He is buried at Beverly National Cemetery in New Jersey. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, Line 109.
American and South Vietnamese spokesmen confirmed for the first time today that a regular unit of the North Vietnamese Army was fighting in South Vietnam. The unit was identified as the Second Battalion of the 101st Regiment of the 325th Division. “We have enough evidence of the battalion’s presence to pass it from the ‘probable’ to the ‘confirmed’ category,” a spokesman for the United States Embassy said. American officials in the past have conceded the presence of North Vietnamese regulars, but have always maintained they were distributed among Việt Cộng units rather than fighting as separate units. The South Vietnamese Government said that the Communist battalion was serving in Kon Tum Province, about 300 miles northeast of Saigon. It said that a North Vietnamese soldier surrendered to Government forces on March 23.
In the continuing air war against the North, seven more harassing strikes on roads and bridges were announced today. Little substantial result was reported. Among the targets hit were a camouflaged patrol boat in the mouth of the Sông Gianh River, a new highway bridge 100 miles south of Hanoi and the Bai Duc Thon highway bridge, which was also hit last Thursday. The 60-foot boat was sunk. Neither of the bridges was destroyed, although their approaches were severely damaged, pilots reported. United States Air Force and Navy planes and South Vietnamese Air Force planes took part. Many of the missions were two-plane and four-plane strikes that were not accompanied by supporting jets. Anti-aircraft fire, while heavy at the Bai Duc Thon Bridge, was generally Iight, and all the planes returned safely.
Secretary McNamara reports that although the air raids against North Vietnam have “slowed down the movement of men and materiel… infiltration of both arms and personnel into South Vietnam” has increased. McNamara, however, refuses to answer questions as to whether the United States plans to send more troops. The war, he says, is now costing the nation about $1,500,000,000 per year. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara reported today that North Vietnamese aggressive operations against South Vietnam had “grown progressively more flagrant.”
The Defense Secretary said that the North Vietnamese infiltration of soldiers and supplies for the Việt Cộng “continues to play a vital role” in the war, apparently despite bombardment of the infiltration routes. Mr. McNamara added, however, that the “carefully controlled air strikes” had effectively impeded the insurgency and that these would “continue as necessary.” The Secretary of Defense made an extensive report on the military situation in Vietnam during a nationally televised news conference. The report was, in effect, a prelude to the scheduled news conference tomorrow with President Johnson.
Against a background of maps and aerial reconnaissance photographs set up on easels behind him, Mr. McNamara spoke for 16 minutes on “recent evidence from newly captured prisoners and documents.” He not only pointed to the illustrations behind him to underscore his observations but at one stage of his talk also picked up and displayed a new machine gun of Chinese Communist manufacture that he said had been captured from the Việt Cộng.
The Defense Secretary also sought to quash speculation about the possible use of nuclear weapons by United States forces in Vietnam. A questioner, referring to newspaper articles over the weekend, said that sources here had discussed the subject by noting that the use of such weapons had never been ruled out. It is “perfectly apparent,” Mr. McNamara said, that “there is no military requirement for nuclear weapons” in the present and foreseeable situation in Vietnam. “No useful purpose can be served by speculation on remote contingencies,” he added.
In his opening statement the Defense Secretary stressed these themes: First, that the North Vietnamese infiltration of men and equipment, including large quantities of Chinese arms, was greater than previously indicated. According to the latest estimate, the total infiltration from the north has been 39,000 men. The total was given as 37,000 in the white paper released by the Administration in February. Second, that the United States and South Vietnamese aerial strikes against the Communist supply routes were effective, although not yet decisive. A total of 24 rail and highway bridges have been destroyed or rendered incapable of supporting traffic.
As evidence of the manpower difficulties of the insurgents Mr. McNamara pointed out that a battalion-sized regular army unit from North Vietnam had been identified in South Vietnam. The Defense Secretary said that the presence of the Second Battalion of the 101st Regiment, 325th Division of the People’s Army of Vietnam, had been confirmed in Kon Tum Province, in the southernmost region of South Vietnam. Dispatches from Saigon said the battalion was believed to be based in the highlands, 200 miles northeast of Saigon and 120 miles south of the Đà Nẵng air base, which is guarded by United States Marines. He said the battalion had 400 to 500 men and its operations in South Vietnam were significant largely as an example of the Communist need to draw upon North Vietnamese manpower instead of recruiting from South Vietnam as in the past.
