The Vietnam War, This Week, The Morning Call, Allentown PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
10 October 1965 – 16 October 1965
The Morning Call, Allentown PA
Protests growing at home.
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US paratroopers reported killing 40 Viet Cong in a fierce encounter late Sunday in the “Iron Triangle” near Saigon. Far to the north, US and South Vietnamese troops pressed a giant sweep on the highlands in possibly the largest operation of the war. The Iron Triangle clash between the Viet Cong and paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade was the biggest since the brigade and Australian forces begin a search operation Friday, 30 miles north of Saigon. American casualties were light. In the north, troops of the First Air Cavalry Division were reported chasing a Viet Cong force estimated at more than 500 men by nightfall. The First Cavalry, trained for guerrilla warfare, arrived in Vietnam last month. Thousands of Americans were taking part in the offensive, called Operation Shiny Bayonet, about 280 miles north of Saigon in Binh Dinh Province. However, the bulk of the Allied force was made up of Vietnamese marine and army units. The biggest US-Vietnamese operation of the war came to a virtual end Wednesday, and the American commander declared it a success. The offensive, launched Sunday, was more a measure of pacification than an attempt to kill large numbers of Viet Cong. A civil government was said to move into the scene of the operation, the Suai Ca Valley. This would be the first government influence in the area since the war began. Thirty-four Viet Cong were reported killed and 93 others captured in the four-day operation.
On Monday fighting swirled within 5 miles of Saigon as several Vietnamese battalions supported by artillery flushed out Viet Cong guerrillas. In other offensives, thousands of Allied forces stabbed deeper into Viet Cong territory early Tuesday while B-52 bombers from Guam struck a suspected guerrilla staging area 20 miles northwest of Saigon in a predawn attack. In fighting 5 miles west and southwest of Saigon, a Vietnamese ranger group reported it had killed four Viet Cong, bringing the operations total to six. Government casualties, mainly from sniper fire and booby traps, were listed as light. Two Soviet-made rifles were captured.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the eve of his 75th birthday, said Wednesday “I think it’s terrible” for Americans to demonstrate publicly against United States policy in Vietnam. In a steely voice, and with his eyes flashing, he asked, “What do they know about it?” On Friday a crowd of 10,000 flag-waving and chanting demonstrators marched in protest against United States involvement in Vietnam. The demonstration was organized by the Viet Nam Day Committee. The estimate of the crowd came from the Berkeley California police chief. Marchers headed off the University of California campus towards the Oakland Army terminal, where they planned an all-night “sleep out.” Prior to the march the committee had conducted an all-day “teach-in” on the campus. This was the biggest of protests against US policies that were being staged in many American cities Friday. In scores of other communities demonstrations were scheduled for Saturday. In the Berkeley demonstration, marchers carried signs saying “No More Imperialist Wars,” “End Imperialism,” and “U.S. Get Out of Viet Nam.”
A North Carolina mother rejoiced with renewed faith and prayer Monday when told the Bible she gave her soldier son saved his life in a Vietnam ambush. A sniper’s bullet pierced the tiny New Testament that PFC William Donald Parker had stashed in his helmet, remembering the instructions of his mother always to keep it with him.
The United States’ 10-week diplomatic effort to interest North Vietnam in an agreement to move towards a cease fire appeared to fail. The Johnson administration had virtually resigned itself to that failure, although it had rejected a recent judgment that North Vietnam had actually stiffened its peace terms and moved till closer to Communist China. Noting the year-long build up in US military efforts, including the bombing of North Vietnam and the commitment of nearly 150,000 American troops to South Vietnam, the Communist government in Hanoi had described the offers of a cease-fire as a trick. It contended that the real American objective was the permanent separation of North and South Vietnam and a long military occupation of South Vietnam.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Allentown Morning Call)