The culmination of the Việt Cộng’s major campaign launched on 4 December sees the Việt Cộng moving this week into the village of Bình Giã, 40 miles southeast of Saigon, and holding it for about eight hours. ARVN forces recapture the village but only after three battalions are brought in on helicopters. ARVN forces suffer a terrific loss on 2 January when two companies of Rangers, accompanied by tanks, are ambushed by Việt Cộng in a rubber plantation near Bình Giã. Total losses for the operation around Bình Giã include some 200 South Vietnamese and five U.S. dead, plus almost 300 more wounded or missing; Việt Cộng losses are reported at about 120 dead. “But the big question,” says one U.S. officer of this operation, “is how [Việt Cộng] troops, a thousand or more of them, could wander around the countryside so close to Saigon without being discovered. That tells something about this war.”
During the early hours of December 28, 1964, elements of the Việt Cộng 271st Regiment and the 445th Company signaled their main attack on Bình Giã by penetrating the village’s eastern perimeter. There, they clashed with members of the South Vietnamese Popular Force militiamen, which numbered about 65 personnel. The militia fighters proved no match for the Việt Cộng and their overwhelming firepower, so they quickly retreated into underground bunkers, and called for help. Once the village was captured, Colonel Ta Minh Kham, the Việt Cộng regimental commander, established his command post in the main village church and waited for fresh reinforcements, which came in the form of heavy mortars, machine guns and recoilless rifles. To counter South Vietnamese helicopter assaults, Colonel Kham’s troops set up a network of defensive fortifications around the village, with trenches and bunkers protected by land mines and barbed wire. The local Catholic priest, who was also the village chief, sent a bicycle messenger out to the Bà Rịa district headquarters to ask for a relief force. In response, the Bà Rịa district chief sent out elements of two Ranger battalions to retake Bình Giã. On December 29, two companies of the ARVN 33rd Ranger Battalion and a company from the 30th Ranger Battalion were airlifted into area located west of Bình Giã, by helicopters from the U.S. 118th Aviation Company to face an enemy force of unknown size.
As soon as the soldiers from the 30th and 33rd Ranger Battalions arrived at the landing zone, they were quickly overwhelmed by the VC in a deadly ambush. The entire 30th Ranger Battalion was then committed to join the attack, but they too did not initially succeed in penetrating the strong VC defensive lines. Several more companies of the Rangers then arrived for an attack from multiple directions. Two companies of the 33rd Ranger Battalion advanced from the northeast. One of them came to the outskirts of the village, but was unable to break through the Việt Cộng defenses. The other one, trying to outflank the enemy, had been lured into a kill zone in open terrain and were quickly obliterated in an ambush by the three Việt Cộng battalions using heavy weapons. The two companies suffered a 70 percent casualty rate, and survivors were forced to retreat to the nearby Catholic church. The 30th Rangers had more success by assaulting from the western direction and succeeded in fighting their way into the village, aided by local residents. It however also suffered heavy losses, with the battalion commander and his American adviser severely wounded. The local civilians in Bình Giã retrieved weapons and ammunition from the dead Rangers, and hid the wounded government soldiers from the Việt Cộng. The 38th Ranger Battalion, on the other hand, landed on the battlefield unopposed by the Việt Cộng, and they immediately advanced on Bình Giã from the south. Soldiers from the 38th Rangers spent the whole day fighting, but they could not break through the Việt Cộng defences to link up with the survivors hiding in the church, and fell back after calling in mortar fire to decimate Việt Cộng fighters moving to encircle them.
Heavily outnumbered South Vietnamese Government Rangers captured the headquarters of a Việt Cộng general and seized a record cache of enemy arms in a two‐day battle that ended early today. At least 85 Communists were killed and eight captured. United States military advisers hailed it as a major victory. The battle near the provincial capital of Sóc Trăng, 86 miles southwest of Saigon enveloped what was believed to have been the Việt Cộng zone headquarters for western Vietnam. But it appeared that the Communist general, Đồng Văn Cống, had escaped. One senior American military adviser said the raid had brought “the greatest haul of heavy weapons ever captured” from the Communist guerrillas.
