The Vietnam War, This Week, The Times, Gettysburg PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
26 September 1965 – 2 October 1965
The Times, Gettysburg PA
Summary executions.
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South Vietnam denounced the execution of two more American soldiers by the Viet Cong as “acts of wanton murder.” A US government statement said, “The Viet Cong’s brutal conduct can in no way be justified as a reprisal for the Vietnamese government’s recent execution of three civilian, non-uniformed Viet Cong agitators.” There was a DoD list of 17 Americans in Viet Cong hands, including those just executed. On Wednesday, the Viet Cong threatened to execute all captured Americans, summarily. The US and South Vietnamese pilots would be tried as war criminals. Six more executions by the Vietnamese government were expected on Friday despite Viet Cong threats of reprisals.
Hundreds of Vietnamese rangers and Viet Cong fighters clashed in the Phu Cu pass are. The Viet Cong suffered heavy losses in the area the past week. The location was 295 miles northeast of Saigon. A Vietnamese army ranger unit reported that it was engaged with a large VC element, possibly one of two battalions (a VC battalion was 500 to 600 men). Tactical airstrikes were launched to aid the Government fighting, and no estimate of casualties on either side were available. The Viet Cong had cut off three towns in Qui Nhon province, blowing several bridges and setting up roadblocks along the highway.
Thursday brought a day-long battle involving four government battalions and an estimated 1,000 Viet Cong about 20 miles west of My Tho. In the biggest battle in months, 68 Viet Cong bodies were counted, and another 100 guerrillas were believed killed or wounded. US Army advisers were with the government troops, but US casualties were described as very light. South Vietnamese casualties were said to be light to moderate.
At week’s end two US A1E Skyraider planes collided, and the pilots and one passenger were killed. The passenger was a photographer from the Associated Press in Albany. The planes were being fired on from the ground. One plane was on a strafing run trying to eliminate the ground fire and the other was on a napalm run.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Gettysburg Times)