The Vietnam War This Week, The Republican, Kane, PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 29 August 1966 – 4 September 1966

The Republican, Kane PA

A lull in ground fighting, but the air war intensifies.

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US planes caught four North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, sinking two and damaging the other two. In South Vietnam, the Viet Cong made two unsuccessful attempts to block the chief shipping channel between Saigon and the sea. One explosion near a U.S. Navy minesweeper caused no casualties and only minor damage to the ship. On Sunday a Communist mine sank a small South Vietnamese minesweeper in the Long Tao channel but the ship went down near the riverbank, leaving the waterway open to traffic. Last Tuesday a Communist mine sank the American cargo ship Baton Rouge Victory in the same channel with a loss of seven lives. As the Communists staged their fifth attack on the waterways within eight days, the US Navy sent aloft helicopter gunships to support its riverboat fleet. It was the first time the Navy had flown its own armed helicopters. Navy pilots and crews took over operation of the UH-1B Huey helicopters from Army teams after on-the-job training aboard the USS Tortuga, a dock landing ship station off the coast as a base for the choppers.

On Thursday US B-52 bombers hammered suspected Communist infiltration routes in the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam. The planes from Guam unloaded tons of explosives onto target areas in the buffer strip where North Vietnamese regulars were seen infiltrating into the south. Other US planes continued the pounding of North Vietnam. Air Force pilots reported so many hits on an ammunition depot that it “looked like a fireworks display.” A weeklong lull in ground fighting persisted for another day in South Vietnam. US command reported no significant fighting. South Vietnamese headquarters listed only one engagement of any size. The Allied commands announced that enemy casualties dropped sharply last week while US and South Vietnamese combat losses remained about the same.

President Charles de Gaulle declared on his arrival in Cambodia that “the war in Vietnam could lead the world to its misfortune.” The French leader wasted no time in commenting on the conflict being waged on the border of the southeast asian kingdom after his plane touch ed down on a flight from Djibouti, French Somaliland. Shortly before his arrival, Prince Norodom Sihanouk charged that 250 men had been training in neighboring Thailand to cause disorder during the French leader’s visit. A speech delivered by De Gaulle in Cambodia Thursday, stating his views on how to try to bring peace to southeast Asia, was deemed unacceptable by the United States as it included a timetable for pulling US forces out of South Vietnam, but excluded a corresponding timetable for ending North Vietnam’s drive against the South. The US government swallowed its displeasure at the anti-American tone of De Gaulle’s remarks behind “no comments” at the White House and State Department.

In South Vietnam, a weeklong lull in the war persisted. No significant action was reported by either the US military command or South Vietnamese headquarters. However, government officials expected increased Viet Cong efforts to disrupt the 11 September election of a constituent assembly. Informed sources said more than 100 incidents had been reported throughout the nation. Policemen shot and killed a suspected Communist agent who tried to flee when he was caught tearing down election posters in Saigon Tuesday night.

US military headquarters announced on Saturday that two more American planes had been shot down over North Vietnam during raids on the main supply and infiltration rates to the south. Rainstorms again curtailed US air blows against the north and an elusive enemy in the south reduced ground action once more to small skirmishes. High altitude B-52 bombers, flying above the foul weather, dropped tons of explosives on a Viet Cong base camp and training area close to the Cambodian border. The bombers hit at much-battered War Zone C, 70 miles northwest of Saigon in Tay Ninh Province. The losses of the latest two aircraft raised to 357 the number of American war planes to go down in action over North Vietnam.

The US Navy was speeding thousands of air conditioning units to Vietnam on an emergency basis for installation on board heat-wracked ships. The Navy said the crash effort involved approximately 4,200 units ranging in size from 3 to 7½ tons of cooling capacity. About 1,600 self-contained air conditioners had already been delivered, and 2,600 more would be sent to Southeast Asia beginning this month. The explanation was that the intense heat and humidity in that region hampered the performance of both men and equipment.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Kane Republican