The Vietnam War, This Week, The Morning Call, Allentown PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 27 February 1966 –  5 March 1966

The Morning Call, Allentown PA

“We will have a long and hard road…”

*****

Sunday’s paper reported the text from a news conference President Johnson spoke at the day before. He said, “We will have a long and hard road…it is not going to be easy and it is not going to be short. It’s going to be difficult and it is going to require sacrifices…I think that in due time we will prevent aggression, establish a stable government by democratic methods, defeat social misery, and obtain a just and honorable peace. I think those are objectives that any person in this country can embrace.” He went on to say that his desk was clear of all requests for more troops in Vietnam. And he said he thought he could meet additional requests next summer “without and great strain on our forces.” On Wednesday Secretary of Defense McNamara said he had authorized an increase in US forces in South Vietnam to 235,000 men. He said the strength could be boosted to over 350,000 without calling reserves to active duty. McNamara told a news conference another 20,000 troops had been ordered to Vietnam, on top of the 215,000 now there. This was the first public disclosure that US armed strength in Vietnam had reached as high as 215,000.

On Sunday a Viet Cong force, firing from the water’s edge, shot up a cargo ship on the Saigon River in an attempt to clog the capital’s lifeline. And to the north, another Red force knocked out a US Army company before abandoning its position in a weekend fight. South Vietnamese troops reported successes in campaigns close to the north Vietnamese border and in the Mekong River delta in the south. US 1st Cavalry, Airmobile Division troops on the central coast dusted the Viet Cong with their own medicine: ambushes, pellet-spewing Claymore mines, and blistering fire from the brush.

Congress voted one-sided approval of a $4.8 billion [$44.3 billion in 2023] war spending bill to reinforce the American arsenal in South Vietnam. President Johnson applauded the action – and the Senate’s overwhelming decision to uphold a resolution supporting his authority to wage with American forces the battle against Communists in Southeast Asia. “The president will continue to act responsibly as commander-in-chief,” the White House declared. The Senate finance committee also approved President Johnson’s $6 billion tax bill to provide emergency revenues for the Vietnam war and help head off inflation. Acting after only three days of hearings, the committee rejected four major amendments, including one that would have eliminated $1.2 billion in temporary excise tax increases.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Allentown Morning Call)