The Vietnam War, This Week, The Public Opinion, Chambersburg PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
2 May 1965 – 8 May 1965
The Public Opinion, Chambersburg PA
45,000 US servicemen were now in country.
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Reports of an impending shakeup in South Vietnam’s military high command circulated in Saigon early in the week. There were reports that some changes in the civilian government also were likely. It was expected that the Armed Forces council, a consulting military body that at various times had served as a national junta, would be dissolved. It was also expected that a civilian defense minister might be appointed to replace Major General Nguyen Van Thieu. The capital was buzzing with coup rumors, and armored vehicles were seen at key locations around the city. But insiders said they saw no immediate danger of trouble. On Thursday South Vietnam’s Armed Forces Council dissolved itself, ending 18 months of military control of the civilian government. The development strengthened Premier Phan Huy Quat’s hand.
Four companies of US Marines launched an offensive Tuesday supported by tanks six miles southwest of the Da Nang airbase. Two Marines were wounded, one seriously. Details of the action were not immediately available, but at least one company of the Marines made heavy contact with the Viet Cong. US Navy jets made four small strikes against North Vietnam Monday night. They claimed four trucks and nine freight cars were destroyed or damaged. Two Skyhawk jets participated in each of the two raids at targets between 80 and 100 miles south of Hanoi. All planes returned safely to their Seventh Fleet carriers. Midweek US Air Force jets smashed a North Vietnamese ammunition complex and claimed “spectacular results.” A spokesman said four underground ammunition bunkers blew up after direct hits and four others were left burning. At week’s end, a US Marine was killed when Viet Cong guerrillas fired on a group of leathernecks touring hamlets just outside the Da Nang airbase, handing out chewing gum, candy, and schoolbooks. A merchant marine officer from California who went back into the jungle two weeks ago to try to find his missing pilot brother was now apparently a prisoner of the Viet Cong. A 21-year-old Vietnamese girl student who went along with him was also believed in communist hands.
The South East Asia Treaty Organization, meeting in London, went into secret session to debate means of halting the mounting Communist menace in the Orient. The United States charged at the opening session Monday that the fighting in Vietnam was being escalated by the Reds from guerrilla fighting to head on warfare. The US Undersecretary of State pleaded for more military help from other members of SEATO for the fight in Vietnam.
A task force of transport planes continued to shuttle the 3,500 men of the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade from Okinawa to South Vietnam. Reports circulated that the landing of another large group of Marines was imminent. On Friday, 3,000 more US Marines and 3,000 Seabees landed on a desolate coastal plane in South Vietnam and immediately began building a 4,000-foot airstrip. The Seabees estimated that they would have the aluminum base airstrip completed within 72 hours after all equipment had been unloaded from the ships anchored off the beach 52 miles south of the big Da Nang air base. The day’s landing brought the total number of US servicemen in South Vietnam to about 45,000.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Chambersburg Public Opinion)