Mr. McNamara said that 89,000 guerrillas have been killed in the insurgency thus far. This compares with the deaths of 26,000 members of the South Vietnamese armed forces and 348 American military men in actions involving the enemy directly. While noting the Communists” heavy death toll and the reported difficulties in recruiting. Mr. McNamara belittled the idea of “volunteer reinforcements from Communist China and the Soviet Union. In answer to a question calling attention to threats from Moscow and Peking that volunteers would be sent to join the Việt Cộng. Mr. McNamara asserted that they could not be effectively employed in the hostilities in view of the nature of the war.
One question that Mr. McNamara refused to answer, pertained to the accuracy of published forecasts of additional United States military reinforcements in Vietnam He said he would not publicly discuss any plans for United States troop movements. With recent additions the United States forces in South Vietnam now number about 30, 000, excluding personnel aboard the nearby ships of the Seventh Fleet. It has been reported that 5,000 more men may be sent to South Vietnam soon.
The Defense Secretary said, in answer to another question, that the war in Vietnam was costing the United States about $1.5 billion a year. He gave the breakdown as follows: economic aid, $300 million; food and agriculture supplies under Public Law 480, which permits the sale of such commodities for local currency, $70 million; military assistance, $330 million, and United States Forces, $500 million. Mr. McNamara said, however, that the military operations in South Vietnam had not seriously depleted United States military stocks and that there would be no need for any special additional procurements.
In Cambodia, some 20,000, mostly students, attack the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh and rip down the U.S. flag in protest. A heavy police guard kept the demonstrators from entering the four-story building, but they managed to break almost every pane of glass. Thousands of protesters attacked the U.S. embassies in Cambodia and Japan. In Tokyo, about 4,500 leftists snake-danced near the American Embassy, demanding that the United States “get out of Vietnam.”
Authorities said the Cambodian demonstration was set off by United States policy in Vietnam and by a “slanderous” article in the April 5 issue of Newsweek magazine. The article quoted sources here as having said that Queen Mother Kossamak, mother of the Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was “money-mad and reportedly runs a number of concessions in town, plus a string of bordellos at the edge of the city.”
There was no report of any injuries or arrests in the demonstration. Streets leading to the embassy were guarded and a cordon of policemen surrounded the building. The demonstration lasted three hours. American Embassy personnel inside the building watched the melee but no one was hurt. Among the anti-United States slogans shouted were: “Down with the United States Nazi Johnson!” “Down with the Yankees!” “No more Anglo-Saxon journalists in Cambodia!” and “United States State Department, the cause of all trouble in Asia!”
Indonesian President Sukarno met today with Prince Souvanna Phouma, Premier of Laos. The official Antara press agency said the two leaders had agreed that the problems of Indochina should be solved through the spirit of the 1954 Geneva agreement, which ended the Indochina war. The Prince came here in connection wit. the celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the Bandung conference.
In the United Nations, Adlai E. Stevenson flung back today a blistering Soviet attack on the United States’ policy in Vietnam with the assertion that this country would “not yield or falter in resisting aggression.” Nikolai T. Fedorenko, the Soviet delegate, used the opening debate in the U.N. Disarmament Commission for lengthy attacks on American policy.” from Cuba to the Congo, but focused on Vietnam. At one point he charged that Pentagon officials had needlessly ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 “as an experiment” and were looking at Vietnam now as a “proving ground for other kinds of weapons.”
Mr. Stevenson, in two replies to Mr. Fedorenko’s three statements, declared that the Soviet attacks were reminiscent of the “period before Khrushchev” meaning the Stalinist days and that they confirmed his suspicions that Moscow had asked for a meeting of the 111-member commission to provide another forum for its polemics.
Mr. Stevenson challenged the Soviet delegate to take his charges to the proper place — the Security Council — but added that Moscow was not likely to do so because of the “contemptuous rejection” by its Communist Asian partners of any United Nations role in seeking a Vietnam settlement. Mr. Stevenson put off a reply until the afternoon to consult Washington after the sweeping Soviet attack. He then prefaced his arms statement with the political reply to Mr. Fedorenko.
