In Search of an Elusive Foe

WITH unexpected rapidity, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces opened new fronts along the Cambodian border last week. Initially, the drive against the Communist sanctuaries involved 20,000 allied troops operating in two areas, the Parrot's Beak and Fishhook havens northwest of Saigon. By week's end, as half a dozen new task forces were hurled into the border war, the sweeps had spread south as far as the Mekong River and north to the highlands near the Laotian border. What started as a two-front foray was now a campaign engaging 40,000 troops along 600 miles of the frontier (see map).

According to the promise made by President Nixon last week, the U.S. troops will penetrate no more than 21.7 miles into Cambodia and will be withdrawn no later than July 1. But the South Vietnamese ground forces are under no such restrictions, and may well drive deeper and stay longer. In fact, a South Vietnamese naval force was on its way toward the very heart of Cambodia at week's end. Accompanied by 30 U.S. craft, a flotilla of 70 South Vietnamese gunboats headed up the Mekong, bound for Phnom-Penh. Ostensibly, its mission is to evacuate South Vietnamese from the Cambodian capital. Along the way, however, the heavily armed boats did not hesitate to engage Communist troops occupying the key Cambodian river town of Neak Luong (see following story).

Of the new thrusts launched last week, the two most important were aimed at areas from which North Vietnamese and Viet Cong regulars have long ventured forth to terrorize key positions in South Viet Nam. The two: OPERATION BOLD LANCER, directed at Base Area 354, between the Fishhook and the Parrot's Beak. The area has long been home for one of the most destructive of all Communist units, the crack 95C Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army, which has made life miserable for the allies in War Zone C in Tay Ninh province. Base Area 354 has also served as headquarters for the NVA's 9th Division, which has led every major attack on the Saigon area in recent years and is considered by U.S. officers to be the best of the Communist divisions. Bold Lancer, which involved a brigade of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division, fell behind schedule almost immediately. When the troops arrived at the Cambodian town of Tasuos, an enemy rest and training area, they found half-eaten meals and abandoned NVA rucksacks and mess kits, but no NVA. OPERATION PACIFY WEST ONE, directed at Base Area 702 in the densely foliaged Central Highlands. It was from this sanctuary that the Communists masterminded a host of battles, including the recent assaults on camps at Bu Prang and Due Lap. Elements of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division and Saigon's 22nd Division are involved in the operation, which promises to be particularly arduous because wild terrain rules out anything but travel by foot. Like Bold Lancer, the exercise got off to a sputtering start; vicious ground fire pinned down the first troops to arrive, and an inexplicable shortage of helicopter fuel temporarily kept 1,000 men waiting for the jump-off in Viet Nam. After two days, the troops had combed only 1% of the base area's 115 sq. mi.

A Certain Skepticism. The immediate effect of the Cambodian assaults has been to raise morale in U.S. and ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) command posts. When ARVN General Lu Lan told his officers that they would be part of Operation Pacify West, he said last week, "I could see the delight in their eyes." An operations calendar in a unit of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division mixed high spirits and sarcasm: "May 5, March on Laos; May 6, Invade Thailand; May 7, Annex Burma; May 8, Indochina Becomes 51st State."

Nevertheless, a certain skepticism has begun to supplant the initial jubilation with which ranking military men greeted the sanctuary-scouring venture. Doubts are heard even in the Pentagon. Army General Earle G. Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, argued from the first that the timing was a big gamble. As Wheeler knows, the fast approaching monsoon rains, two to five weeks away, will mire U.S. and ARVN vehicles in deep red Cambodian mud.

Taking Inventory. Having promised to "clean out" the sanctuaries, the Administration seemed to be reaching hard for quick results to show. At one point, White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler breathlessly reported the discovery of "a major sophisticated base complex" in the Fishhook area. Could it be COSVN (Central Office for South Viet Nam), the storied Communist headquarters? Hardly. COSVN, far from being a jungle Pentagon, is actually a mobile staff of some 2,300 Communist planners and administrators, operating out of modest huts and bunkers and frequently shifting locales. Intelligence experts believe that the staff moved to safety well before the border thrusts began.

Even so, some sizable discoveries of hardware have been made. The find Ziegler reported turned out to be what troops have nicknamed "the city" -a 2 1/2sq.-mi. complex of storage huts containing enough weapons, food, medicine and ammunition to supply several Communist divisions. Farther north in the Fishhook region, a U.S. Air Cav unit found an even bigger depot that, according to observers, made "the city" look like a small suburb. Tons of ammunition, new rifles in factory crates, and even telephone switchboards were found stacked on pallets covered by black tarpaulins. Washington claims that so far the Cambodian drive has turned up a total of 4,793 small arms, 730 mortars and other "crew-served" weapons, 3,254,963 rounds of rifle and machine-gun ammunition, 7,285 rockets, 124 trucks and 2,182,000 Ibs. of rice.

After less than two weeks of combat in Cambodia, the U.S. has suffered 53 dead and ARVN 157, while claiming 2,891 Communist dead. Except for a number of small actions, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong have chosen to melt into the jungle rather than risk large units against the superior allied firepower. One of the few exceptions was Snuol, a Cambodian plantation town of 6,000, north of the Fishhook. Approaching Snuol in midafternoon, an 11th Armored Cavalry unit encountered enemy fire and called in heavy air strikes. Next morning a tank column entered the empty, smoking city to find it threequarters destroyed, and the enemy gone. As the tanks rolled over empty enemy bunkers, shirtless G.I.s strode out of the few remaining shops carrying thermos coolers, cases of soda pop and wads of Cambodian currency. On the back of one tank sat a motor bike.

Anniversary Attacks. In Saigon, U.S. and ARVN planners are still uncertain how the Communists will respond to the Cambodian offensive. Most believe the heaviest retaliatory attacks will be aimed at South Viet Nam's northern I Corps. Last week, on the anniversary of Dienbienphu, the Communists launched rocket and mortar attacks against 64 towns and cities in I Corps. In a fierce predawn assault on Firebase Henderson, 15 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone, Communist attackers killed 19 South Vietnamese and 32 Americans--the highest U.S. casualty toll for a single skirmish in two years.

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