Government losses were reported as 19 killed and 49 wounded. Eight American servicemen were also wounded when the guerrillas scored hits on half a dozen United States Army helicopters, one of which crashed, burned and finally exploded in the middle of the battlefield. Only two of the Americans required hospital treatment, and they were reported in good condition. United States military advisers called the Vietnamese attack “one of the most courageous” they had seen. But it was clear that aerial supremacy and the use of gunfire, rockets and napalm (jellied gasoline) bombs to flush out the enemy constituted the margin of victory. A search of the rice‐paddy battlefield 12 miles northeast of Sóc Trăng near the village of Hầu Thành yielded three recoilless cannons, three mortars, five heavy machine guns and 48 other weapons left by the fleeing Việt Cộng. The government also captured more than 20,000 rounds of machine‐gun ammunition, large quantities of ammunition for the recoilless cannons, two radios and four telephones.
The battle at the headquarters began early yesterday when the chief of Ba Xuyên Province sent two companies of militia to search an area 10 miles to the northeast. Villagers had been seen fleeing the area, a sign that the Việt Cộng were moving in. The Communists, easily identified from the air by their khaki uniforms, broke and ran across the rice paddies. Skyraider fighter-bombers began flushing out small groups of guerrillas with napalm, and armed helicopters opened fire with machine guns as they ran for cover.
A political leader of the Việt Cộng has contended that the Communist insurgents control threefourths of Vietnam and more than half the people as 1964 comes to an end. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, chairman of the Việt Cộng Central Committee, made the statement to the ruling Politburo.
Premier Trần Văn Hương and the Chief of State, Phan Khắc Sửu, declared their opposition today to last week’s military intervention in the government. In a communiqué they conceded that the legal basis, of their rule had been eliminated. This was the principal argument of Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor in his opposition to the military intervention on December 20. Mr. Hương and Mr. Sửu appealed to the “goodwill” of the armed forces to permit a return to full civilian government. The declaration was the first official reaction from the two leading members of the executive branch here since the dissolution by the military branch of the civilian legislature and the arrest of active Opposition politicians.
Their earlier silence had led to fears among American officials that the Chief of State and the Premier might bow to the military forces’ actions and try to continue governing without a constitutional basis. The statement removed this uncertainty and set before the armed forces the necessity to justify their intervention. The two leaders apparently accepted the reasoning of Ambassador Taylor that there cculd be no real government by civilians if the military branch were allowed to reassert its force whenever it was dissatisfied with individual governmental actions.
Communist supplies to the Việt Cộng guerrillas have stopped following recent strafing and bombing of the Hồ Chí Minh trail in Laotian territory, a Thai official said today. The trail, a Communist supply route, cuts through southern Laos from North Vietnam.
Giuseppe Saragat was elected President of Italy after 13 days and 21 ballots by the 963 members of the Italian Parliament in joint session (642 from the Chamber of Deputies and 321 from the Senate of the Republic. On the first 20 votes, no candidate received the necessary majority (482 or more votes). On the 21st ballot, Foreign Minister Saragat got 646 votes to be selected as the first Socialist Italian president. Former Premier Giovanni Leone had received a plurality of the votes in the first 15 ballots; on the next four ballots, Deputy Premier Pietro Nenni had a plurality (and a 385-323 lead over Saragat on the 20th ballot) before authorizing his supporters to vote for Saragat on the 21st ballot.
Giuseppe Saragat, 66‐year‐old Foreign Minister and leader of the moderate, pro‐Western Democratic Socialist party, was elected today as the fifth President of Italy. The National Assembly of 963 Senators, Deputies and regional representatives named Mr. Saragat for a seven‐year term. He succeeds Antonio Segni, who resigned December 6 because of ill health following a stroke. His election came on the 21st ballot of a 13‐day contest among the nine divided and subdivided parties. Despite his long record of anti‐Communism, Mr. Saragat owes his elevation to the post of chief of state to at least 100 of the 250 Communist ballots cast for him. On the final ballot he won 646 votes, 164 more than the majority of 482 needed for election. This Communist “triumph” — as it will probably be proclaimed by the big Communist party — was made possible primarily by the inability of the Christian Democrats, the nation’s largest party, to close their ranks to elect Mr. Saragat without Red help.