Britain has accepted a proposal by the Soviet Union that they try to organize an international conference on the neutrality of Cambodia, a neighbor of Vietnam. One object would be to provide an opportunity for the United States, North and South Vietnam and Communist China to discuss ending the Vietnamese war.
Communist China indicated today that it was opposed to an international conference on Cambodia that could also be used as a forum to discuss a settlement of the conflict in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese war was the first item of discussion today when Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union began a week of talks with French officials.
Washington’s war of words over Vietnam was escalating today, with critics sharpening their language and the Johnson Administration expanding its efforts to win public and Congressional support. In an angry attack on the administration’s Vietnam policy, Senator Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) charged that both Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara should have been removed from office months ago. He also predicted that the Vietnam War would destroy the Johnson Presidency.
A Lou Harris Poll shows that some 57 percent of Americans support Johnson’s handling of the war.
The Indian Army has been put on an alert. New fighting erupted, meanwhile, between large Indian and Pakistani forces on the Cutch-Sind border. Defense Minister Y. B. Chavan said in Parliament today that, in view of the “serious situation” on the border and the reported “mobilization of the Pakistani Army,” Indian troops had been recalled from leave and “certain other moves” had been taken to meet the situation.
In Karachi a spokesman declared, “No matter how much force India puts into the Rann of Cutch, we are determined to stay there.” He said Indian troops would have to pull back before any truce.
The Indian Defense Minister told Parliament that Pakistani forces broke a brief lull yesterday with a massive attack on an Indian border post at Biar Bet, six miles from the border on the Indian side. The place is said to be 24 miles east of Kanjarkot, the post that is occupied by Pakistan but is claimed by India. The minister said the Pakistani forces had been “beaten back” but mounted another attack this morning with an infantry brigade of 3,000 men and “a sizable force of armor.” This was the first use of armor by the Pakistanis, he said. The area of the fighting involves a 60-mile stretch of border that divides the Indian state of Gujarat with West Pakistan. The area, known as the Rann of Cutch, is a vast stretch of marshy lowland that becomes impassable during the monsoon rains. The monsoon is expected in less than three weeks.
The Pakistanis have built a road on what the Indians say is their territory around Kanjarkot and are holding about 13,000 square yards of territory between the road and the border line drawn by India. However, the new posts that were attacked are said to lie outside the claimed area. At noon, when the Defense Minister was making his statement, it was said that the fighting was in progress. Tonight a Defense Ministry spokesman said the Government was still awaiting further information on the fighting area.
Asked whether there was evidence that Chinese Communist military experts were among the Pakistani troops in that area, the spokesman said, “It is possible, but I cannot say definitely.” Earlier the Defense Minister said that some arms captured from the Pakistanis had been found to be of American origin and that they had been shown to American officials here. The spokesman said this statement related to arms captured along the cease-fire line in Kashmir, which is also disputed by India and Pakistan. A United States Embassy spokesman said, however, “We have not been given any weapons with any identifying marks to show they are of American origin.”
At first glance the Rann of Cutch doesn’t seem worth fighting for. The battleground looks as barren as the moon and, for a fighting man, it is just as inhospitable. The Rann isn’t a bone-dry dust bowl-it is a saltwater marsh that no man can cross on foot. At the moment, army patrols kick up a dust storm that can be seen for miles. Temperatures are around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, but the boiling sun is a killer. In a month or so, the monsoon rains will hurl waves of salt water over the Rann, flooding it four feet deep in many places. Recent explorations have hinted that there may be oil reserves under the sand and marshes.
India has strongly protested to Communist China against what she charged was an intrusion by a Chinese military patrol into Indian territory in Ladakh April 1, it was disclosed today. The protest note, made public today, said this was a “blatant violation of Indian territory by Chinese military personnel.” It urged China to “desist from such activities which are calculated to create tension and conflict between the two countries.” The note said the patrol had intruded about six miles west of the Indian-held “line of actual control” in the Shyok River Valley.
