At a little after midnight on April 25, 1965, a U.S. Marine recon squad, 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, was positioned on Hill 161, three miles south of Phú Bài Air Field when it was attacked by a Việt Cộng force estimated to 8 or 9 strong. The enemy assaulted the Marines with automatic small arms and hand grenades. The Americans returned fire and the Việt Cộng retreated. One member of the squad, PFC Carl R. Wenzel, was killed, and three others were wounded. Three hours earlier, a listening post from 2nd Squad at the base of the hill had also been attacked, and the two men there were reported as missing at midnight. A platoon from I Company was immediately dispatched to the area from their position approximately 2500 meters away. Also, another squad of Recon Marines left the company’s Command Post to assist the platoon from I Company in the relief of 2nd Squad. A medical evacuation was requested from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 162 (HMM 162) at Phú Bài Air Base but was denied as “tactically unfeasible.” At first light, 1st Squad went in search of the two missing Marines and located them at the base of the hill. One of them, PFC Randall K. Campbell, had been killed in action, and the other was wounded. Helicopter evacuation of all the casualties was made at dawn. The wounded were treated at B Medical and transferred to the Nha Trang field hospital. Two enemy were killed in the action.
Carl is buried at Allegany Cemetery, Allegany, Cattaraugus County, New York. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, line 109.
Việt Cộng guerrillas overwhelmed two United States Marine outposts near the vital air base at Đà Nẵng early today, killing two Americans and wounding four others. It was the first conventional military attack against United States combat troops in South Vietnam. The Communist guerrillas, moving under cover of early morning darkness, killed one marine and wounded another as they overran a two-man listening post. Then the Communists hit a seven-man outpost behind the listening post, killing another marine, and wounding two others and a United States Navy corpsman. The wounded marine at the listening post lay there through the predawn hours until a marine patrol recovered him after sunup.
The clash was the first real assault against an American outpost, and the first in which United States Marines were known to have been killed by the Việt Cộng. The action, just north of the Đà Nẵng Air Base, hit marines guarding the Phú Bài airfield, the strip closer to the city of Huế. Đà Nẵng and Huế, both coastal cities, are separated by a high mountain ridge that rises straight up from the South China Sea. It was the fourth straight day that the Việt Cộng had clashed with the marine garrison protecting the vital United States and South Vietnamese air base.
In the Việt Cộng attacks on the marine outposts, the American military spokesman said that “intense fire” was heard shortly after midnight. The Việt Cộng guerrillas in the past have sniped at, harassed and tossed hand grenadés at the 8,000-man Ninth Expeditionary Marine Brigade since the marines arrived last month. But today’s attack opened a new phase in the Communist military strategy. Two of the four wounded Americans were reported in critical condition and the other two were in serious condition. Two Marines and at least two guerrillas were killed in the bitter fighting.
In the air, United States and Vietnamese planes raided North Vietnam four times during the day, knocking out anti-aircraft emplacements and damaging two bridges. The Communists made their attack on the Marines in predawn darkness near Phú Bài Air Base, north of Đà Nẵng. The Marines held them off until reinforcements and artillery came to their aid. Then the Việt Cộng were driven off, leaving at least two dead, and evidence that two more were killed. Some United States and South Vietnamese military leaders believe that the Việt Cộng are planning a major attack on the Đà Nẵng complex, possibly to coincide with the anniversary of the 1954 French defeat at Điện Biên Phủ May 7.
The number of refugees in South Vietnam who have fled under Communist pressure from central rural areas to coastal cities has risen to “several hundred thousand,” according to Premier Phan Huy Quát.
The United States said tonight that it would “gladly participate” in an international conference on Cambodia. This conference, if it takes place, could offer an opportunity for peace talks on Vietnam. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said President Johnson would send Ambassador at Large W. Averell Harriman as the American delegate to such a conference. A Cambodian conference, of Western, Communist and Southeastern Asian countries, was originally sought by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Chief of State of Cambodia, to get firm guarantees of the neutrality and territorial integrity of his country.
But more recently Britain and the Soviet Union have backed the idea as a way of providing a forum for talks toward ending the war in South Vietnam. The United States position on a Cambodia conference was given tonight in a statement by Secretary Rusk. “It has been proposed,” he said, “that an international conference composed of the governments of the countries which took part in the Geneva conference of 1954 be called to consider the question of the neutrality and territorial integrity of Cambodia.
