The 5,000 U.S. Marines already stationed in the area of Đà Nẵng are reinforced with the arrival of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines; one of its reinforced companies is sent immediately to Phú Bài, eight miles south of Huế. On 14 April, the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, takes over at Phú Bài to secure an Army radio intelligence station and auxiliary airfield. Meanwhile, the first Marine fixed-wing tactical aircraft also arrive at Đà Nẵng — the F-4B Phantom II jets of the VMFA-531.
A 1,400-man battalion of United States Marines began landing on a beach two miles north of Đà Nẵng this morning. In foothills three miles from the beach, a South Vietnamese Ranger company clashed with Communist guerrillas, but no Việt Cộng activity was directed against the marines. The Marine battalion is to reinforce 3,000 marines already based in the Đà Nẵng area. They are to take positions in the hills west of the Đà Nẵng airstrip, according to the commander of the Ninth Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Brigadier General Frederick J. Karch. The first Marine landing craft drove onto the beach from a transport ship in Đà Nẵng Bay at 8:15 A.M. [7:15 P.M. Friday, EST.
The landing contrasted with the first Marine landing, which was made March 8 in a heavy surf under a cloudy sky. Today the sun was blazing. Members of a Marine frogman team who had landed earlier to survey the beach were sunning themselves in shorts when the other marines began landing. General Karch said that another battalion would arrive in the next few days and would be deployed in the Huế area, north of Đà Nẵng. The Marines landed on the beach today from a flotilla of ships a mile offshore. At least 10 craft were in the bay. The first boatloads of Marines moved onto the beach and deployed vigorously, but the rest marched casually ashore. General Karch said it would take all day to land the battalion and its equipment. The equipment includes tanks, 105-mm. howitzers and other matériel.
Advance elements of a Marine Corps jet fighter squadron landed at the air base at Đà Nẵng today. They are part of the growing Marine task force in South Vietnam, which is to number about 7,000 men. The jets arrived shortly after the first of two additional 1,400-men battalions came ashore with tanks 10 miles north of Đà Nẵng to bolster the Ninth United States Marine Expeditionary Brigade. The four F-4B Phantom fighters arrived after a five-hour flight from an undisclosed base in the Pacific. The 1,600-mile-an-hour jets were led by Lieutenant Colonel William McGraw of St. Louis, commander of Fighter Aircraft Squadron 531. He said the rest of his twin-jet fighters were expected tomorrow. There are about 18 craft in the squadron. “I’ll tell you, we have been waiting a long time for this,” said the Marine commander, Brigadier General Frederick J. Karch, as he welcomed the pilots on the Đà Nẵng flightline. This is really great!”
Colonel Donald Stapp of Fort Meade, Florida, and Ventura, California, called the Phantoms “the hottest aircraft in Vietnam right now.” The Navy is also using them from carriers. Colonel Stapp, who arrived a week ago as General Karch’s chief of staff, said each Phantom could carry eight tons of bombs and ammunition. Asked about reports that still another squadron would be assigned to support the brigade, he replied: “It will depend on the tempo of operations. We would expect to have more aircraft than we have now, considering the number of ground troops we have here now.”
“They will have the primary mission of supporting the brigade’s ground troops,” General Karch said of the Marine jets. Asked whether they might take part in strikes on North Vietnam, he said: “It is within their capability. I would imagine their role will expand considerably.” The Marine commander declined to be drawn into discussing whether his ground troops would take a more aggressive role in fighting the Việt Cộng in South Vietnam. They are presently confined to guarding the Đà Nẵng base. “I am sure there is consideration being given every day as to what better use we can make of our resources here,” he said, “but that is a matter that will have to be decided at a high government level.”
Asked if he would like to see the Marines take a more aggressive role, he replied: “Did you ever see a Marine that didn’t like an aggressive role?” Authoritative sources in Salgon said it was likely that the Marines would add more aggressive patrolling to their normal defense of the base, on the theory that “offense is the best defense.” The sources said it was also probable that the Marines would eventually undertake heliborne infantry attacks on any Việt Cộng concentrations around their area of responsibility.
More than 120 United States aircraft destroyed a bridge and attacked other military targets in North Vietnam today. The raids came amid a growing belief here that the air engagement involving United States Navy jet fighters southwest of Hainan yesterday was with Chinese Communist MiG’s. If so, it was the first such encounter of the Vietnam war. United States officials here denied reports from Peking that the encounter had taken place over Hainan Island, Chinese territory across the Gulf of Tonkin from North Vietnam.
