The Vietnam War, This Week, The Evening Sentinel, Carlisle PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
21 February 1965 – 27 February 1965
The Evening Sentinel, Carlisle PA
B57s over Vietnam.
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General Nguyen Khanh agreed to resign as South Vietnam’s military strongman but balked at demands of the powerful Armed Forces Council that he come to Saigon and put his resignation in writing. Khanh was reported to have agreed early Monday to step down in a series of telephone conversations with the group of rebellious generals who had voted him out. He was said to be holding out at Vung Tau, 40 miles from Saigon, until some face-saving measure could be worked out for him.
Diplomatic sources said that Soviet ground-to-air missiles, jet fighter planes, and technical advisers were en route to Communist North Vietnam to defend against any new retaliatory air strikes by the United States. Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin had promised assistance to the Hanoi regime during his trip to communist Asia earlier this month. Late in the week he demanded the withdrawal of American forces from both Vietnam and South Korea as a prelude to a peaceful settlement of the Far Eastern crisis. He said that US “aggression” against North Vietnam cannot go unpunished.
The once high hopes of ending the military draft appeared to be fading fast. Precise proposals that would result from a year-long Defense Department study of military manpower were still largely speculative. But the Pentagon apparently would have to recommend to President Johnson soon that the draft must be continued to maintain adequate armed forces. Military enlistments had been dropping since talk of ending the draft reached a high pitch during the presidential campaign the last fall.
B57 jet bombers were being used for the first time against the Communists in South Vietnam. The twin-jet medium bombers struck at concentrations of Viet Cong troops north of Saigon where the Communists had mounted one of the most critical drives of the war. Three Americans were killed and nine were wounded in actions during the day. Heavy Government losses were also reported. A spokesman for the US Embassy said the bombers joined with American F100 Super Sabrejet fighter-bombers in strikes against “large” concentrations of enemy troops along the Binh Dinh and Pleiku provinces. Late in the week the US mounted a massive helicopter strike in the area – possibly the largest of the war – but failed to find a single Communist guerilla.
The announcement of the introduction of the B57s in the war came against the backdrop of reported diplomatic moves to negotiate a settlement, a cease-fire call by a powerful Vietnamese Buddhist priest, and the shakeup in the South Vietnamese military command. For the first time, the US administration had conceded that diplomatic soundings were going on through other governments, notably the British. Despite the stepped-up US military role in Vietnam there was concern in administration circles that the Communists may still be miscalculating American policy in southeast Asia. The Communists may still hope that the US would accept a negotiated settlement on basically Communist terms and may still doubt US willingness to take what measures prove necessary in the Vietnam War. The US was going to meet force with force until there was a basic decision by the Communists to give up their aggression.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Carlisle Evening Sentinel)