“After reviewing this proposal with the President last week, and at his direction, we have informed a number of interested governments that if such a conference is called we will gladly participate. The President would appoint Ambassador Averell Harriman as our representative to the discussions. Cambodia desires independence and neutrality. Here, as elsewhere in Asia, the United; States. wholeheartedly supports the rights of each nation to shape its own course. To support this right for Cambodia is fully consistent with the purpose of the United States to support the right of every nation in Southeast Asia to lead a free and independent existence.”
A State Department press officer, Marshal Wright, who read Mr. Rusk’s statement, said it had been issued in response to press inquiries. The conference would be a meeting of the parties that met in 1954 at Geneva. The 1954 Geneva conference had a two-part agenda: the establishment of a “unified and independent Korea” and the restoration of peace in Indochina. The conference was held in two stages. In the first stage, on Korea, from April 26 to June 15, 20 delegations participated. The second phase, on Indochina, lasted from May 4 to July 21, and had nine participants: Britain, France, the United States, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and the Việt Minh — the rebels who had been fighting the French.
The agreement ending the war in Indochina and dividing Vietnam was signed by all except the United States, which agreed to abide by most of the provisions, The United States did not sign chiefly because it did not believe that a strong enough plan for free elections under United Nations supervision had been drawn up for uniting Vietnam. If the conference now suggested takes place, it presumably would be called by Britain and the Soviet Union, who were co-chairmen of the 1954 meeting, as well as of the 1962 Geneva conference on Laos.
A nationwide conservative organization appealed today for an American “forward strategy” to win the war in Vietnam. Its proposal included the commitment of “sufficient American ground forces” to do “the necessary job.” The plan, put forward by the American Conservative Union. also proposed reprisal attacks on North Vietnamese industries and villages and “the use of anti-crop chemicals on the opium crops, North Vietnam’s most valuable export.” The proposals were offered in a ‘task-force study” issued by the organization, whose members include many members of Congress, scholars, journalists and businessmen who supported Senator Barry Goldwater’s campaign for the Presidency. The union was formed last December. Its chairman is Donald C. Bruce, a former Republican Representative from Indiana.
Efforts by the North Vietnamese Government to persuade African and Asian countries to join in condemning American actions in Vietnam are believed to have failed, The Associated Press reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. African and Asian delegates at the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Bandung meeting have rejected an appeal by Premier Phạm Văn Đồng of North Vietnam for a joint condemnation of United States involvement in the Vietnamese war, reliable sources reported today.
Dominican Republic President Donald Reid Cabral and the other two members of his junta resigned after they were arrested at the National Palace by the Constitutionalists, who set up a provisional government headed by Dr. José Rafael Molina Ureña, pending the return of Juan Bosch from exile in Puerto Rico. The United States-supported Cabral Government fell today after a military coup. However, four air force planes strafed the Presidential Palace later in the day amid an armed forces power struggle for control of the country. One of the planes was shot down. The planes strafed the palace to reinforce the demands of the air force for the establishment of a military junta to rule the country, informants said. The army rebels who sparked the revolt want to reinstall the exiled former President, Juan Bosch, in the presidency. The air force opposes his return.
Artillery fire sounded tonight near a bridge that is the only direct connection between Santo Domingo and the air force base outside the city. The young rebels set up guns at the bridge to prevent any tanks from rolling on Santo Domingo to crush the coup. Since the uprising began yesterday, at least four persons have been killed, including Colonel Rafael Vivar Ledesma, army quartermaster general. He attempted to stop the young officers as they stormed the Presidential Palace at dawn. Unconfirmed reports said as many as 11 others may have been killed in scattered clashes. The rebels’ provisional president said in a nationwide broadcast tonight he would govern until Mr. Bosch’s return.
Mr. Bosch was regarded at the time of his election to the presidency as a liberal along the lines of former President Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela and Luis Muñoz Marin, former Governor of Puerto Rico, both of whom oppose Premier Fidel Castro’s Cuban regime. The new revolt is the eighth overthrow of the government of the Caribbean island nation since the assassination of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molinas in May, 1961. Trujillo reigned for 32 years. Mr. Bosch took over on February 27, 1963.
