Destroying the Haven

Having lost more than 2,000 men since the ground war resumed last month, the Communists were less anxious last week to stand and fight. The elusive nature of the enemy has rarely been better demonstrated than in the U.S.-led assault on War Zone C, a 1,000-sq.-mi. pocket of swampland that bulges into Cambodia. The area, 75 miles northwest of Saigon, has for 20 years been Communism's major stronghold in South Viet Nam, and is believed to contain the national headquarters of the Viet Cong. In the hope of getting the Communists to stand and fight for their home territory, the U.S. launched its biggest assault of the war on Zone C. For a while, it looked as if it might also turn out to be the war's biggest non-battle.

To launch Operation Junction City, which cost upwards of $25 million, the U.S. threw in 30,000 troops, the equivalent of two entire army divisions, and sent noisy C-130s over the area to deliver the first American combat parachute jump of the war. Giant trees crumpled as B-52s from Guam, 2,600 miles away, swept in to carpet the forest with high explosives. Screaming Phantoms and Skyraiders plastered the perimeters of jungle clearings with napalm and thermite bombs, setting brushfires that blazed for days. Helicppters thrummed in to deposit entire platoons of infantrymen, and armored personnel carriers rumbled through the mire at 500 yards an hour in hopes of pinning Charlie to the sticking point.

Giving the Lie. Yet the Viet Cong made themselves scarce, unwilling to hold anything that the attackers wanted to take. Even before the assault began, most of them apparently fled across the border into Cambodia--giving the lie to Prince Norodom Sihanouk's statement last week that his country was not being used as a Viet Cong sanctuary. As the Americans, aided by South Vietnamese forces, moved cautiously through the area, the ground was still so hot from napalm that the troops were unable to crouch; the only survivors of the scorched earth seemed to be millions of aggressive red ants, which climbed over the troops and stung them as they advanced.

In their drive, the Americans destroyed Viet Cong camps, food supplies and enough concrete bunkers to shelter a division, discovered such incidental supplies as 8,200 pairs of Ho Chi Minh sandals, more than 40 tons of rice and two smokeless kitchens complete with a table set with fresh flowers and a bottle of Russian liqueur. In the first two days of the assault, however, they succeeded in killing only 19 Viet Cong. Later, as their horseshoe-shaped net tightened, a few more Viet Cong began showing up. In a series of firefights, the Viet Cong death toll had risen to 49 by week's end.

In the Heartland. The great Communist force that was thought to be in the area never materialized. The Communists could have heard of the as sault's imminence through an intelligence breach, could have been expecting a U.S. drive in that area anyway, or could simply have decamped when the first bombers appeared. "If we get in there and don't kill anybody and don't find anything, it will be embarrassing," said Lieut. General Jonathan O. Seaman, commander of the operation, expressing disappointment at the first results. "Sometimes knowing what isn't there can be valuable, but I hate to spend this many resources for that kind of intelligence."

General Seaman felt that it was too early to assess the full value of the drive, which will probably continue for three weeks. At any rate, if it accomplishes nothing else, Operation Junction City* will have let the Viet Cong know that U.S. troops can enter their heartland at will and destroy their fortifications and supplies. "I would hate to be a VC," said General Seaman, "and know that I have no safe haven in South Viet Nam any more."

* So named for Junction City, Kans. (pop. 21,000), where General Seaman's wife and two daughters reside.

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