About 3,500 men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, stationed in Okinawa, are brought into Vietnam over the next ten days — the first U.S. Army combat unit assigned there. Some go to the Biên Hòa air base, 20 miles northwest of Saigon, others to the base at Vũng Tàu. The 173rd Airborne Brigade includes the 3rd Battalion, 319 Artillery, the first U.S. artillery unit assigned to Vietnam. As the United States and South Vietnamese Governments disclosed the imminent arrival of the first Army ground troops, an American military spokesman also announced that 75 larger and faster helicopters, together with 780 crewmen, had landed in Vietnam.
The joint communiqué said that the airborne units would “augment the security forces assigned to the vital Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu military base complex.” The two places mentioned are not, however, a complex. Biên Hòa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon, is one of three major jet air bases in the country. Forty miles southeast of Saigon, Vũng Tàu has a port, an airfield and training facilities. The French, who called Vũng Tàu, Cap St. Jacques, counted on it as a landing area for reinforcements if Saigon were to come under siege. Military leaders in Saigon have been pressing for more security troops around Biên Hòa, the site of a damaging Việt Cộng artillery attack November 1.
One battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade will stay on Okinawa, the spokesman said. The elements to be brought here include two line battalions, one artillery battalion, a cavalry troop for reconnaissance, an armored company, an engineering company and a headquarters company. The brigade is commanded by Brigadier General Ellis W. Williamson. Asked how the airborne units would arrive, one military spokesman said, “They’re not going to jump, I’ll tell you that.” Security precautions for the arrival have been tightened.
The helicopters were brought near the coast at Vũng Tàu by the amphibious carrier USS Iwo Jima and then were flown to their new bases. Military sources said the improved machines, designated UH-1D, instead of UH-1B, would be stationed at Buôn Ma Thuột in the central highlands, at Sóc Trăng in the Mekong Delta and at Vũng Tàu. Including the new machines and the marine helicopters, the total of American helicopters in South Vietnam is nearly 350. The UH-1D has a greater carrying capacity, seating 13 instead of 9, and a greater range than the earlier model. The new model is also reported to have a quicker altitude climb, an important asset for a machine that often whisks in and out of jungle under heavy fire. The three new companies come from Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. At full strength, each army helicopter company has 25 machines and 260 men.
Two hundred United States marines were lifted by helicopter into an area several miles southwest of the base at Đà Nẵng, which is 375 miles northeast of Saigon. They were joined by another marine company entering the area on foot on a “search-and-destroy patrol.” The marines are officially occupying “static” defensive positions around Đà Nẵng, but in practice they have been extending patrols into the countryside farther and farther each week.
Meanwhile, United States Navy jets pounded North Vietnam’s main railroad link with the guerrillas in the South in a raid late today. An American spokesman said the track was cut 90 miles south of Hanoi by 250-pound bombs dropped by two Skyhawk planes from the Seventh Fleet carrier USS Coral Sea. The jets, on a route reconnaissance, also hit 11 freight cars on the track with rockets and made strafing runs with 20-mm. cannon. Six cars were severely damaged.
In three other raids in the same area by six Skyhawks operating in pairs, two military trucks and one freight car were hit by high explosive bombs. The pilots reported most of the targets were camouflaged. One pair of pilots said that they had encountered heavy antiaircraft fire and flak, but that all the jets had returned to the carrier safely.
An article in Newsweek magazine prompted the breaking of diplomatic relations by Cambodia with the United States. Prince Norodom Sihanouk cited a report about his mother, Queen Kossamak, that had accused her of involvement in “various money-making schemes,” including running a string of brothels. Relations between Cambodia and the United States have deteriorated steadily during the last two years while Prince Sihanouk guided his Indochinese kingdom closer to Communist China.
Diplomatic observers said the rupture of relations seemed to exclude the possibility that an international conference could be convened soon to guarantee the neutrality and borders of Cambodia. The major powers have considered using such a conference as a forum for at least informal talks on a settlement of the war in Vietnam. Prince Sihanouk, in a broadcast to his people, said the decision to break off diplomatic relations had been taken because of an attack on two Cambodian border villages on April 28 by four Skyraider fighter planes of the South Vietnam Air Force.