No United States aircraft were lost today and no enemy aircraft sighted either during the strikes against the Kimchuong highway bridge, 150 miles south of Hanoi, or during reconnaissance strikes along two Communist routes. Commander Peter Mongilardi of Haledon, New Jersey, led the attack on the bridge, 40 miles west of Vĩnh and about 15 miles from the Laos border. He said 35 A-1 Skyraiders and A-4 Skyhawks, supported by 40 F-4B Phantom II’s and F-8 Crusaders, from the Seventh Fleet struck the bridge with 70 tons of rockets and bombs. He said the 150-foot bridge, made of reinforced concrete, was destroyed in the first strike. He described the bridge, in a valley, as being “a connection for important supply lines” between North Vietnam and Laos.
Twice during the day 10 United States Air Force F-105’s fired rockets and 20 mm. shells at military targets along Routes 7 and 8, about 120 miles north of the 17th Parallel, the frontier between North and South Vietnam.
U.S. officials also disputed Peking’s statement that one of the American F-4 Phantoms accidentally shot down another with an air-to-air missile. The Chinese said eight Phantoms were involved; the Americans put the figure at four. One of the Navy pilots who saw the four MiG-17’s in the engagement yesterday said that to the best of his knowledge they were unmarked. “They were silver in color and appeared to be mighty polished,” said Lieutenant Howard B. Watkins Jr. of San Diego, California. He said the engagement took place 30 to 60 miles from Hainan, where the Chinese are known to have MiG bases. Lieutenant Watkins said the enemy planes approached from the east, the direction of Hainan, and withdrew to the east. At no time did United States planes fly over Hainan, he added.
On the domestic front, the Saigon Government suspended two of the nation’s principal military commanders pending investigation of corruption charges against them. Responsible informants said they are General Phạm Văn Đồng, military governor of Saigon, and Rear Admiral Chung Tấn Cang, navy chief. Both have been members of the influential Armed Forces Council.
North Vietnam’s official newspaper Nhân Dân reported, according to a dispatch from Hong Kong, that a worldwide “volunteer” movement was forming to aid Hanoi in the war.
President Johnson’s offer to negotiate in Vietnam was ridiculed today as “noisy propaganda” by the Soviet leadership. In the first official reaction since the President made his speech in Baltimore Wednesday, the party newspaper, Pravda, charged that it did not constitute a change in American policies and did not contain “a word about the United States’ intention to halt its aggression.” In his address, Mr. Johnson offered United States participation in “unconditional discussions” to end the fighting and proposed a vast Mekong Basin development program to which the United States would eventually contribute $1 billion.
President Johnson said today that he wanted to warn “softly but firmly” that no one should misjudge the will of the United States to fight if necessary. The President’s remarks came a day after Communist China said its jet fighters had engaged United States Navy jets in combat. There was no direct White House comment on the Chinese statement, but in a speech here Mr. Johnson dwelt on the theme that the United States’ will should not be “misunderstood.” Mr. Johnson, appearing at the dedication of a new Job Corps center at the former Gary Air Force Training Base, said, “Peace is our purpose, and the works of peace are the works we want to do most.” “But,” he added in a firm voice, “Let no men in any land at any time misjudge our course by our cause. We love peace and we hate war, but our course is charted always by the compass of honor.”
Peking today rejected President’s Johnson’s offer of unconditional discussions on Vietnam as a “big swindle.”
Dr. Benjamin M. Spock, the child-care specialist, led 3,000 parents and children in a sprawling procession from Columbus Circle to the United Nations in New York to demand an immediate cease-fire in Vietnam.
Senator Wayne Morse assailed the United States position on Vietnam in a speech tonight before the second session of Ohio University 1965 Mock United Nations. He says it will lead the U.S. into a war it cannot finish.
A battalion of armed United States infantrymen rolled unmolested along the autobahn to West Berlin today in an obvious effort to reassert the right of free access for the Western allies. It was by far the biggest allied troop movement across the autobahn through East Germany since the Communists began their systematic harassment of communications with West Berlin last week in reprisal for a plenary session of the West German Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, in the city. West Berlin is isolated 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain.
For the first time in a week, the East German police did not shut down the autobahn. Although traffic moved slowly earlier today, conditions were approaching normal by evening. An allied spokesman disclosed that United States, British, and French military aircraft had been sent through the Berlin corridors at low altitudes all week in defiance of a Soviet ban. The Russians had attempted to pre-empt the airspace at altitudes below 6,500 feet, asserting that it was needed for military maneuvers.
In Moscow, Tass, the official press agency, announced that the Soviet and East German armies had ended the maneuvers — a day earlier than had been expected.
