The Vietnam War, This Week, The Daily Times, Chester PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
25 April 1965 – 1 May 1965
The Daily Times, Chester PA
Nuclear weapons are ruled out.
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The US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, said that Communist aggression against South Vietnam had become “more flagrant and unconstrained,” but added that there was no military requirement for the use of nuclear weapons. While the US was holding open the option of using small nuclear weapons if it became necessary, he told a news conference that “no useful purpose can be served by speculation on remote contingencies.” McNamara also said the US had new evidence of Communist infiltration from the north. He said some 39,000 Communists had crossed the border to fight in South Vietnam. President Johnson reinforced the nuclear position on Wednesday, saying that no one in his administration had ever suggested to him any possible use of such weapons.
The US notified Britain and several other countries that it would “gladly participate” in a proposed nine-nation conference on Cambodia. Such a gathering could lead to informal talks on ending the Vietnamese war. The decision to participate was made by President Johnson. The original proposal for the meeting came from the Cambodian prince, Norodom Sihanouk, as an evident move to secure the independence of his country which was a neighbor of North Vietnam.
On Wednesday, American and Vietnamese planes hammered North Vietnamese patrol boats in seven raids. Six Vietnamese Skyraider pilots claimed the destruction of six military barracks in one area, eight smaller buildings in a second target zone, and ten other military structures in a third. They also said they sank 15 junks and hit three small wooden bridges. Other Skyraiders hit two ferry areas, causing “severe damage” to the My Ly River ferry eight miles south of Dong Hol and “moderate damage” to the ferry complex at Huu Hung. The latter had been hit earlier. On Friday, US raiders hit two major ammunition dumps and supply depots in North Vietnam. The aerial success came after several days of relatively fruitless attacks on North Vietnam’s highways and bridges. One of the targets struck was only 75 miles south of Hanoi.
The Australian Prime Minister announced in the House of Representatives that the country would provide an infantry battalion for service in South Vietnam. The force, which would number up to 800 men, would be deployed at a time and location to be determined. The PM said, “I am confident that our two nations working together can continue to make great contributions to checking the spread of aggression and to bring about the peace that South Vietnam and southeast Asia deserve.”
A big cache of captured Viet Cong arms included precision, lightweight flamethrowers, presumably furnished by Communist China, the Vietnamese army announced. Also discovered were East German heavy machine guns described as especially suited for use as antiaircraft weapons. The announcement came as Saigon girded itself for possible trouble during the 1 May labor holiday. On May Day, Communist China called on foreign delegates in Peking for the celebrations to support the Red guerillas in South Vietnam and continue the struggle “against imperialism.”
South Vietnamese and US forces had killed an estimated 200 Vietcong guerillas in three operations ranging from the Mekong River delta in the south to the sandy coastal plains of central Vietnam. Two Americans were killed and five others wounded in the actions. This brought the toll of US combat fatalities in Vietnam to 353 since December 1961.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Chester Daily Times)