Singled Out for Terror

Viet Cong terrorism grows ever wider in South Viet Nam. Recognizing the danger posed by the Allied pacification drive to win over and secure the rural villages of South Viet Nam, the Viet Cong are now concentrating on a campaign of terror against the country's 35,600 pacification workers. Since January, they have killed 233 workers, wounded 320 and kidnaped another 42. Last week alone, they killed ten pacification workers, but they were not ignoring the rest of the populace either. In the week that ended May 13, Viet Cong terrorists murdered 85 civilians, wounded 97 and abducted 78.

The reason for the Viet Cong's campaign against pacification is a new drive being made by the Allies. Last year the pacification program was not much of a success: it managed to secure only a few hundred of South Viet Nam's 12,000 hamlets, was crippled by severe organizational snafus. This year the Allies have launched a new effort to make the program work, as evidenced by the appointment two weeks ago of General William Westmoreland to take overall control of the pacification effort. The move will enable the U.S. to coordinate troop movements so that its forces can both fight the enemy and help give protection to the pacification workers, who perform such vital tasks as well digging and road and school construction. So seriously do the Viet Cong take the new effort that they now promise that any Communist who kills a pacification worker will be awarded the same honors as if he had killed an American soldier.

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