Communist Step-Up

The diplomatic flurries around the world over fresh peace probes during the past two weeks have all but obscured a grim new reality in the actual warfare in Viet Nam. The fighting so far in 1968, as General William Westmoreland observed last week, has been "the most intense of the entire war." Moreover, most of the initiative in the fiercer fighting since New Year's Day belongs to the Communists, despite the inevitably heavy losses such aggression means in the face of the allies' overwhelming superiority of firepower. Some 2,800 Communist troops were killed during the first week of January, the highest weekly toll for the war. Nonetheless, U.S. commanders readily admit that the enemy is firmly on the offensive and the allies almost entirely on the tactical defensive, reacting to preplanned enemy attacks.

Since Jan. 1, the Communists have shelled 49 district and provincial capitals and attacked eight of them. Twice in three days they temporarily occupied provincial capitals within 30 miles of Saigon. In northernmost I Corps, the Communists have already made 98 separate attacks on the U.S. Marine-ARVN Combined Action Platoons and overrun two of their outposts so far this year. Though they have won no major victories, the Communists have made a sizable show of force and demonstrated their ability to fight hard, if they choose to, in nearly every province in Viet Nam. Lieut. General Bruce Palmer, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army in Viet Nam, calls the pressure "heavy and sustained" in I Corps, in the area around Saigon, in the Chu Lai area and around Bong Son on the coastal plains--and "sporadic" all over the rest of the country.

First in the Delta. Some captured documents suggest that just such an enemy escalation would accompany any move to the conference table. The U.S. command in Saigon does not interpret what is happening now in that optimistic light. Rather, it thinks that the Red offensive, emphasizing hit-and-run attacks in populated areas, reflects Hanoi's need to refurbish its once awesome image among the Vietnamese peasantry and to regain control of vital coastal areas and rice bowls, such as Binh Dinh province, that growing allied success has denied its troops.

The new aggression also reflects Hanoi's increasing control over the whole war in the South. With recruitment of fresh Viet Cong growing increasingly difficult, more and more North Vietnamese are infiltrating the South in order to fill the ranks. Westmoreland estimates that the average Viet Cong main-force unit is now 10% North Vietnamese. NVA units have lately been found operating as far down the command ladder as squad-size in hamlets. And two weeks ago in the Delta, hitherto the exclusive preserve of indigenous Viet Cong, the first North Vietnamese soldier was captured.

Jungle Design. With NVA officers running things, the Viet Cong are not only tougher but far better equipped and supplied. "They used to attack once a month," says Palmer, then fade away across a border to get more ammunition. "Now they can hit as often as ten times a month." Viet Cong weapons are no longer antiquated French pieces or American rejects. "They have Chinese-made AK-47s all over, from squad to division level, and that's about as good an automatic weapon as there is," says Palmer. They also have portable flamethrowers that some U.S. ordnance officers think are better than the U.S. issue, and are newly armed with a portable 120-mm. mortar specifically designed by the Soviets for use in the jungles of Viet Nam.

The enemy's ability to step up the level of fighting clearly indicates that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese are getting supplies in both quality and quantity. Most of the war material likely comes in by sea to Cambodia or is trucked and carried down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. The U.S. command in Saigon also estimates that North Vietnamese troops are continuing to come down the Trail at the rate of 6,000 or more a month.

The new Communist aggressiveness makes it easier for U.S. commanders to engage the Communists, who once operated only in areas remote from U.S. bases. The allies are not only carrying out search-and-destroy sweeps (48 were under way last week), but are beating back and severely damaging an enemy now rashly willing to attack U.S. fixed positions throughout Viet Nam. To bolster the most fixed of all American positions in Viet Nam--the line along the Demilitarized Zone facing North Viet Nam--the Marines last week shifted the 5th Marine Regiment, some 3,500 strong, from pacification duties south of Danang to the DMZ area to strengthen the line against a possible new invasion attempt from North Viet Nam or nearby Laos.

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