The Vietnam War, This Week, The News, Danville PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
14 March 1965 – 20 March 1965
The News, Danville PA
Poised for daily raids on the North.
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At both ends of the week, US warplanes rained bombs and rockets on Communist North Vietnam in a powerful follow up to a slashing air attack against a North Vietnamese naval base in the South China Sea. American officials announced that the raids were in retaliation for continuing acts of sabotage and terrorism by Communist forces in South Vietnam. The earlier one followed by less than 24 hours a US supported assault by 26 South Vietnamese fighter bombers on Tiger Island, a major Communist base just north of the 17th parallel. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff termed Monday’s attack on a Red ammunition dump – only 100 miles from Hanoi – “very favorable” on the basis of early reconnaissance reports, and the Friday raid with 130 jets and bombers led to an 80 to 90 percent estimate of destruction. US officials said the airstrikes represented an intensification of the President’s carefully graduated campaign to force the Communists to halt their “aggression” in South Vietnam. The US had the approval of its Allies for the raids. An Army chief of staff who had just returned from a tour of South Vietnam said the United States was also considering bolstering its helicopter and logistics forces in the anti-Communist conflict.
The commander of the US Seventh Fleet said that American warplanes were poised to bomb North Vietnam on a once-a-day basis. He said, “Some of my more eager friends say we ought to hit twice a day, but I’m an old man, so I’d say once a day.” The Communist capital of Hanoi was reported bracing for more air raids. A traveler just back from a trip to Hanoi said that children had been taken out of the city. He said workers were digging a city-wide network of bomb shelters and slit trenches. Some citizens were digging foxholes in the yards of their homes.
US Marine Corps officers “stomped the line” around the big American air base in Da Nang, emphasizing safety procedures. One Marine was killed and another seriously wounded Sunday night in a tragic case of “shooting at shadows.” The casualties were the first since the 3,500-man Marine expeditionary force dug in to protect the base against Communist infiltrators.
The US Army was following the Air Force in banning newsmen from mingling with GIs in mess halls and servicemen’s clubs around Da Nang. An Army spokesman said that the facilities were already so crowded – with about 8,000 US servicemen stationed there – that there was no room for the 26 newsmen now there. The Air Force had announced earlier in the week that in addition to the ban, newsmen could move about the air base only if accompanied by one of two selected escort officers.
In ground action, five American soldiers were wounded on Wednesday in a day-long battle fought along the Mekong River 70 miles southwest of Saigon. A spokesman said that none of the wounded were in serious condition. They included four US Army officer-advisers and a helicopter machine-gunner. One of the officers was wounded in the head by grenade fragments. The gunner was hit in the hand while firing at Communist guerrillas on the ground.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Danville News)