The United States Navy will begin tomorrow to evacuate American citizens who want to leave the Dominican Republic in view of the mounting threat of a breakdown in public order. A spokesman at the United States Embassy in Santo Domingo said in a telephone conversation that about 500 of the 2,500 United States citizens in the country were expected to leave. Yesterday the new regime of Acting President José Rafael Molina Ureña armed thousands of civilians with submachine guns and rifles as sporadic fighting between opposing military forces continued for the second day. The regime was installed Sunday after an army rebellion against a civilian junta led by President Donald Reid Cabral.
The civilians, supporting the army and the provisional government against air force units, also manufactured thousands of incendiary bombs from bottles and gasoline being dispensed free by the city’s service stations. The new regime is committed to restore Juan Bosch, who was ousted as President by a military rebellion on September 25, 1963. He is in exile in San Juan. Opposing his return is the air force base at San Isidro, 25 miles from Santo Domingo on the other side of the Ozama River, which forms a dividing line between the contenders. Unconfirmed reports said that there may have been as many as 50 killed and 100 injured in air attacks on the capital.
American diplomats are working to effect a cease-fire in the Dominican Republic rebellion, but there has been no indication of success.
An Air Force general said the U.S. has a targeting plan for Red China in case of war and that Pacific theater forces “should be able” to destroy all key areas in that country if necessary.
Chancellor Ludwig Erhard is planning a “private” trip to the United States in June to reconfirm his credentials as a German politician in good standing in America.
President Tito of Yugoslavia flew to Cairo tonight for a noisy welcome and three days of talks with President Gamal Abdel Nasser. They were expected to concentrate on a new neutralist effort to promote Vietnam peace talks.
The departure of Cubans for Moscow for training in Communist party work and many personnel exchanges on various levels suggest that Premier Fidel Castro’s regime is again strengthening its ties with the Soviet Union.
Canadians will receive a 10 percent personal income tax cut on July 1 under legislation introduced tonight by Finance Minister Walter L. Gordon.
An agreement was reached in Pittsburgh today between steel industry and union negotiators to prevent a nationwide steel strike scheduled for Saturday morning. Under terms of the agreement, the 400,000 workers of the 11 largest basic steel producing companies will get a wage increase of 11.5 cents an hour effective Saturday. The money from the increase will be paid by the companies into an escrow fund while the negotiating teams continue to work through the summer on a contract. On August 1, the companies and the union will have the right to serve 30 days’ notice of terminating the working agreement. This would give the union the right to strike on September 1. The terms of the agreement were initialed by David J. McDonald, president of the United Steelworkers of America, and R. Conrad Cooper, vice president of the United States Steel Corporation and chief industry negotiator, at 11 PM, about seven hours after reporters learned of the settlement.
Three Ku Klux Klansmen entered not-guilty pleas in the Viola Liuzzo murder case, then heard their attorney tell newsmen that “12 white, patriotic jurors” will give them a “fair and impartial” trial. On the sidewalk in front of the courthouse, the lawyer, Matt H. Murphy Jr., delivered a tirade to newsmen against President Johnson, the freedom marchers, Jews and advocates of “race mixing.” The trial of the youngest of the accused, Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr., 21 years old, was set for next Monday in the whitewashed rural courthouse in Hayneville, Alabama, pending arguing of preliminary motions the same day. The two others, William Orvill Eaton, 41, and Eugene Thomas, 42, are not expected to be tried until the fall term of court in September.
The three men, all residents of the Birmingham area, were indicted separately on charges of first-degree murder by a Lowndes County grand jury last. Tuesday. They are accused of shooting Mrs. Liuzzo, a 39-year-old mother of five from Detroit, as she drove with a Black civil rights worker along Highway 80 in the county on March 25, four hours after the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom march had ended. Mrs. Liuzzo was transporting marchers back to Selma. Because the three were indicted separately, they are entitled under the laws of the state to separate trials. After the arraignment they were continued on $10,000 bond and allowed to drive back to their homes.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to review the dismissal of federal charges against the accused killers of three civil rights workers in Mississippi last year. The decision will also affect pending Federal cases under the same laws against the accused slayers of Lemuel A. Penn, Washington, D.C., educator, in Georgia last July and of the Rev. James J. Reeb of Boston and Mrs. Viola Gregg Liuzzo in Alabama last month. The Mississippi case involves the slaying of Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white men from New York, and James E. Chaney, a Mississippi Black, near Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964. Eighteen Mississippi men were indicted by a federal grand jury for violating two Reconstruction civil rights statutes in connection with the killings of the three men. Federal officials used these statutes because murder is not a federal crime unless committed on federal property.
