Adding Up, Up, Up

A fortnight ago, the number of U.S. servicemen in South Viet Nam soared past the 100,000 mark. Last week another 7,500 "combat-support and combat-support service personnel" landed from two troopships, bringing the total to nearly 108,000--a fourth of them front-line marines and infantrymen. And at week's end the 15,800 men and 424 helicopters and planes of the Army's 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division began to disembark at Qui Nhon.

Thus, by the end of this week the U.S. commitment in Viet Nam will have reached President Johnson's target of 125,000 men, announced only last July 28--an increase of 50,000 in just six weeks. Soon that total will be surpassed; by year's end the U.S. will have more than 150,000 uniformed men in Viet Nam, not including the sailors and airmen of the Seventh Fleet, nor the crews of the giant B-52s based on Guam--all very much a part of the burgeoning war, as the Viet Cong can painfully attest.

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