesia will not be a turndown
spokesman refused Indonesia's of- when it comes.
fer to send a cruiser to the Ton-
-Associated Press
'Tell your parents'
Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn) campaigns among school children in Jasper, Ind. The candidate
for the presidential nomination told the children to take his message home to their parents.
MEKONG DELTA TROOPS:
S. VietnamTese army improves
TONIGHT
1421 H il
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HEPBURN
th WASHINGTON (A) - The per- significant increase in U.S. ground
formance of three South Viet- forces in the delta. But they do
c- namese Army divisions under a foresee more operations by the
ly new commander in the Mekong American infantry brigade al-
he Delta apparently has convinced ready there.
to top U.S. military officials they These high-ranking officers said
ng can dispense with any sizable U.S. adviser reports out of the
es American troop increases in that delta speak highly of the per-
n, key region. formance of the South Vietnam-
d- Senior U.S. officers told an in- ese 7th, 9th and 21st divisions.t
terviewer they do not expect any The reports highlighted im-
- proved aggressiveness, combat ef-
ficiency and morale.
.EATREinII One U.S. officer, recently back
Mon -Fri. from an inspection of South Viet-
7 00-9:20 namese commands in the delta,
LE RD.-769.1300 said Saigon's army has three
"basically good divisions" in the
SUN.-] :00-3:00-5:00-7:00-9:20 rice-producing area which con-
tains about 40 per cent of South
Vietnam's population.
The sources said that while
ADEMY AWARDS senior U.S. advisors really run op-
erations in the delta with the
tacit approval of the previous
ATHAR I N E H E PBU R N South Vietnamese corps com-
mander, the new chief of the
Y delta is now running them by
himself.
This man, who took over March
1, is 35-year-old Maj. Gen. Nguyen
guoss Due Thang, rated one of South
Vietnam's brightest and most ag-
gressive military leaders.
SC( Mig "South Vietnamese units have
had success in operations against
t dinrsneP Viet Cong units," one general
TECHNICOLOR said. "They are out in the field
and they have taken a lot of
weapons and food from the ene-
my."
Top U.S. military men evident-
ly feel the South Vietnamese
Army can deal with the enemy in
the delta even though North Viet-
namese are now appearing in that
area.
Officials theorize the Viet Cong
have had to accept North Viet-
namese cadres because of heavy
losses among VC leaders.
For more than r, year, the Unit-
ed States has battle tested three
battalions of South Vietnam's 9th
Infantry Division-the delta's
first mobile warfare force.
Then-Secretary of Defense Rob-
ert S. McNamara told Congress
three months ago, "We now plan
to increase the size of this force."
The remarks of senior U.S. offi-
cers recently returned from Viet-
nam inspection tours indicate such
increase will be held to a mini-
mum or possibly omitted in light
of the improvemet of South Viet-
namese troops. "
But there is no indication of any
cancellation of planned increases
in various kinds of support for
delta-based South Vietnamese
troops.
The Pentagon has notified Con-
gress that its river patrols - so
important in operating along the
delta's many streams - will be
boosted from about 159 vessels to
250 by next December.
kin Gulf to serve as a meeting
place for U.S. and North Vietnam-
ese envoys charged with determin-
ing whether serious peace nego-
tiations are possible.
The word from the Laotian
capital killed still another of the
fleeting hopes for agreement that
have arisen sporadically since
Hanoi accepted on April 3 a U.S.
suggestion that preliminary talks
be held.
The White House had agreed
to the Indonesian proposal Wed-
nesday.
Tie State Department made
plain that the U.S. government
still objects to the site pushed
hardest by the Communists-
Warsaw. It reaffirmed an April
11 U.S. statement preferring a
neutral site over the capital of Po-
land, a backer of North Vietnam
in the war.
Secretary of State Dean Ruskj
said it did not help for "people
to push us to take Warsaw."
The U.S. foreign affairs chief,
during foreign aid testimony be-
fore the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, reported a steplup in
North Vietnamese infiltration
against the South since Johnson
curtailed U.S. bombing of',the
North in his March 31 peace bid.
Accusing the Communists of
failing to reciprocate by scaling
down their fighting in South Viet-
nam, Rusk added that if Hanoi
persists in efforts to pressure the
United States into accepting an
unsuitable site, it can only delay
the serious business of agreeing,
on a suitable location which is fair
to both sides.
