Friday, March 15, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11
U.S. announces massive attack in Saigon
Informed military sources told United Press International that Westmoreland feels once the capital area is cleared of Communist forces the United States can go on the offensive elsewhere in Vietnam. They said Westmoreland took to the field also because he felt the Communists were planning another major assault against Saigon and wanted to "beat them to the punch."
SAIGON — (UPI)— American officials today announced the start of the Vietnam war's largest campaign, named "Operation Certain Victory" and aimed at destroying Communist forces in and around Saigon. They said the 30,000-man drive already has killed at least 215 Communist troops.
U. S. military spokesmen said the size of the force far exceeds that of "Operation Junction City." previously the biggest campaign of the war. Conducted in the spring of 1966 in the War Zone C jungles northwest of Saigon, Junction City employed about 35 U.S. and allied battalions.
Gen. William C. Westmoreland, U.S. military commander in Vietnam, took personal command of the 50-battalion offensive that swept Monday into five provinces around Saligon.
They said that besides killing Communists, the forces of "Certain Victory" already had overrun and seized two huge Communist weapon dumps.
Westmoreland gave the drive
If you see news happening call UN 4-3646
heavy priority, sources said. U.S. spokesmen said the general committed to the operation elements of the U.S. Army 1st, 9th and 25th Infantry Divisions. The South Vietnamese added airborne, Ranger, Marine and infantry units plus national police who were conducting house-to-house hunts for guerrillas inside Saigon.
In other action, U.S. pilots flew 86 missions through overcast skies against North Vietnam Thursday for the second day in a row of heavy bombing, spokesman said. Navy jets blasted a railroad-vehicle bridge between Hanoi and
Haiphong and another within Haiphong's city limits.
Air Force bombers hit the Dong Hoi Airfield and other targets in the Southern Panhandle. They also struck in the Hanoi area, bombing a major power plant and missile site near the capital.
In South Vietnam, 19 miles south-southwest of the Marine bastion at Da Nang on the northern coast, U.S. Marine artillery and Air Force gunships killed at least 60 Communists Thursday.
Military spokesmen also said Communist forces launched a series of mortar and rocket attacks
on allied targets just below the North Vietnamese border, blowing up a U.S. assault boat but doing little other damage.
In "Certain Victory," 1st Infantry Division troops reported killing 28 Communists in a four-hour fight north of Saigon Thursday. Three Americans were killed and 28 wounded.
American spokesmen said one of the guerrilla arms caches uncovered in the sweep lay within striking distance of Tan Son Nhut Airbase and Westmoreland's "Pentagon East" headquarters. It contained nearly 5,000 rounds of
automatic weapons ammunition, nearly 300 grenades and hundreds of rounds of rocket and mortar rounds. The second big cache was just a few miles further away from the heart of Saigon, they said.
American officials had reported Communist troop strength growing in the Saigon area, apparently preparing to repeat the Viet Cong Jan. 30 invasion of the capital. The attack highlighted the Communists' Tet offensive that struck more than 35 cities and towns and took nearly a month to throw back.
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS THEATRE
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MACBETH
by William Shakespeare
starring CLAYTON CORBIN
MARCH 14,15,16,22,23----8:20 p.m. MARCH 24----2:30 p.m.
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