United States forces opened a corridor today through rebel-held territory in Santo Domingo, cutting the city in two. This move came as the United States, in effect, acknowledged that it expected to maintain troops in the Dominican Republic for an indefinite time, at least until Dominicans find a “democratic solution” for the civil war, which has raged for the last 10 days. While advancing early today, the paratroopers had several engagements with the rebels, killing two of them, according to reports.
Another marine was killed at dawn by a rebel sniper at the northeast corner of the expanded international zone perimeter. He was shot through the head. This brought to three the number of marines killed since United States troops moved into Santo Domingo last Thursday. A paratrooper died at the San Isidro base this afternoon when a grenade exploded in his hands accidentally. Two other paratroopers were killed previously. The decision to control the small Caribbean country militarily until a viable government can be established — a task that under the present conditions may take many months — results from the conclusion reached by the Johnson Administration in the last 48 hours that the rebel movement has fallen under the domination of Communist forces. This, however, is a controversial point. The rebels deny it and some competent Americans privately take exception to so sweeping a view of the situation.
The United States thinking, according to these sources, does not exclude the possibility of asking the Organization of American States to establish a form of temporary trusteeship over the Dominican Republic. The corridor across Santo Domingo, opening direct communications between the international zone in the west and the San Isidro Air Force Base on the east bank of the Ozama River, was secured just after midnight when paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division broke through the perimeter around the Duarte Bridge over the Ozama River. They then linked up with the Marines, who advanced three blocks east from the international area, which is under their control.
The paratroopers advanced nearly three miles across most! of the rebel territory to achieve the link-up and to open the corridor that runs along a west-east line. The one-street-wide corridor cuts Santo Domingo into southern and northern sections. The marines reported no fighting in their advance, but late this morning the paratroopers came under fire near the point of their junction with the marines. This dawn attack, near the United States Embassy, was one of three against the main American compound. There were no other significant military actions in the last 24 hours except for skirmishes in the corridor and sniper fire at various points.
The command of the American forces is situated next to the embassy in a house once owned by the former dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. The house serves as headquarters for Lieutenant General Bruce Palmer, who commands the ground forces of Joint Task Force 122, made up of about 14.000 paratroopers and marines. The United States military build-up continued despite a tenuous truce negotiated last Friday by the Papal Nuncio and notwithstanding the new talks conducted by the O.A.S. and American diplomats. John Bartlow Martin, former Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, reported to President Johnson last night that the rebel movement had fallen under the control of “Castro Communism.”
Former President Juan Bosch asserted that a constitutional congress in Santo Domingo elected Monday the rebels’ military leader, Colonel Francisco Caamano Deno, President of the country, United Press International reported from San Juan.
President Johnson said today, “We don’t propose to sit here in our rocking chair with our hands folded and let the Communists set up any government in the Western Hemisphere.”
Adlai E. Stevenson said today at the United Nations that the United States had summoned the resources “of this entire hemisphere” to prevent Communism from gaining control of the Dominican Republic. “The American nations will not permit the establishment of another Communist government in the Western Hemisphere,” the United States representative told the Security Council. Mr. Stevenson insisted that the Organization of American States was taking effective action to deal with the situation, and said it would be “prudent and constructive” to “permit the regional organization to deal with this regional problem.”
Replying to a Soviet charge that the United States “armed interference” was a violation of the United Nations Charter, Mr. Stevenson declared that Moscow was “attempting to exploit the anarchy in the Dominican Republic for its own ends… This deliberate effort of Havana and Moscow to promote subversion and overthrow governments in flagrant violation of all norms of international conduct,” Mr. Stevenson said, “Is responsible for much of the unrest in the Caribbean area.” Nikolai T. Fedorenko, the Soviet representative, bitterly attacked “American militarism,” which he said played the role of both “judge” and “executioner” in the Dominican Republic.
Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress today supported President Johnson’s actions in the Dominican Republic but some questioned whether the United States had gone too far.
Pakistan asserted today that a heavy movement of Indian troops toward the East Pakistani border was taking place. The area of the purported advance is 1,000 miles east of the embattled Rann of Cutch, where Pakistani and Indian troops have been engaged in recent weeks. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the advance was between Barasat and Basirhat, near the border about 50 miles east of Calcutta. At the same time, he reported that Indian shelling of Pakistani positions and “tactical movements” by Indian troops were continuing in the desolate Rann of Cutch region.