The secretary of state did not
specify who besides the Commu-
nists may be pressing for US. ac-
ceptance of Warsaw as the site.
But some administration critics in
the Senate had urged this in a
Foreign Relations Committee ses-
sion on Wednesday
Committee chairman J. W. Ful-
bright (D-Ark), was among those
who said the United States should
agree on Warsaw.
The North Vietnamese embassy
spokesman in Vientiane was,
quoted as saying that Hanoi still
is insisting on either Warsaw or
Phnom Penh, the Cambodian cap-
ital.
The spokesman contended that
an Indonesian site-Hanoi has al-
ready spurned the Indonesian
capital, Jakarta, as a meeting
place-does not even fill John-
son's own;stipulation because "In-
donesian relations with the Com-
munists have been generally bad
since the removal of the left-wing
Sukarno regime.
The Ntrth Vietnamese said also
that contacts held on a ship
would exclude representatives of
other countries and of the press
and would not permit what Presi-
dent Johnson called "adequate
communications" - conditions
set by Johnson himself.
Presidential p r e s s secretary
George Christian said he knew of
no official North Vietnamese re-
Israelis
shlow off
weapons
JERUSALEM (A') - The migh.
of Zion - Soviet made arms
seized from the Arabs and planes
and guns bought in the United
States and France - sped across
captured Jerusalem yesterday in
an Israeli celebration of 20 years
of statehood that defied the Unit-
ed Nations and the Arab world.
A total of 4,500 troops and 450
vehicles moved along a five mile
parade route that led through an
! Arab quarter held by Jordan un-
til the Middle East war last June
and into a traditionally Jewish
area of the once divided city.
Some 250,000 Israelis and visit-
ors cheered as 300 planes
screamed overhead. American-
built Skyhawk fighter bombers
led a formation that included a
Soviet MIG21, delivered to Is-
rael by an Iraqi defector.
DEMONSTRATIONS
The parade denounced last
week by the United Nations Se-
curity Council as a blow to Middle
East peace, caused angry dem-
onstrations in Lebanon and Syria.
But Jerusalem's Arabs were quiet
and threat of terrorism by the Al
Fatah guerrilla organization did
not materialize.
Four Egyptian El Walid class
armored troop carriers led off the
parade of spoils followed by sim-
ilar Jordanian and Syrian car-
riers.
The Soviet-built PT76 amphib-
ious tanks snatched from Egypt
were followed by Egyptian self-
propelled artillery and eight So-
viet-made T55 tanks armed with
a 100mm gun, also taken from the
Egyptian army.
Probably, the most interesting
were the four British made "Long
Tom" 155mm guns which were
used by the Jordanians to shell
Tel Aviv.
AVOID ARABS
The parade steered clear of the
ancient walled Arab sector of the
city. There, Arabs stayed indoors
and closed their shops in protest,
but in newer neighborhoods they
crowded onto apartment house
balconies to watch. Some Arab
peddlers were on the streets, push-
ing soda pop and souvenirs.
Israeli security was rigid. Jeru-
salem itself had been sealed off
and Arab residents of the west
bank of the Jordan were forbid-
den to enter before and after
the parade.
Visitors' autos and baggage were
searched as they neared the re-
viewing stand, tickets scrutinized
and traffic kept from the city's
center. Police and troops with ma-
chine guns patrolled rooftops.
Barbed wire separated the crowd
from the paraders in some areas.
l
~i1
"The eye-catcher is *Uta Leyka, the hip Carmen
in modern undress. Carmen Baby', obviously is
a filn for a very special clientele-opera lovers,
who want to see what They've been missing all
these years,
- -NEW YORK TIMES
k
"Carmen herself, Uta Levka, plays the sexpot
temptress for all she's worth-and that's quite
something. She has a let's-have-fun look in her
eyes that recalls' Melina Mercouri in "Never on
Sunday." With "La Dolce Vita" parties thrown in
for good measure, the movie will give you your
money's worth." -N.Y. POST
this
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UTA LEVKA-CLAUDE RINGER- CARL MOHNER
BARBARA VALENTINE - WALTER WILTZ - CHRISTIANE RUCKER
Screenplay by Jesse Vogel- From a story by Prosper Merime
an Amsterdam Film Corporain ProducionProduced and Drected by RAEY METGER
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