All 54 people on board a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight from Beirut, Lebanon to Amman, Jordan, were killed when the plane caught fire and crashed into a mountain near Damascus, Syria at an altitude of 4,200 feet (1,300 m). Nearly all of the passengers were from Belgium and were on a vacation tour of the Middle East. Another 12 members from the tour group had been turned away at the airport because the Herald turboprop only had room for 50 passengers.
The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt made by one of his bodyguards, Reza Shamsabadi, who fired a machine gun at him as he arrived at the Marble Palace in Tehran. The Shah was able to get inside his office and take cover behind his desk, and Shamsabadi was mortally wounded by two other guards, who died from his machine gun fire.
Greek and Turkish Cypriots exchanged about 500 shots in a half-hour gun battle during the night at Kokkina village, the United Nations peace force announced today. No casualties were reported from Kokkina, a Turkish enclave on the northwest coast. But in the hills surrounding the strongly held Turkish town of Lefka, east of Kokkina, a Greek Cypriot national guardsman was killed yesterday by a Turkish Cypriot sniper.
Greece, Turkey and Cyprus are agreed in principle that the Cyprus controversy should be settled through talks, but they differ on both the timing and the level at which discussions should start, a qualified source said today in Athens.
The Indian Army has relieved police units guarding a marshy region where Indians and Pakistanis exchanged gunfire yesterday in the gravest frontier clash of recent years. Concentrations of Indian and Pakistani troops faced each other today between the Indian state of Gujarat and the Sind region of West Pakistan. A high-ranking Indian Army spokesman said 34 Pakistani soldiers had been killed and 4 captured in the fighting. He said the Indian police units that “repulsed the attack” had lost two men. Three policemen were wounded and four were missing, he added. Indian and Pakistani versions of the incident differed markedly, and each side accused the other of “aggression.”
Venezuelan Interior Minister Gonzalo Barrios announced today the arrest of three foreigners accused of having carried $330,000 from Italy to finance Communist terrorism in Venezuela. He termed the international Communist movement the “chief benefactor” and “ally” of a Venezuelan conspiracy that resulted in 25 arrests yesterday. Dr. Barrios said at a news conference that the money had been confiscated and that it would be turned over to a special commission for distribution to the families of policemen, farmers and others killed in fighting the Communist terrorists and guerrillas. The Interior Minister charged that the 25 Venezuelans who were arrested yesterday had worked in “alliance” with the Communists to overthrow the Government of President Raul Leont. He said part of the plot had included a “possible attempt” on the President’s life. The three money carriers were described as agents of the Italian Communist party. Two of them were seized at the airport.
Richard M. Nixon came back to Moscow today and found himself in another debate. But his encounter with a leading official of the University of Moscow was pale and undramatic compared with the famous 1959 “kitchen debate” in which, as Vice President, he exchanged views with Nikita S. Khrushchev, then Premier. Today’s debate took place at the university when he was greeted by the deputy rector, Nikolai Seleyezov.
Two young Peace Corps volunteers may not be in Jakarta much longer. The walls of buildings all over this central Javanese city are scrawled with signs reading “Kick Out Peace Corps.” The two volunteers, teaching track and basketball to Indonesian youths, report being harassed and menaced by Communists who believe they are CIA agents.
Algeria’s Hocine Ait-Ahmed, leader of the illegal Socialist Forces Front, was condemned to death tonight after turbulent four-day trial behind closed doors.
President de Gaulle pledged today that France would cooperate with the Soviet Union “above ideologies” to attain peace and progress.
The Liberal Government of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson has survived a concerted onslaught by its four opposition parties, and now clearly stands a good chance of avoiding forced national elections this year.
The Soviet spacecraft Luna E-6 No.8, intended to be the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon, was lost in a launch failure when a nitrogen pipeline in the oxidizer tank depressurized, causing a loss of oxidizer flow to the engine and resulting in the engine cutting off. The spacecraft failed to achieve orbit, and disintegrated on re-entry.
The Egyptian-appointed Governor of the Gaza Strip issued the “Liberation Tax Law”, assessing a tax on all commercial revenues within the Palestinian territory. Money collected from the tax was used to fund the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Communist China is tightening its political control over the national minorities inhabiting Tibet, Sinkiang and the sensitive border regions north of Burma and the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.
Visitors to the Ise Grand Shrines now exceed the number in pre-World War II days when the shrines were a symbol of imperial majesty in the highly nationalistic structure fostered by Japanese militarism.