The U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional today major provisions of Louisiana’s subversive activities and Communist-control law. It also held that Federal courts may enjoin state court criminal proceedings under statutes that unconstitutionally threatened to deny citizens freedom of speech. The decision overruled a previous doctrine under which Federal courts had abstained from enjoining state criminal proceedings to give the state courts an opportunity to rule upon the laws themselves.
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey will join talks on the voting rights bill for the first time in an effort to expedite a compromise on two big roadblocks to the bill’s Senate passage. Humphrey will be present tomorrow when Senate leaders and Senate liberals meet to patch up their differences on the voting rights bill. The meeting tomorrow will concentrate on two controversial amendments. The first, which is opposed by Senate leaders Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen and the Justice Department on constitutional grounds, was inserted by the liberals on the Judiciary Committee. It would outlaw the poll tax as a voting requirement in state and local elections. The second controversial amendment was offered by Mr. Dirksen and is opposed by the liberals and the Justice Department. It provides that a state or county can escape from the so-called “automatic trigger” of the bill when 60 percent of its voting age population is registered and a court determines it is no longer discriminating against Black voting.
President Johnson signed a liberalized and extended Manpower Development and Training Act today. He called it “a wise and necessary companion” to the Education Bill that he signed April 11.
Floodwaters of the Mississippi River roared over and through levees in Burlington, Iowa, and Rock Island, Ill., and churned into industrial areas and rich farm lands.
James R. Hoffa said today that he would resign as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters if he were sent to jail as a result of charges against him.
Mario Savio, who led a mass student sit-in demonstration at the University of California last December, announced today he was quitting the campus Free Speech Movement.
An independent panel of experts urged today an immediate start on a program to explore Mars for possible signs of life. The group, which includes Nobel laureates, envisions the landing on Mars by 1971 or 1973 of an Automated Biological Laboratory. This unmanned craft would carry a variety of systems to test for the presence of life. It would also have a computer to interpret the results and carry out a “sustained discourse” with scientists on earth. The panel of specialists was appointed by the National Academy of Sciences at the Government’s request.
[Ed: The dismal view of Mars from Mariner 4 and 5 photos will somewhat dampen enthusiasm, but the hints of past water in Mariner 9 revive it. The proposal eventually leads to the Viking landers. The results of that mission, however remain to this day somewhat inconclusive.]
The first complete performance of American composer Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 4, conducted by Leopold Stokowski with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City, was presented eleven years after the composer’s death and around forty years since he last worked on it.
The Brazilian television station Rede Globo began broadcasting.
Manchester United clinched England’s soccer football championship, breaking a standings tie with Leeds United with a better goal difference. Leeds United had a record of 26–8–7 (60 points) going into its final game, while Manchester United was at 25–9–6 (59 points) with two games left. Leeds was held to a 3–3 tie in a must-win game with Birmingham, however, while Manchester beat Arsenal, 3–1, giving both teams 26 wins and nine ties and 61 points. However, Manchester had 51 more goals in its favor than against it (88 vs. 37) while the goal difference for Leeds was only 31 (83 vs. 52), eliminating it from the title.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 916.86 (+0.45)
Major League Baseball:
Sandy Koufax suffered his first defeat of the season tonight when the Philadelphia Phillies belted him for three runs on four hits in the first inning and went on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4–3.
Pittsburgh Pirates 0, Houston Astros 2
Philadelphia Phillies 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 3
Born:
Kevin James [Kevin George Knipfing], American comedian (“The King of Queens”, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”), in Mineola, New York.
Tellis Frank, NBA power forward (Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves), in Gary, Indiana.
Died:
Aaron Avshalomov, Russian-Jewish-American composer (Kuan Yin; The Great Wall), conductor (Shanghai Municipal Orchestra, 1943-46), and librarian.
History Diaries 