The Vietnam War, This Week, The Press, Pittsburgh PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 17 October 1965 – 23 October 1965

The Press, Pittsburgh PA 

Protests and Counter-Protests.

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Early in the week a fleet of 40 US Air Force fighter-bombers attacked targets north of the missile-protected Hanoi-Haiphong area of North Vietnam after Navy pilots knocked out a third Soviet-built missile site. Navy pilots reported that some of the Nike-type rockets were on the launch pad when the attack took place. Part of the Air Force group smashed a railway yard 95 miles northeast of Hanoi and about 45 miles north of the destroyed missile site. Other planes wrecked bridges and railroads throughout the north.

Communist Viet Cong troops were beginning to defect to the South Vietnamese government in small, armed units. During the past week, 373 Viet Cong personnel defected, bringing with them a light machine gun, 66 individual weapons, and 55 grenades. The Vietnamese government was studying the defections in the hope of finding ways to make it easier for disillusioned Communists to change sides during military actions.

Pittsburgh’s “Peace Pickets” found conditions not so peaceful as they drew punches, epithets, threats, sour stares, insults, and spitballs. The punches were thrown Saturday the 16th in Mount Oliver as the group of some 24 pickets marched single file to an Army recruiting station. The pickets were members of the Committee to End the War in Vietnam. The mayor of Mount Oliver attempted to break up the struggle, but the incidents continued. The group left after about 15 minutes. President Johnson sent word the next day that he was deeply concerned about the demonstrations demanding an end to the war which had spread over the nation during the weekend. His concern stemmed from the potential of Communist influence over the marchers as well as the effect the marches may have in Communist capitals.

FBI agents arrested a 22-year-old New Hampshire pacifist on charges of burning his draft card at a New York rally protesting US policy in Vietnam. He was taken into custody in a small New Hampshire town after failing to produce required Selective Service documents. The young man was with a group of five other “catholic pacifists” had earlier appeared at a small college in Manchester, NH to promote their cause. In Pennsylvania, the State Selective Service director announced that school deferments for students who burned or tore up their draft cards would be cancelled automatically, due to their commission of a felony.

On Wednesday the Pennsylvania State Senate moved on three fronts against student demonstrators and Communists opposed to American policy in Vietnam (the resolutions were sponsored by three senators, all of whom were Republicans):

·         The Senate passed a resolution urging State-aided colleges to ban Communists and subversives from speaking on campus.

·         Another resolution urged the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency to recall loans from students who took part in demonstrations.

·         A third resolution expressed Senate “indignation” with several organizations, including the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and Students for a Democratic Society.

On Thursday Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials asked residents to fly the American flag this weekend as their part in a nationwide campaign in support of the US role in the war. Friday through Sunday were declared “Pittsburgh Pledge of Allegiance Weekend,” and churches, schools, and businesses were urged to join in. Campaigns ranging from baking cookies to donating blood continued over the country to counter the effect of last weekend’s protest demonstrations. Where anti-Vietnam picketing continued, supporters of US policy staged counter picket lines.

Actress Mary Martin and the road company of “Hello, Dolly!” ended a ten-day tour of Vietnam, where thousands of US servicemen saw five performances of the hit musical.

An American civilian was kidnapped by Viet Cong guerrillas while on a daring attempt to travel 200 miles up the coast of South Vietnam to Cam Ranh Bay. The 24-year-old Oklahoma youth was stopped by the guerrillas on a highway in Long Kahn Province, about 50 miles north of Saigon, and was last seen being led across a rice field. His motor scooter was later recovered.

The US began landing its biggest guns and sleekest jet fighter planes in Vietnam for the first time. Some of the seven and eight-inch artillery pieces were destined for service in the central highlands, where a Communist siege against a US Special Forces outpost was in its fifth day. The plane was the F-5 “Freedom Fighter,” a vest-pocket jet that packed more punch than any other fighter-bomber in the US arsenal. Twelve F-5s had landed Saturday at Bien Hoa, 12 miles north of Saigon. The planes could take off or land on no more than a dirt field for a runway, and with jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) pods, could virtually leap into the skies from a standing start.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Pittsburgh Press)