Crowds swarmed into the streets after the rebels broadcast their success. Arm-in-arm with soldiers, civilians hailed the overthrow. Several mobs set fire to the headquarters of the National Civic Union party and the Dominican Revolutionary guard, which sparked the coup that unseated Mr. Bosch.
From exile in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mr. Bosch said that he had accepted a call by the rebels to return to the DominIcan Republic. He hailed the revolt as “an episode in the struggle of the Dominican people to rid themselves of an oligarchical minority.”
Indian intelligence has reported that Pakistan has ordered mobilization of her armed forces, official spokesmen said tonight. They said that, according to secret Pakistani military orders issued yesterday, all leave has been canceled for soldiers. sailors and airmen, and reserves were being called up. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who returned tonight from a three-day visit to Nepal, said at the airport here that Pakistan had “created a very serious situation.” He said recent talks between President Mohammad Ayub, Khan of Pakistan and Chinese Communist leaders might have “strengthened Pakistan for these ventures.”
Talking with newsmen after an impromptu airport meeting of his inner Cabinet, the Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Home Affairs, Mr. Shastri said his message for the people was: “India must resist and must stop these moves.” Despite the reported Pakistani mobilization, spokesmen said there was “a comparative lull” in the hostilities in the desolate Rann of Cutch area last night and this morning following reported heavy Pakistani attacks Friday night and yesterday morning. The Pakistani force that is reported to have thrust across the border in the marsh area yesterday morning to attack an Indian position six or seven miles south of the frontier was said to have withdrawn into Pakistan.
Yesterday Indian officials said this force, estimated as an infantry brigade of 3,000 men supported by tanks, attacked at a place known only as Point 84, 30 miles east of the ruined mud fort of Kanjarkot, but was repulsed by a small Indian unit with the loss of three tanks. That Indian unit was described tonight as a company of 100 or 120 men. Despite a report that the Pakistani brigade had pulled back more than six miles, Point 84 was said to be unoccupied at present, with an Indian company in a new position a little to the south. An Indian newsman who asked, “Have we retreated?” was told that Point 84 was not a village or even a military post but “just a feature, possibly some high ground.”
The briefing tonight was a stormy session. Newsmen who pressed for a statement of the Indian position on Pakistan’s reported mobilization were told; “We only give the facts. You draw your own conclusions.” Asked whether India was going to mobilize, a spokesman replied. “I cannot say.”
In Karachi, a Pakistani Foreign Office source said there was no truth to an Indian report that Pakistan was mobilizing, according to a Reuters dispatch. The Pakistani Government cautioned India today against the consequences of whipping up public emotions and a war hysteria by putting out “inflammatory and highly colored accounts” of “a dangerous situation which is developing between India and Pakistan.”
Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union arrived in Paris this afternoon for six days of talks with President de Gaulle and other French leaders. In a statement at Orly Airport he said: “We are convinced that the Soviet Union and France, by exploring and widening their zone of common interests, can do much to assure security in Europe and other regions of the world.” Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville greeted the Soviet visitor. In his welcoming speech, he said that France and the Soviet Union would use the visit to discuss world problems.
The two countries are affected by the same problems, the French Minister said. “Our views are sometimes very close and sometimes further apart,” he continued. “But we, Russians and French, have one essential interest in common. That is that solutions must be found everywhere and jointly that can bring to all people independence and peace.” Although no countries were mentioned, this was generally taken to mean Vietnam and French and Soviet hostility to United States policies there. Both the Soviet Union and France have made the demand for self-determination of the Vietnamese people a theme of their opposition to Washington’s policies.
A week after the defeat of the YAR army by royalist forces, Ahmad Muhammad Numan replaced Hassan al-Amri as Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic. Sheik Abdullah Bin Hussein al-Ahmar, Yemen’s Interior Minister in the Cabinet announced by Premier Numan, issued a statement broadcast by the Sana radio today inviting all Yemeni tribes to a “national peace conference” in Khamer, 20 miles north of Sana, on April 30.
The Egyptian Communist party, bowing to President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s threat of arrests, has decided to disband formally and adopt the popular-front tactic of pushing its members into the President’s Arab Socialist Union.
The Cairo press voiced concern today that Morocco, Libya, and Saudi Arabia were silently supporting the proposals of President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia for Arab acceptance of Israel and negotiation over the return of the Palestine refugees.
Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol asserted today that the Arab refugees should remain in the Arab states for their own good. While the Premier did not mention President Bourguiba, this appeared to be his answer to one of the two conditions posed by the Tunisian leader for direct peace talks between Israel and the Arab states. President Bourguiba had called for the return to Israel of the Arab refugees displaced in the Palestine war of 1947-1948 and the constriction of Israel’s borders as conditions for the talks. These provisions would be in accordance with a 1947 United Nations resolution on Palestine.
Speaking at the Nebi Shueib religious festival of the Muslim Druze community in northern Israel, Premier Eshkol declared: “The benefit of the Arab refugees demands the continuation and the support of the process of their resettlement, and rehabilitation among their religious, cultural and lingual kinfolk in their natural economic and cultural setting.” Deputy Premier Abba Eban rejected yesterday President Bourguiba’s demand that Israel’s borders be withdrawn to those agreed upon by the United Nations in 1947. Premier Eshkol told the Arab leaders “who are threatening war” to stop using the refugee issue as “a weapon” to further their aims. He charged that the refugees’ benefit was not in the Arab leaders’ minds. He also observed that Israel had settled hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
Congolese insurgent leaders are suing for peace in Leopoldville, a Congo rebel source said here today.
In fervent nationwide observances today, Australians showed the deep significance this country attaches to its part in the 1915 Allied attack at Gallipoli in World War I. Anzac Day celebrations marked the 50th anniversary of the ill-fated Gallipoli assault against the Turks. Allied troops established beachheads at Gallipoli, but after nearly nine months of savage fighting and 260,000 casualties, were forced to evacuate. In Canberra and other major cities of Australia. more than 80,000 veterans, including several thousand Australian and New Zealand survivors of the Gallipoli fighting, marched in parades before several hundred thousand spectators.
It rained in Bergen-Belsen today. One speaker at a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen said the Nazi concentration camp had been “a hell — an inferno.” But 20 years of rain has washed away all physical traces of the inferno. There is little to be seen among the young birches and evergreens of the camp area except a few stone monuments and a series of large mounds. The inscription on the mounds are simple:
“Here rest 2,500 unknown dead.”
“Here rest 5,000 dead.”
“Here rests an unknown soul.”
Anne Frank lies buried somewhere there. No one seems to know just which mound contains the remains of the young Dutch girl who died in the camp.
Possible tests of strength on the voting rights bill and more wrangling over the nation’s anti-poverty program are in store this week for Congress. Working under the threat of a Southern filibuster, Senate leaders hope to press for votes on amendments to the voting rights bill by midweek. “My guess is that we’ll have the bill passed by the end of next week or early in the following week,” Mike Mansfield of Montana, the Senate majority leader, said today. A Southern filibuster is still “a good possibility,” Senator Mansfield said. But he predicted that it could be shut off by imposing closure. Debate can be halted by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senators present and voting. The week could bring some indication of what kind of voting rights bill will clear the Senate and go to the House, since votes on amendments would show which of three factions is in command.
Southerners are seeking to head off any bill. A group of liberals favors outlawing the poll tax in state and local elections. President Johnson has asked for a strong bill, but less far-reaching than the liberals demand. The House Judiciary Committee will go into closed session Wednesday to consider similar voting rights legislation approved earlier by a subcommittee. Meanwhile, hearings will resume this week into the operation of the nation’s $800 million anti-poverty program. President Johnson has asked that the program be doubled to $1.5 billion in the coming year. The anti-poverty program came under heavy attack from factions in some cities during the first four days of hearings before the Easter recess.
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey told a North Carolina audience the United States is approaching the point in its history when “the senseless struggle of class against class — region against region, and race against race — will be ended.”
Steel union and management negotiators mulled over their deadlocked contract talks and waited for the government’s next move to head off an onrushing strike deadline that would take the bounce out of the nation’s economy.
Whatever inducements may have been offered to Gary Thomas Rowe to be an undercover man in the Ku Klux Klan for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it can be taken for granted that he will not be left to fend for himself on the hostile streets of Selma, Alabama. The FBI and the Justice Department are wary about discussing the role of undercover agents-how they are recruited, how they operate, how they are rewarded. But it is known that when the identity of one is exposed by an appearance in court or before a grand jury, as happened to Mr. Rowe in the case of the men indicted in the slaying of Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, the government has a way of taking care of them.