Through their role in helping to strengthen the voting rights bill, congressional Republicans feel they have helped to erase the anti-Black stigma their party has borne since last summer. Few if any Republicans think the huge bloc of Blacks who deserted the GOP last year to vote for President Johnson is ready to return to the Republican fold — now or in the foreseeable future. But for the first time since Barry Goldwater won the GOP Presidential nomination last year, leading Republicans are optimistic that a good start has been made in getting the GOP back on the track as “the Party of Lincoln.”
In both houses of Congress, Republican leaders have moved to the front in advocating and sponsoring legislation to remove bars to Black voting. Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-Illinois), who emerged as one of the heroes of last year’s historic civil rights battle in the Senate, has played the biggest role on the voting bill, which is headed for floor debate in Congress later this month.
Justice Department figures showed today that President Johnson’s voting-rights bill could extend the ballot to 2.2 million new Negro voters.
A brief gunfight erupted at Jonesboro, Louisiana, when a carload of civil rights workers encountered a carload of white youths. A 38-year old Black man who was driving four civil rights workers from the University of Kansas exchanged gunfire with four white youths in another car today. No one was hit.
Blacks in both parties have announced that they are candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates from the Richmond district. The probabilities favor the election of a Black for the first time since Reconstruction days. Blacks have run as Democrats or independents before, but not as Republicans. Never before, however, has the Democratic organization supported a Black candidate for the Legislature as it is reported ready to do now. The prospective candidate is Dr. William Ferguson Reid, a surgeon. Conservatives and moderates in the Democratic party in Richmond were reported to have agreed this week that one of the eight seats in the district, which contains the city and adjoining Henrico County, should go to a Black. Dr. Reid is the choice of these leaders, it is said, but their decision is complicated by the candidacy of another Black Democrat, Colston Lewis, a lawyer.
A pilots’ strike that had shut down Pan American World Airways for 10 days was settled here this afternoon. Leverett Edwards of the National Mediation Board announced the agreement between Pan American and the Air Line Pilots Association. Soon thereafter, Harold E. Gray, president of Pan Am, issued the following statement: “Pan American schedules to Honolulu, San Juan, Bermuda, Paris, London and Frankfurt will be resumed Sunday and it is expected that all outbound services from the United States will be restored within 24 hours and inbound services within 48 hours.”
Some of the nation’s most historic documents have been brought to New York under armed guard for display at the World’s Fair. The documents include the Bill of Rights, Washington’s Inaugural and Farewell Addresses, the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and First and Second Inaugural Addresses.
With only one relatively minor change, a three-judge federal court upheld yesterday the Virginia legislative redistricting acts adopted last December by a special session of the General Assembly.
About 300 passengers in New York spent an uncomfortable 90 minutes in an East River subway tunnel yesterday afternoon when a smoldering fire in a brake shoe stalled their Lexington Avenue IRT line train.
About 4,000 Marines and Army paratroopers fought a sham war today across the sun-baked brown hills of Vieques, a Puerto Rican island that has long been the traditional training ground of the Atlantic fleet.
The North American Air Defense Command’s new combat operations center, being built in tunnels and chambers inside Colorado’s 9,440-foot Cheyenne Mountain, is 90 percent complete. Installation of the electronic equipment will begin next month.
Tornadoes and floods ripped through the middle of the nation causing death, injuries and widespread damage.
Actress Linda Darnell, 43, one of Hollywood’s brightest stars in the 1940s and 1950s, died in Chicago, a victim of fire.
World lightweight boxing champion Carlos Ortiz lost his title in a 15-round bout in Panama City to Panamanian boxer Ismael Laguna. Going into the match, Ortiz had a record of 45 wins and only four losses, but had underestimated Laguna’s abilities and had elected not to train as rigorously as usual. Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, would regain the title seven months later in a rematch in San Juan.
Born:
Dana Brinson, NFL wide receiver (San Diego Chargers), in Valdosta, Georgia.
Bruce Egloff, MLB pitcher (Cleveland Indians), in Denver, Colorado.
Karen Booker, WNBA center (Utah Starzz, Houston Comets), in Franklin, Tennessee.
Died:
Linda Darnell, 43, American actress (“Unfaithfully Yours”, “A Letter to Three Wives”); from burns in an apartment fire. Darnell had stayed up late with her secretary at her Chicago home after noting that one of her films, “Star Dust,” was being shown at 12:40 AM on The Late Late Show on Channel 2, and fell asleep afterward while smoking a cigarette.
Lloyd Casner, 36, American race car driver and owner (Casner Motor Racing Division team).
History Diaries 