The Vietnam War, This Week, The Times, Chester, PA

Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages

 9 October 1966 – 15 October 1966

The Times, Chester, PA

A “fight to the end for independence and freedom.”

*****

The United States moved heavy reinforcements up to the embattled demilitarized zone on Monday as B-52 bombers raided North Vietnamese infiltration routes just above the buffer area. Simultaneously, US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara arrived in Saigon for a four-day visit to the battlefronts and a survey of the men and money needed for the war. The two Marine divisions already in the northern provinces were moved closer to the 17th parallel demilitarized zone, which separated North and South Vietnam. US reinforcements were massed in the north to help stem the mounting influx of North Vietnamese forces into South Vietnam, and to bolster the Allied forces against an expected major Communist offensive. Heavy fighting had been in progress just south of the demilitarized zone almost continuously since mid-July. In the last nine weeks the Marines had killed 1,071 North Vietnamese regulars, the equivalent of two battalions. The Marines had taken many casualties, but their losses were officially termed moderate. Upon winding up his eighth visit to Vietnam, Secretary McNamara said the rate of progress in military operations during the past year “had has exceeded our expectations.” He told newsman he saw nothing that would indicate a substantial change in the rate of those military operations or deployment of US forces there in the months ahead.

The Viet Kong rejected Britain’s plan for peace in Vietnam and Pope Paul the Sixth’s appeals for peace. “It is of no avail at this moment to issue vague calls for peace in Vietnam without pointing one’s finger to the US war criminals and obliging them to withdraw their troops from South Vietnam,” a commentary by the Communist Liberation Press Agency said. It called the six-point British proposal “absurd” and renewed the Viet Cong pledged “fight to the end for independence and freedom.”

US senator Edward Kennedy urged all Americans Monday night tonight to unite behind President Johnson and his current bid for peace in Southeast Asia. Speaking to a campaign dinner in Massachusetts, Kennedy said the president’s Manila trip is “a mission in search of peace” and “a mission seeking solutions to the problems of southeast Asia.” He described the president’s trip as “most important and perilous.” “This is a time for all Americans to come together," he said.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Chester Times)