The Pakistani spokesman charged that the Indian side in the Rann of Cutch was “showing no restraint despite Pakistan’s example of not engaging in offensive activity.” He added: “When shelling goes on, we have to reply. We know there have been concentrations of Indian troops and this should not have been done — to create a better atmosphere for negotiations.”
There was no official confirmation here of reports from New Delhi of an informal ceasefire between the forces in the Rann of Cutch, the scene of intermittent fighting since April 9. Pakistan claims the northern half of the rann, which means desert in the local dialect. India contends the border lies along the rann’s northern edge. Britain’s High Commissioners (Ambassadors) in Pakistan and India have been trying to negotiate a cease-fire. Britain’s truce proposals are reported to call for the withdrawal of regular forces from the Rann, The vast sandy desert will be turned into an impassable quagmire when the monsoon season starts in a few. weeks. Geologists have reported the area may contain oil deposits.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has carried out a large-scale evacuation of people from the East Pakistani border with the Indian State of West Bengal, according to information received in Calcutta by the West Bengal Government. This evacuation took place as Pakistani troops were being mobilized on the border. In certain places troops are replacing border police.
India showed new signs of toughness toward Pakistan over the Rann of Cutch today while Western efforts to bring about a negotiated cease-fire appeared to be stalled. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri declared in a speech before Parliament that “the threat of total war” held out by President Mohammed Ayub Khan of Pakistan would not shake India’s refusal to give up territory in Cutch.
Britain’s first attempt at legislation against racial discrimination passed a crucial parliamentary test tonight by a narrow and partisan majority. The vote was 261 to 249, a majority of 12 for the Labor Government. This came on second reading, the principal stage of any bill before amendments are considered. The legislation would outlaw discrimination for reasons of race in “places of public resort,” including hotels, restaurants, pubs, theaters and dance halls. Violations would be punishable by a fine of $140 or, after a first offense, $280. A second section of the bill would prohibit speaking or writing “threatening, abusive or insulting” words intended to stir hatred against any racial group. Conservatives objected to this provision as an unwise incursion on free speech.
The British Labour Government’s economic policies have become open game not only for the Conservative opposition but also for many of the Government’s supporters. Calls for wage restraint and efficiency are not going over too well with trade unions. Two right-wing Labour members of the House of Commons believe that the Labour party’s proposed steel nationalization is irrelevant, and they threaten to vote against the government or abstain when the issue comes up Thursday. Today a left-wing Labourite, Ian Mikardo, supporting nationalization, attacked “madly over-generous” compensation terms for steel stockholders. The problems underscore the difficulties of trying to please foreign bankers, doctrinaire Socialists, business interests and the working man with a four-seat majority in the House of Commons.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Secretary of State may refuse to grant passports to United States citizens for travel to Cuba. The decision upheld the authority of the Secretary to designate areas in which citizens may not travel unless given permission of the State Department. Travel to Cuba has been restricted since January 16, 1961, when the State Department declared all passports to be invalid for travel there unless specially endorsed.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Mercalli scale struck El Salvador at dawn. Heaviest damage was in the Cisneros district of the capital, San Salvador, and the neighboring cities of Delgado and Mejicanos. The official death toll was 120 people; more than 1,500 would die in a second earthquake on October 10, 1986, and “a significant number of the victims” would be “killed by the collapse of engineered structures that had been weakened in the 1965 event”, most notably the 300 people dying in a five-story building that had been condemned after the 1965 earthquake.
President Sukarno of Indonesia called for volunteers to “dissolve the puppet state of Malaysia”, both on the island of Java and on the Malay peninsula. President Sukarno tody reviewed a parade of about 20,000 Indonesian workers, youths and students who marched through downtown Jakarta past the Presidential Palace.
The Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization began its annual meeting today with uneventful sessions reviewing the Vietnamese and Malaysian situations.
Japan was urged to exercise greater leadership in dampening down menacing Asian hotspots-particularly Indonesia’s “crush Malaysia” program and the escalating war in South Vietnam.
A high Bulgarian official said today that the safety of United States diplomats in the country might be in danger because of a deeply felt public revulsion against American policies.
