Opening an Artery

South Viet Nam's sprawling Mekong Delta is a military planner's nightmare. May-to-October monsoon rains churn the paddyfields into oceans of viscous slop that bogs down troopers and tanks alike. But for all its unpleasant mud, the Delta is far too vital to be ignored. It is the home of one-third of South Viet Nam's 16.5 million people, produces fully one-half of the country's food. It is also infested with Viet Cong. As long as the U.S. has concentrated most of its military muscle in other areas, the V.C. have been able to use it as their main source of new recruits and food. Last week, even as U.S. planes hit North Viet Nam with a record 197 missions in a single day, U.S. forces went into the Delta in earnest.

Square in the Middle. Primary target was a stretch of Route 4, a potholed two-lane highway over which moves most of the food that the Delta now sends to Saigon. Explained Lieut. General Frederick C. Weyand, the U.S. Area Commander: "For every day the road is closed, the price of rice in Saigon goes up 10 piasters ." In the past fortnight, the Viet Cong concentrated three hard-core battalions near Route 4 and mined the road eight times, bringing traffic to a virtual stop. The V.C. were obviously trying to push up food prices just as the presidential campaign began.

In a combined American-Vietnamese sweep called Coronado II, four battalions from the 9th and 25th Divisions were helilifted into the area; two others swarmed ashore from river as sault boats. The Americans' job was to link up with ten South Vietnamese battalions to make a 250-sq.-mi. rectangle surrounding the V.C. battalions. While the perimeter formed, two battalions of tough South Vietnamese Marines came clattering in by copter to flush out the quarry. By chance, the Marines landed squarely in the midst of a crack V.C. outfit. At once they were in a furious firefight and the Marine commander stubbornly waved off U.S. artillery fire and air strikes so that he could keep his own men in close contact with the enemy. After 22 hours of almost nonstop righting, the V.C. broke off to slip away by night. They left behind 150 dead and a number of prisoners, including the battalion's deputy commander. Along the rectangle's rim, U.S. and South Vietnamese troopers killed 135 other guerrillas, blew up nearly 700 bunkers.

Focal Point. The battle won, drivers could pass unworried along Route 4, and trucks piled with rice, hogs, chickens and vegetables streamed toward Saigon. But the traffic was not nearly enough. Twenty-five miles farther south of Route 4 lies another major artery that is still clogged by Viet Cong terrorism. It is the 30-mile Mang Thit-Nicolai canal, which is the main waterway between the ricelands of the Delta and the rest of Viet Nam. Until only a few years ago, it was one of the country's busiest canals; the villages on its banks were among Viet Nam's most prosperous. But while most of the war was confined to the Central Highlands and the borders of the DMZ, the Viet Cong methodically conquered all but one of the many fortified outposts that guarded the canal. Boatmen quit using the passage because they knew that the V.C. would either confiscate their cargoes or extort huge safe-passage fees. Towns along the water became dilapidated and poor as rice growers diverted their shipments to the Bassac River, a route that added 21 days to the trip to Saigon. Many found it more profitable to smuggle their produce into Cambodia.

In late 1966, Premier Ky promised to reopen the waterway no later than May 31. In a determined effort to make good, he sent an army battalion and six 40-man rural-development teams into hamlets along the canal to combat Viet Cong influence. The V.C. countered by murdering local officials, and Ky failed to make his May deadline: parts of the canal are still intermittently under V.C. control.

Nonetheless, the towns along the canal have already undergone a notable change, in both facilities and spirit. The

Vietnamese army has built eleven new forts in which local volunteers now stand guard against terrorist attack. Forty-five new bridges span tributaries along the canal bank. Abuilding in many hamlets are new marketplaces, schools, dispensaries and maternity clinics. A thin trickle of shipping has started, and shipwrights in a number of villages have begun the construction of new 50-and 100-ton barges, confident that the canal will soon be open for full-scale business.

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