The Vietnam War, This Week, The Times, Gettysburg PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
2 January 1966 – 8 January 1966
The Times, Gettysburg PA
A massive terrorist strike is averted.
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Two of President Johnson’s peace envoys continued their efforts despite new dampening blasts from Hanoi. North Vietnamese Communist Party organ Nhan Dan branded the current US peace moves as “trickery” and said that if any political solution to the Vietnam war was to be achieved the United States must halt “definitely and unconditionally” all acts of war against the North. The Hanoi newspaper also said Washington would have to acknowledge the four conditions the Communists had set down for an end to the war. What was meant by “acknowledge” was not immediately clear. Washington had let it be known that it would be willing to discuss the four points if negotiations got underway. As the flurry of American diplomatic activity continued, the lull in the bombings of North Vietnam targets moved into its 11th day. The bombing moratorium was viewed as a part of Washington’s efforts to establish conditions favorable to the beginning of peace talks with North Vietnam.
US paratroopers slogged through mud and swamp Sunday in their first big invasion of the Mekong Delta but a large Viet Cong force slipped deeper into the Red sanctuary, eluding their pursuers. The probe by the 173rd Airborne Brigade, backed by artillery, airstrikes, and even tanks, began with high hopes of rousing the guerrillas from their stronghold. Although they offered some brisk skirmishes and steady sniper fire at the start of the operation New Year’s Day, the Viet Cong withdrew into the marshes in the direction of the Plain of Reeds near the Cambodian frontier.
Large Viet Cong forces struck back Monday night at South Korean marines and Vietnamese paratroopers on a search and destroy mission near the coastal city of Tuy Hoa, 240 miles northeast of Saigon. The US spokesman said the Allied force, supported by artillery, killed eight guerrillas and captured eight while taking light casualties. This raised the number of Communists claimed killed in the operation to 180. The outbreak of fighting shifted attention from the big US paratrooper push into the Mekong Delta west of Saigon. Suspension of US air raids on North Vietnam continued for the 12th day with no indication when orders would come from Washington to resume the attacks. The next day it was reported that South Korean Marines and Vietnamese paratroopers had flushed a large Viet Cong force out of hideouts in hundreds of caves in tunnels in the coastal hills near Tuy Hoa. Six Sky Raider fighter-bombers caught one fleeing guerrilla band in the open as “Operation Jefferson” drew to a close, and the pilots claimed that 60 of the black-clad insurgents were killed.
Police on Friday smashed a Viet Cong plot to blow up a US billet in downtown Saigon with the biggest plastic bomb ever used in the capital. Intelligence agencies and the national police seized six terrorists 2½ miles north of Saigon as they were bringing a 265-pound plastic bomb in a large water tank into the city. Two of the terrorists were armed with 45 caliber automatics. Officials had already warned the capital to expect a new onslaught of terrorism in the next two weeks before the Vietnamese new year – Tet – on 21 January. Thursday night they arrested five Vietnamese, eight aged 16 to 37, in an investigation of two explosions an hour apart at the military entrance to the Saigon airport and across town at a police substation.
The caption of a photo on 6 January read, “two small Vietnamese children gaze at an American paratrooper holding an M79 grenade launcher as they cling to their mothers who huddle against the canal bank for protection from Viet Cong sniper fire. Picture was made New Year’s Day as the 173rd airborne brigade made a sweep in the Bao Trai area, about 20 miles west of Saigon, to round up Viet Cong suspects. Sweep was a multibattalion operation by Vietnamese, Australian and American units.”
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Gettysburg Times)