Alex Quaison‐Sackey, President of the United Nations General Assembly, attempted today to make arrangements whereby the Assembly could act without a vote tomorrow on issues that cannot wait until January. The Assembly would then recess for the New Year holidays. Mr. Quaison‐Sackey took action after a complete deadlock had developed between the United States and the Soviet Union over the question of taking away Moscow’s Assembly vote because of $52.6 million in unpaid assessments. Mr. Quaison‐Sackey concentrated on the most pressing problem, that of filling four seats that will become vacant in the Security Council Friday. None of these seats involves a contest except that held by Morocco, for which Jordan and Mali are candidates.
Communist China, protested to India today against what it called “recent intrusions by Indian aircraft into China’s air space” inside Tibet, Sinkiang, and Szechwan Provinces. The protest was contained in a note delivered to the Indian Embassy in Peking by the Chinese Communist Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The Government of the Congo has informed the United States and Belgium that it cannot accept a cease‐fire in the fighting against the rebels, informed sources reported today. Premier Moïse Tshombe, strongly supported by President Joseph Kasavubu, is also resisting pressure from Washington and Brussels to include some moderate Congolese leaders in a broadened Cabinet, according to the same sources. The sources in London said that Mr. Tshombe had contended, in talks with Belgian and American diplomatic representatives in Leopoldville, that the main result of a cease‐fire would be to give the rebels time to rebuild and rearm their forces. It would also constitute an unacceptable partition of the Congo, according to the outline available here of Mr. Tshombe’s arguments. Mr. Tshombe, it was said, held out the possibility of broadening his Government only after elections tentatively scheduled for February.
Mr. Tshombe’s position was said here to have stiffened considerably since he returned to Leopoldville from consultations in Brussels last week with Paul‐Henri Spaak, Belgium’s Foreign Minister, and Douglas MacArthur 2d, the United States Ambassador. Mr. Spaak and Ambassador MacArthur urged the Congolese Premier to embark on a program of reconciliation that would at least involve a broadened Cabinet and an amnesty for rank‐and‐file rebels. The purpose was to improve the Congolese Government’s relations with so‐called nonradical governments in Africa such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Tunisia, and to try to cut the ground beneath the opposition in Algeria, Ghana, Guinea and the United Arab Republic. The more resistant attitude of Mr. Tshombe’s Government, it was said, could confront Belgium and the United States with a difficult decision. According to the reliable sources here, Brussels and Washington had warned Leopoldville that they might have to withdraw their support unless Mr. Tshombe took steps to improve his relations with other African Governments.
Jordanian and Israeli border forces exchanged sporadic shots today along a 16‐mile front. A Jordanian vehicle was reported to have been hit and burned at Bait Sira. The Israelis said they suffered no casualties. The shooting was reported to have begun at Budrus and to have spread later to Kafr Kassem in the north and Bait Sira in the south. The Israelis and Jordanians each complained to the United Nations truce supervision headquarters in Jerusalem that the other had opened fire. Five encounters were reported. United Nations observers arranged a cease‐fire about five hours after the start of shooting, but toward evening there were reports of fresh outbreaks. In the last two weeks, there have been several encounters that resulted in casualties. Last week there was an aerial clash. Officials here regarded the incidents as purely local and did not appear alarmed. They said they did not expect the trouble to spread.
The United Arab Republic’s controlled press, embroidering on President Nasser’s bristling attack on the United States last week, says the current Washington‐Cairo rift arises from basic policy conflicts. In the five days since Mr. Nasser accused Washington of using its massive economic aid program as an instrument of pressure, United States policies have come under steady fire from Cairo newspapers. President Nasser’s speech apparently came in reply to American irritation over Cairo’s handling of the fire that destroyed the American library here and the shooting down of the American oil company plane. The afternoon dally Al Missa charged today that American “hostility” toward Arabs Had four basic causes: that there were contradictions in policy and method” between Arab and American positions,” that the U. A. R. opposed imperialism while the United States was an “imperialist monopolist country,” that the United States supported Israel and that world Zionism controls the United States.