Buried out of sight in each annual budget of the Department of Justice is a confidential fund of a few thousand dollars available to the attorney general with which to shield such persons from the revenge of their enemies. In extreme cases, the Government will provide physical protection for them through the local police or United States marshals for a number of years until the dangers of discovery and reprisal have passed. It is known that in one instance, a few years ago, an undercover agent whose testimony helped to send a number of important racketeers to prison, was moved with his family to a new job and a new life in a Central-American republic.
Lester Maddox and a group of segregationist followers were detoured during a protest march today when someone set off a smoke bomb in their path.
Leaders of the nation’s largest Ku Klux Klan have volunteered to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, one of them said after a segregationist parade in Atlanta.
A Black minister denounced the Congress of Racial Equality today for having children participate in recent civil rights demonstrations in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
Automated telephones in the 1970s may enable housewives to shop, pay bills and bank without talking to a single person, a new report discloses.
The paradox of domestic triumphs and overseas difficulties appears to bear out predictions made about President Johnson’s regime 17 months ago.
The swollen Mississippi River smashed through a dike in Rock Island, Illinois, inundating a 54-block industrial area, and threatened a housing complex.
One hundred pickets of the Congress of Racial Equality demonstrated at the World’s Fair in New York and found themselves picketed in turn by youths carrying placards saying: “SPONGE, the Society for the Prevention of Negroes’ Getting Everything.” There were several shoving matches and on one occasion punches were thrown. The only casualty was a CORE marcher, who received a bloody nose. The demonstrations took place in front of the New York City Pavilion.
Sixteen-year-old Michael Andrew Clark killed three people and wounded 11 others by shooting at cars from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California. Clark killed himself as police rushed the hilltop.
David Heneker and Beverly Cross’ musical “Half a Sixpence”, starring Tommy Steele, and based on H.G. Wells’ 1905 novel “Kipps”, opens at the Broadhurst Theater, NYC; runs for 511 performances.
The 1965 World Table Tennis Championships concluded at Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia.
The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 129 to 96, to win Game 5 of the 1965 NBA Finals and won their seventh National Basketball Association championship, 4 games to 1. The Celtics ran off 20 straight unanswered points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Once again it was a team effort that propelled the Celtics, with big Bill Russell leading the way by controlling the rebounding. His 30 rebounds kept the Celtics in command and enabled the Celtic regulars to get an early rest.
Major League Baseball:
At Yankee Stadium, Mel Stottlemyre and California’s Rudy May lock up in a pitching duel until Mickey Mantle scores the only run of the game with a 4th inning solo shot into the left field bleachers. The Yankees win 1–0, in the nitecap of a doubleheadaer. They won the opener, too, 3–2.
Rookie Joe Morgan singles home Bob Aspromonte in the 11th inning for a 5-4 Astros’ triumph over Pittsburgh. It’s the first day game at the Astrodome after the ceiling tiles had been painted to reduce the glare. Pirate outfielder Bill Virdon couldn’t use it as an excuse when Jim Wynn scores on his three-base error. Umpire Vinnie Smith couldn’t use it as an excuse when he overturns his own home-run call on Walt Bond’s drive off the fence.
By beating the San Francisco Giants, 4–3, with a seven-hitter in the second game of today’s double-header, Warren Spahn gave the New York Mets a split for the day and victory, three games to one, in a wild weekend series.
Dick Stuart drove in four runs with a double and home run today as the Philadelphia Phils defeated Don Drysdale for the ninth straight time and snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four-game winning streak with a 6–4 decision.
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Houston Astros 5
Philadelphia Phillies 6, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
California Angels 2, New York Yankees 3
California Angels 0, New York Yankees 1
New York Mets 0, San Francisco Giants 5
New York Mets 4, San Francisco Giants 3
Born:
Eric Avery, American musician (Jane’s Addiction, Deconstruction, Polar Bear), in Los Angeles, California.
Mark Bryant, NBA power forward and center (Portland Trailblazers, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics), in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
Theo Young, NFL tight end (Pittsburgh Steelers), in Newport, Arkansas.
John Paul Henson, American puppeteer and son of Muppets creator Jim Henson; in Saugerties, New York (d. 2014).
History Diaries 