The Vietnam War, This Week, The Centre Daily Times, State College PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 7 November 1965 – 13 November 1965

The Centre Daily Times, State College PA 

Casualties on both sides were mounting quickly.

*****

General Maxwell Taylor, special consultant to President Johnson and former ambassador to South Vietnam, expressed “cautious optimism” in his “Vietnam Report,” delivered at Penn State University as one of the University Artists and Lecture series. Any fear that his welcome might be as unruly as the one he received at Berkeley, California, was dispelled when only 23 pickets opposed to his visit and Administration policies were counted marching in a small circle in front of the Recreation Building 15 minutes before his talk was scheduled to begin. While the pickets circled in a counterclockwise direction, some 11 counter-pickets marched in the opposite direction, carrying signs affirming support of US policies in Vietnam.

On Monday US pilots reported smashing another missile site in North Vietnam, and American paratroopers clashed with a strong Viet Cong battalion in the south, killing 110 of the enemy. In action over north Vietnam, the US lost five planes during the weekend, one the victim of a surface-to-air missile, and the others downed during search and rescue operations. Five US flyers were rescued and six were listed as missing. In the south, 30 miles northeast of Saigon, paratroopers of the 173rd airborne met what was described as a main force of Viet Cong dressed in grey fatigue-like like uniforms never seen before in South Vietnam. The brigade commander reported the paratroopers counted 110 enemy dead and “they’re not through counting.” The next day the Communist death toll was set at 391. A spokesman said American casualties in the day-long battle were moderate, but reliable sources said the 173rd Airborne Brigade had suffered its heaviest casualties since it came to Vietnam.

On Thursday a Viet Cong force ambushed a South Vietnamese unit on a main highway west of Saigon, but 130 of the Communists were killed by combined ground and air action. American and Vietnamese planes hammered the attacking Viet Cong and killed 100 of them. There was no information on government casualties or other details of the action five miles west of Baria. A large force of US Marines and South Vietnamese troops pressed an offensive in sandy, rolling coastal terrain 350 miles northeast of Saigon, but results were meager. Two Viet Cong were reported killed and 18 suspects were detained in the search-and-destroy mission northwest of Chu Lai on the coast of the South China Sea.

Late in the week a detachment of the US Army’s First Infantry Division fought off a sharp Viet Cong assault in a day-long battle 40 miles north of Saigon. The spokesman said 100 of the enemy were killed and the toll probably would go higher. American casualties were described as light at dusk as fighting that raged for 12 hours tapered off into a sporadic exchange of small arms fire. Striking with recoilless rifles and mortars, a Viet Cong battalion of 500 troops launched the attack against about 700 men of the Division’s Third Brigade. Reports from the scene said the Americans came under fire without warning. Planes and artillery helped turn back the guerrillas. The troops were on an operation to secure Highway 13 on the edge of Zone D which had been under Communist control since the end of World War II. In recent months, B-52 bombers from Guam had pounded the jungled zone and US troops had pressed major offensives in the area to deny the Vietcong a sanctuary from which to operate.

American casualties in the first week of November were the highest so far in the Vietnam war – 70 killed and 237 wounded. Most of the Americans were killed in actions around the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, in the central highlands. The week before there were 42 American dead. The figures released did not include the major battle Monday in the D Zone north of Saigon between US paratroopers and Communist troops. The casualties brought the total number of Americans killed in action in Vietnam to 933, according to unofficial tabulation. A total of 4,801 had been wounded and 92 were missing. 20 Americans were known to be detained by the Communists.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, State College Centre Daily Times)