The Johnson Administration, annoyed at the anti‐American attitude adopted recently by President Gamal Abdel Nasser, has postponed until next year a decision whether to give the United Arab Republic $35 million more in surplus foods. The delay could cost Cairo several million dollars even if Washington ultimately decides to supply the additional food. Because of a recent change in the surplus food law, foreign recipients must pay the shipping costs for any surplus food they receive under agreements made after December 31. Until now the United States has been paying the shipping charges under the Public Law 480 program.
In this program, surplus foods accumulated by the Goverment under its agricultural support programs and held in storage for lack of private demand, are sold to foreign countries for local currencies, which in turn are invested in local development projects. In the case of the United Arab Republic, for example, the United States has been supplying about $140 million worth of such foods as corn, beef and poultry annually. The possibility of paying the shipping costs on the $35 million in surplus food, which officials said could run to several million dollars, was apparently one of the provocations for the speech by President Nasser last week criticizing the United States for its delays on economic aid. The surplus food, which would be in addition to the $140 million in farm surplus aid that the United Arab Republic is receiving annually from ,the United States under a threeyear foreign aid agreement, was requested last September to ease critical food shortages in Egypt.
A delegation of seven dissident Yemeni republican leaders has arrived to explain the “real Yemeni viewpoint” on Yemen’s two‐year‐old civil war. The group arrived last night for a four‐day visit, after which it will tour other Arab capitals. Two members of the delegation, Ibrahim Ali Alwazir and Colonel Taha Mustafa, said in an interview that “all foreign powers must take their hands off Yemen.” They said Egyptian forces must withdraw from Yemen and that Saudi Arabia must stop assisting the deposed royalist leader, Imam Mohamad al‐Badr. The Imam was overthrown in September, 1962, in a republican coup led by President alSalal. He has since been fighting in the Yemeni hills with support from Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni republicans have been supported by Egyptian troops, believed to number about 40,000.
The question whether to postpone Wednesday’s federal elections plunged Nigeria tonight into her gravest crisis since she became independent in 1960. The issue, which threatens to split the nation in two, was brought into the open today with a government communiqué announcing an emergency meeting tomorrow of the four regional Governors and Premiers. The communiqué said the meeting was called after President Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, failed today to agree on the holding of elections after talking for almost two hours. Sir Abubakar, who represents the vast Muslim‐dominated Northern Region, wants the elections to come off as scheduled. Northern‐backed candidates are favored to win a Parliamentary majority and thus form a government without a coalition with candidates from the regions to the south.
But Western, Mid‐Western, and Eastern region supporters of the United Progressive Grand Alliance have accused the north of jailing and muzzling southern candidates. The fear expressed by many Nigerians and foreign diplomats here is that a civil war might break out in the Western Region if the southerners were to lose the election decisively and that the properous Eastern Region might secede.
President Johnson”s program for next year is expected to provide about $6 billion of stimulus for the national economy, all of it after midyear. While final decisions have not been made, it is probable that $2 billion of the economic push will come from reductions in excise taxes and the rest from higher Federal spending. The higher spending will not be only in the regular administrative budget, which is expected to rise to about $100 billion. There will be additional gains from the operations of the Social Security, highway and other such programs, if present plans are followed. Together, the spur from the spending side is expected to add up to about $4 billion.
In the view of the President’s advisers, $6 billion, starting to enter the nation’s spending stream after midyear, should be enough to keep the economy growing strongly. The stimulus will be applied in the second half of the year because the new budget year begins July 1. Excise‐tax reductions would be effective then and the spending rise would begin then. Virtually all economic forecasters believe the economy will be strong in the first half of the year without additional Government help. With the aid of the stimulus in the second half, growth could well be brisk all year. The total growth for the year, however, may not be quite so large as this year’s $40 billion. Thus it will be difficult, if not impossible, to reduce the unemployment rate further next year. The rate is now 5 per cent.
