U.S. To Send 100,000 More Troops

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 17

U.S. To Send 100,000 More Troops

(N.Z. Press association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, June 8. A major United States offensive in South Vietnam to open principal highways and the north-south railway is awaiting the now scheduled arrival by the end of the y ear of 100,000 more American troops, William Beecher reported for the “New York Times” news service.

Beecher wrote: The additional forces would bring the number of United States troops in Vietnam to nearly 400,000.

The offensive would feature a drive to push regular North Vietnamese and Viet Cong battalions out of the coastal provinces astride these arteries into the interior. “We’ll never persuade the South Vietnamese peasant we offer some hope for the future white we continue to hop over troubled areas in our airplanes and helicopters, leaving him to contend on the ground with persistent armed

harassment.” a top Pentagon official commented. The timetable for the new effort depends on two factors: the speed of the build-up of United States military forces over the next several months and the ferocity of enemy attacks during this period. Current plans call for adding before the end of the year upward of 100,000 troops

to the approximately 260,000 now in Vietnam. The freedom of American and South Vietnamese forces to take on such new assignments will depend in Targe part on whether the Viet Cong initiate an anticipated spate of assaults keyed to take advantage of the monsoon rains beginning to lash the central and southern portions of South Vietnam. “If they do, our road-clear-ing operation will get a slower state," one planner explained, "but we’ll press ahead with it in any case. We consider this a priority effort.” Under Pressure The military has been under rising pressure to open up main Vietnam roads between Vietnamese farmers and their markets ever since last February's Honolulu conference at which President Johnson promised Premier Nguyen Cao Ky increased assistance in a programme of economic and social reform, particularly in rural Vietnam. But General William C. Westmoreland, commander of American forces in Vietnam, apparently until now has felt that the limited forces he had available would be better employed on search-and-destroy missions into enemy base camps to keep them off balance rather than on a roadclearing campaign.