Most of the Dying

In the fierce weeks of fighting around Plei Me, American ground troops dominated the action in South Viet Nam.

They killed more Reds than ever before --and took more dead of their own in the process. That tended to obscure the fact that month in and month out, Saigon's forces have been doing most of the dying and much of the fighting in

South Viet Nam. During October, for example, government forces took 3,655 dead and wounded v. 455 for the U.S.

Last week, with the Americans quiescent, it was that way again.

On a hundred country roads and rivers from Danang to the Mekong Delta, South Vietnamese soldiers were guarding strategic installations, escorting convoys, opening routes, and clashing with small but savage Viet Cong bands whose bullets were just as merciless as those of the North Vietnamese around Plei Me.

Death on Date Palm Hill. Into the Chu Pong massif--scene of the bloodiest encounter between American and North Vietnamese regulars to date--swept a multi-battalion relief force of rested, rambunctious South Vietnamese paratroopers. As U.S. planes plastered the jungly ridges (in some 600 sorties since Nov. 14), the South Vietnamese paras roared in behind the bomb blasts looking for "an opportunity to show their fighting skills." During their first day, they killed 180 Reds. Then the North Vietnamese pulled back to lick their wounds, much to the paratroopers' disgust. There was fighting in plenty, however, around the huge, abandoned Michelin rubber plantation near Dau Tieng, some 40 miles northwest of Saigon. When two Viet Cong battalions hit all four sides of a government encampment on Date Palm Hill, the South Vietnamese defenders hurled them back in vicious hand-to-hand combat.

Loudspeakers boomed out messages of doom to the attackers: "We have just killed your commander" and "Our brothers have just captured three of your recoilless rifles." One by one, the Red guns fell silent; then the defenders fixed their bayonets and sprinted from their rifle pits. The Reds fled--only to return in regimental strength four days later and trigger a bloody battle among the rubber trees that was still raging at week's end.

Toes & Barbed Wire. Up the coast at Thach Tru some 320 miles northeast of Saigon, a battalion of South Vietnamese Rangers (backed by a company of Popular Forces) made a gutty stand even without loudspeakers. Hit by a full Viet Cong regiment, the Rangers threw back three concerted assaults that left their wire festooned with Red bodies. The V.C. timed their attacks to coincide with lulls in U.S. air support, but they reckoned without the 5-in. guns of the U.S. Navy. Into range at flank speed loped the U.S. destroyer O'Brien, spitting rapid-fire salvos from its six main battery guns at 1 1/2 tons a minute. "I've got Veecee hanging by their toes from my barbed wire," radioed a spotter. "I'm gonna put down the radio and grab my rifle." No need. By noon the Reds had faded away--leaving 175 dead behind them.

Some 70 miles to the south, the Reds mounted another regiment-size assault --this time on the district capital of Tuy An. A relief force hit the traditional Communist ambush but backed away quickly to let "Puff the Magic Dragon" take charge. One of the squadron of slow-circling C-47 transports converted by the U.S. Air Force, the plane harassed the Reds with its three General Electric-built "Miniguns"--six-barreled super Catlings that can deliver up to 6,000 rounds of 7.62 mm. slugs a minute. Flying in increasingly widening circles, one Puff can slash a swatch of jungle to salad in moments. At Tuy An it did the trick. The attacking Communists--hard-core troops judging by their khaki uniforms, steel helmets and leather webbing--pulled back with heavy losses.

There is no disagreement among American military men that the infusion of U.S. combat troops has taken up enough slack to give the plucky but war-weary South Vietnamese the pause they needed after a tough summer. At Dau Tieng the government regulars stood and fought it out for four hours without losing a single piece of equipment to the Reds. At Thach Tru they stood up and charged against heavy odds. There has been a noticeable decrease in the South Vietnamese desertion rate since the Americans began arriving in quantity. Says General William C. Westmoreland: "The presence of the American troops has had a tonic effect on the Vietnamese. They are more aggressive and fighting better than ever before."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.