The State of the Union Message that President Johnson will deliver next Monday night will not be a “complete or final summation” of the Great Society. Mr. Johnson said today during an informal meeting with reporters at his LBJ Ranch that ”we don’t expect to build or develop the Great Society overnight, or in any one session of Congress.” The President seemed eager to clarify his intentions for the start of his new Administration. He made it clear he would try to avoid giving Congress more than it could — or would — chew at one sitting. Mr. Johnson invited White House and Texas political reporters to the ranch — 12 miles west of Johnson City — this afternoon.
The President strolled out of his ranch house carrying three fat, black notebooks and chuckled that they were a “display.” He said they contained recommendations from some 50 Government departments and agencies for special messages to Congress requesting new legislation. Mr. Johnson said he was ”poring” over them to decide which had merit. He declared that he wanted to “get the State of the Union in proper perspective.” Mr. Johnson, who sat on an aluminum lawn chaise on the yard overlooking the Pedernales River, said that “obviously” the State of the Union speech would be brief and would be a “general outline and emphasize some immediate, repeat immediate, recommendations” he would like to see Congress act on promptly. The President said that other parts of his program would be ”dealt with during the next four years” in a “series” of special messages.
President Johnson believes that the economy appears to be sound, and he expects 1965 to be a good year. He feels, however, that it is difficult to see clearly many months in advance. To him the economy looks good at least up to midyear. But he has had a Presidential task force studying the question of how the nation can avoid an economic slump. Presumably, therefore, Mr. Johnson is preparing a number of anti‐recessionary measures for use in an emergency. Labor leaders with whom Mr. Johnson conferred in Washington recently were worried about an economic downturn next year, but businessmen were generally optimistic. Some government economists are also cautiously predicting a downturn, but Mr. Johnson believes that not many people would predict a serious slump.
President Johnson hopes the steel industry will be very considerate of the puplic interest before making farther increases in steel prices. He hopes that the steel companies will show restraint in selective prices of specific products, and that a new wage agreement in the industry will be noninflationary. The White House appears to toe conscious that steel companies are watching it carefully to see what the reaction will be to the recent selective price increases. Some observers feel that if President Johnson does not use his influence to stop the price trend, a general price increase will be attempted. However, at this time there is no sign that Mr. Johnson is planning a dramatic intervention in the steel‐price question such as that by President Kennedy, when he successfully forced companies to rescind a price increase.
A questionnaire on President Johnson’s health released by the White House today described his physical condition as “excellent.” It also said there was no evidence of “residual” effects from his heart attack of 1955. It said that a kidney stone condition, first treated in 1955, had been quiet since 1963. The statement gave the answers of the President’s personal physician, Rear Admiral George G. Burkley, to 35 questions submitted by newsmen over a period of time.
Russell B. Long of Louisiana is believed to be ahead in the tight, three‐way race for Senate Democratic whip. However, many Capitol Hill observers think A. S. Mike Monroney of Oklahoma has a very good chance of emerging the victor if Senator Long does not get a majority on the first ballot. Mr. Long, it is generally agreed, does not have a majority of the 68 Democratic Senators now — and there is some doubt that he will when the first secret ballot of the Democratic caucus is taken on January 4. Senator Monroney’s chances of winning depend on his being able to pick up on a second ballot most of the votes cast for John O. Pastore of Rhode Island on the first. It is estimated that Mr. Long can now count at least 24 votes, that Mr. Pastore has about 19 and Mr. Monroney about 15. Mr. Long’s strength at the moment lies almost entirely in the Southern bloc, Mr. Pastore’s predominantly in New England and Northern states with large urban populations, and Mr. Monroney’s in the Midwest and West.
Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona has put the retention of Dean Burch as Republican National Chairman on a personal basis. In a letter being sent to the 132 members of the party’s national committee, the defeated Presidential candidate said: “I feel the removal of Dean Burch now would be a repudiation of a great segment of our party and a repudiation of me.” Mr. Goldwater also contended in his two‐page letter that “for the Republican party to turn its back on our cause now would be to destroy the two‐party system — and that would be the prelude to the destruction of our nation.” Furthermore, he said, the Republican party will become “meaningless” if it strays from his conservative cause “to the vanity of today’s popularity.” He also characterized that cause as “noble” and “patriotic.”
