The Vietnam War, This Week, The Daily Republican, Monongahela PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
12 December 1965 – 19 December 1965
The Daily Republican, Monongahela PA
Number one with a bullet.
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The US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, said that the United States was ready to talk peace in Vietnam but only on terms that would guarantee the independence and integrity of South Vietnam. Rusk briefed the new American ambassador to Poland on what he should say when he meets with Red China’s envoy in Warsaw Wednesday. The next day Rusk addressed NATO and told them that Europe’s fate may be decided on the battlefields on Vietnam. He asked, “How can you expect Communism to accept the credibility of the American commitment in NATO if they have reason to doubt it in Vietnam?”
Thousands of US Marines in the sixth day of a search for a Communist regiment believed trapped in jungled mountains 335 miles north of Saigon reached what appeared to be the base camp used by the fleeing Reds. They found only abandoned equipment. B-52s struck at the retreating regiment in the Phuoc Valley south of Da Nang, adding to the death toll; the Marines had found the bodies of 160 Viet Cong since “Operation Harvest Moon” started six days before. It was estimated that another 510 more Viet Cong had been killed. The B-52s flew too high to be heard – only when the bombs rained down could their whistling be perceived.
US Air Force jet bombers which struck the industrial lifeline of Communist North Vietnam Wednesday had knocked out 23 percent of the power to the capital of Hanoi and 33 percent of the power to the port of Haiphong. Haiphong was the most vital port in the country and second only in size to Hanoi. The strike was made on the Uong Bi Therman Power Plant 14 miles north-northeast of Haiphong.
A Communist terrorist exploded a bomb in the rear of a truck loaded with American servicemen on Friday in the fourth consecutive day of terrorism in the heart of Saigon. Twelve Americans were wounded, two seriously. The attack appeared to be part of the “bombs and bullets” campaign against Americans in preparation for the fifth anniversary Monday of the “National Liberation Front,” the political arm of the Viet Cong. The group had asked its army to celebrate with practical deeds.”
The war in Vietnam was ranked the top news story of 1965 in a United Press International poll in the US. The civil rights struggle came in second, and the Watts riots third. Man’s continuing exploration of space was in fourth place. The war had come in fourth the previous year.
President Johnson’s defense budget for fiscal 1967 – expected to reach a peacetime high of $60 billion [$561.72 billion in 2022] – may mean some severe belt tightening for nearly every other federal agency. The soaring cost of the war may for the Chief Executive to ask congress for as much as $10 billion a year to support Saigon’s battle with the Communists.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Monongahela Daily Republican)