Center of Gravity

The hotels of Saigon last week were jammed with officers of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The once-neglected airfield at Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon, is now receiving a steady stream of Globemasters that unload tons of electric generators, radar equipment, trucks and Quonset huts. A U.S. ground crew of 200 lives in tents near by to service the planes and take care of 24 U.S. fighter-bombers and transports scheduled to be turned over to the South Viet Nam government.

Cruising offshore was the U.S.S. Princeton with 1,300 combat-ready marines aboard. Admiral John H. Sides, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, was in Saigon, en route, he said, to Thailand. Asked if it were true that much of the Seventh Fleet was already in Vietnamese waters, the admiral replied: "The center of gravity of the Seventh Fleet is always near a troubled area."

In the weeks ahead, more and more U.S. and Vietnamese activity will become evident as a result of the visit to South east Asia by General Maxwell Taylor. Among U.S. plans to help South Viet Nam resist massive Communist guerrilla attacks: 1) the dispatch to South Viet Nam of U.S. operational personnel, who might include such groups as demolition experts, engineers, communications teams and anti-guerrilla training officers; 2) reconnaissance missions by U.S. planes along the border between North and South Viet Nam; and 3) bomber strikes at Communist guerrilla bases.

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