Plans for a home town banquet honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, have brought behind-the-scenes controversy to Atlanta’s leadership. Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. and William B. Hartsfield, former Mayor, have moved in forcefully but quietly to prevent any incident that would become a snub to Dr. King. The Black civil rights leader, a native of Atlanta, returned to this city from Montgomery in 1961 as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which has headquarters here. This year he became Georgia’s first Nobel Prize winner. Soon after the October announcement of his selection for the award, a number of Atlanta leaders began discussing the possibility of an occasion honoring him. About 10 days ago, letters were sent to more than 100 leaders in business, education, religion, politics and civic affairs asking them to join as sponsors of a banquet on January 27 at the Dinkier Plaza Hotel here. Reaction has been mixed.
At least one highest‐level bank executive was said to be making telephone calls to discourage participation. It was reported, however, that the president of one of the city’s biggest companies was attempting to persuade others to unite behind the plan. The most active participants in the controversy appeared to be the Mayor and the former Mayor, who together have helped give Atlanta a reputation for racial moderation and harmony. In the business community, Dr. King’s part in a recent strike against Scripto, Inc., an Atlanta manufacturer of pens and pencils, has been cited as an obstacle to participation. Dr. King was in a picket line at Scripto only a few days ago to help workers complaining of racial discrimination. The company has denied any discrimination. Just before Christmas, an agreement was apparently reached in the dispute and Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference called off plans for a worldwide boycott of Scripto products.
Civil rights leaders said today an attempt would be made to block the seating of Mississippi’s five Representatives when Congress convenes on January 4. James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality, told a news conference that “we’re in dead earnest” in backing the election challenge initiated by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party. He said the 200 CORE chapters had been asked to urge their Congressmen to support a resolution blocking the swearing‐in of any Mississippi House members until the challenge is resolved. Representative William Fitts Ryan, Democrat of Manhattan, has said he will introduce the resolution. Mr. Farmer and Lawrence Guyot, chairman of the Freedom Democratic party’s executive committee, said a “nonviolent, peaceful and orderly” attempt would be made to obtain floor privileges for three party candidates who claim three of the Mississippi seats.
A group of white students from Oberlin College in Ohio completed today the roof of a Black church that was burned down after a civil rights rally in October. The student “Carpenters for Christmas” and three professors immediately began work on the walls and floor to finish the project in time to return to school Thursday. They gave up their holiday vacations to rebuild the church. The small frame Antioch Baptist Church, in a rural area near Ripley, Mississippi, was one of about 40 Black houses of worship destroyed or damaged by fire during a summer‐long civil rights campaign in Mississippi. The Oberlin group came to Mississippi to work alongside members of the church.
A Gadsden, Alabama restaurant sued by Blacks under the public‐accommodations section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act announced today that it had begun serving Blacks. The Rebel’s Roost Restaurant said it would comply with the law rather than contest a suit filed in Federal District Court last month by two Blacks. The two, Mrs. Leola Hoyt and Joseph Faulkner of Gadsden, said they had been denied service because of their race. The restaurant is owned by Mrs. Mary Bailey. Her husband said they had complied because there was no recourse. He said two Blacks were served last week in the restaurant, in an old section of Gadsden known as Alabama City, without incident. The suit was the first filed in Alabama by Blacks under the accommodations section. Other suits filed under the section were brought by the Justice Department, or by white people.
Principal filming on film “Doctor Zhivago” begins.
Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s cantata “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 867.01 (-1.15)
Born:
Charles Sinek, American ice dancer (& Beata Handra-1997 Pac Coast Sr, 3rd), in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Maite Zúñiga, Spanish middle-distance runner, in Eibar, Spain.
Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, Congolese businessman and politician, Governor of Katanga province, 2007-2015.
Died:
Dave Bowman, 50, American jazz and studio pianist (Jack Teagarden; Bud Freeman; Perry Como), in a car accident.
Cliff Sterrett, 81, American comic strip artist who drew the long-running feature “Polly and Her Pals” from 1912 to 1958
History Diaries 