Rhodesia is bracing for the final days of an election campaign which may end in a break with Britain and the Commonwealth
An all-white jury was impaneled in Hayneville, Alabama, for the trial of a Klansman in the civil rights slaying of Mrs. Viola Liuzzo.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed today the conviction of two white students of Florida State University on trespass charges for a sit-in demonstration at a Tallahassee restaurant.
Senate leaders raised the prospect of resorting to cloture to cut off southern debate on the voting rights bill but said they believed such action could be avoided.
President Johnson asked steel wage negotiators to reach a non-inflationary settlement, a request that was defined as meaning the industry could afford a 3% pay increase. The government’s leading economists said today that the steel industry did not need to raise prices now and could give its workers a 3 percent increase in wages and benefits this year and still not need to raise prices.
President Johnson told a labor audience that he will press on to the goals of the Great Society despite U.S. involvements abroad. President Johnson also announced today a large increase in corporate profits during the first quarter of this year.
President Johnson said today that “we travel a difficult road” in administering the foreign aid program. But he said, “I am persuaded that we are on the right road.”
President Johnson took a walk in the sun around the White House grounds today and came out second best trading tie clasps with a tourist. When he took off his coat at the end of the walk he found that a leaky pen had left a red stain on his blue shirt.
Representatives of the three television networks will appeal to the White House today for more time to prepare for appearances by President Johnson.
An Erie-Lackawanna Railroad locomotive and all three commuter cars of a train bound from Waldwick to Hoboken were derailed this morning near Route 3 at an industrial siding. The cause was vandalism. Six persons were slightly injured.
Federal mediators failed again today to ease the two-week bargaining deadlock between the American Newspaper Guild and The Baltimore Sunpapers, struck by 600 editorial, advertising and business employes since April 17.
Mississippi River floodwaters surged over thousands more acres of Illinois and Missouri farmlands today and crept back into stores at Hannibal, Missouri, scrubbed out only yesterday after an earlier flooding.
A newspaper crusading for legislative reapportionment, a part-time housewife and a novice Broadway playwright were among winners of the 1965 Pulitzer Prizes. A Pulitzer prize for history is awarded to Irwin Unger (“Greenback Era”). AP’s Horst Faas wins in photography for his work in Vietnam.
The 1965 Cannes Film Festival opened.
Major League Baseball:
The Indians claim minor-league outfielder Joe Rudi on waivers from the Kansas City Athletics.
Elston Howard, first-string catcher of the New York Yankees, will undergo an operation for the removal of a bone chip from his right elbow tomorrow and will be lost to the club for about two months.
The Yankees trade John Blanchard (.147) and pitcher Roland Sheldon to Kansas City for catcher John Edwards. Edwards will replace the injured Elston Howard.
Dean Chance pitched hitless ball for seven innings but finished with a four-hitter tonight as he led the Los Angeles Angels to a 1–0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Diego Segui, a right-hander, supported by a 10-hit attack including home runs by Nelson Mathews and Ken Harrelson, allowed nine hits tonight in pitching the Kansas City Athletics to a 5–3 victory over the Washington Senators.
Curt Simmons pitched a five-hitter tonight as the St. Louis Cardinals overcame a triple play and a homer by Willie Mays to defeat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1, for the fifth Cardinal victory in a row.
Boston Red Sox 0, California Angels 1
Washington Senators 3, Kansas City Athletics 5
San Francisco Giants 1, St. Louis Cardinals 3
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 922.11 (-0.2)
Born:
Erik McMillan, NFL safety (Pro Bowl, 1988, 1989; New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs), in St. Louis, Missouri.
Nina Garcia, Colombian-American fashion expert and television personality (“Project Runway”), in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Rob Brydon, Welsh comedian and actor (“Marion & Geoff”), in Baglan, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom.
Red Rum, Irish champion Thoroughbred racehorse (d. 1995); in Kells, County Kilkenny, Ireland.
Gary Mitchell, Northern Irish playwright, in Rathcoole, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Died:
Árpád Szakasits, 76, President of Hungary (1948–1949), and chairman of the Presidential Council (1949–1950) after the post of president was abolished.
Howard Spring, 76, British novelist (“Heaven Lies About Us”) and journalist.
History Diaries 