The Vietnam War, This Week, The Evening Gazette, Indiana, PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 30 October 1966 – 6 November 1966

The Evening Gazette, Indiana, PA

“War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument.” – Clausewitz

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Vietnamese officials announced a sharp rise in Viet Cong desertions to the South Vietnamese side, with 2,062 defectors from the Communist cause reported in October, the third highest month in 1966. The announcement came on the eve of South Vietnam’s National Day, which would be celebrated with a big parade that would include 500 former Viet Cong in the line of march.

Early in the week the war lapsed back into a lull after sharp weekend clashes. Only small ground actions were reported as monsoon rains again reduced US air raids over North Vietnam. Viet Cong guerillas shot down two US C-123 cargo planes in the dense jungles of the “iron triangle” 23 miles northwest of Saigon. The plane’s three-man crew was rescued unhurt by Air Force helicopters. B-52 bombers from Guam made two raids Sunday night over South Vietnam. One wave of the bombers struck for the second straight day in the central highlands near the Cambodian border. The bombers hit at suspected base camp and staging areas of the North Vietnamese regulars who launched five assaults Saturday against units of the US Fourth Infantry division and then vanished in the elephant grass and jungle growth. The raid was in support of Operation Paul Revere 4, taking place 43 miles southwest of Kontum City.

On Tuesday, the Viet Cong unleashed an artillery bombardment on the center of Saigon in a spectacular but unsuccessful attempt to disrupt South Vietnam’s National Day observance. Six Vietnamese and one American were known dead. Conflicting reports listed up to six more killed, but these reports could not be verified. The one American known dead was a Navy officer. At least 30 Japanese and five Americans were wounded in the bombardment, the first time the Viet Cong shelled the capital with mortar and recoilless rifle fire. The parade went on for two hours and 20 minutes, when soldiers of the South Vietnamese armed forces and the six nations allied with them paraded before tens of thousands and leading Vietnamese and foreign dignitaries.

Clearing skies let American war planes increase their punches against North Vietnam, and ground action in the south also picked up steam. Two major operations killed 56 enemy soldiers, some of them within eight miles of Saigon. US pilots flew 122 missions against targets near Hanoi, Haiphong, and in the southern panhandle of the Communist north as clouds rolled back for the first time in several days. The bombs fell on rail lines, antiaircraft sites, storage and staging areas, and a surface to air missile site. The attacks were almost double the number flown during the recent days of bad weather. In the south, the US First Cavalry Airmobile Division suffered moderate casualties – meaning it was hard hit – as it took the lead in ground fighting. The helicopter-borne troops reported 37 confirmed enemy dead in almost 24 hours of hard mountain fighting.

President Johnson, home from his historic mission to the Far East, had appealed for unity behind American policy in Vietnam, for “where there is a deep division in the land there is danger.” Johnson said this in a homecoming speech Wednesday night at rainy Dulles International Airport. He said America’s task in Vietnam was far from done, but he said Asians – the people closest to the arena of conflict – know that Communist aggression there must be defeated. Meanwhile Republicans were drafting a rebuttal for any intimation by Johnson that the Democratic election victories might deter the Communists from continuing the Vietnam fighting. With just time to catch his breath on the return from his trip to the Far East, Johnson was expected to strike out Friday on a four-day sweep of a dozen or more states campaigning for Democratic candidates.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Indiana Evening Gazette)