VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300360035-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: February 9, 1972
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

A ~c ~ For Release 2001! 4 PD 80-01601 ROOO
VIETNAM
U.S. fears of an offensive by liberation forces in
South Vietnam continue to mount. Tad Szulc of
the New York Times reported in the Jan. 30 edition
that, according to U.S. intelligence sources,
political officers among liberation military units are
saying that "decisive blows" must be dealt against
U.S. and Saigon troops. The same sources,
presumably the CIA, also told Szulc, that the flow
of "troops down the Ho Chi Minh Trail" has been
30,000 higher from October to now than during the
same period a year earlier. The release of this .
"information" and numerous similar reports from
the U.S. and Saigon military commands in South
Vietnam reflect 8 real fear of a damaging offensive
in South Vietnam. At the same time, the
predictions appear to be self-serving pretexts to
justify heavy U.S. bombing.
On Jan 31-Feb. 1, the U.S. ste- -d-up the
bombing of North Vietnam again, carr,;ng out the
heaviest raids since last December. Such attacks
could not possibly have a significant effect on an
imminent offensive in South Vietnam and they
may have increased in intensity, in yet another
.effort to force Hanoi to meet U.S. terms for b
settlement. There have also been heavy U.S.
bombings in the demilitarized zone, and South
Vietnamese central highlands by U.S. B-52s and
fighter-bombers, with American aircraft dropping
an estimated 700-900 tons of bombs on these
areas Jan. 30-31, according to an AP report
Testifying in Washington, following a recent
visit to South Vietnam, Dr. E. W. Pfeifer of the
University of Montana, stated that there are an
estimated 23 million craters left from bombs
dropped by B-52s in South Vietnam. The deep
craters make-land unsuitable for rice cultivation
and fill up with water and provide "a perfect
breeding ground for disease-bearing mosquitoes."
Noting that 5.5 million acres of South Vietnamese
forests were destroyed by chemical defoliation
until it was halted eight months ago, Pfeifer
reported that the U.S. now is destroying forests by
bulldozers. Five U.S. companies, he said, using 150
tractors working from dawn to dusk, destroy about
1000.acres per day.
In the second, of two articles on the Mylai
massacre, Seymour Hersh wrote in the New
Yorker that members of Army's Americal Division
destroyed documents about the incident to protect
officers involved. Basing his report on transcripts
of the Army inquiry panel headed by Lt. Gen.
William R. Peers, Hersh states that the Peers
commission was unable to find how the Mylai 4
files had disappeared, although 400 witnesses
were questioned. Peers suspected, according to
Hersh, that the implicated officers themselves
were among those responsible for the disap-
pearance of the records. Furthermore, Hersh
wrote, "The truth was more damaging to the
Army's system than Peers could imagine: that
subsequent officers of the Americal Division, who
had no direct involvement with Mylai 4...had
destroyed evidence to protect the officers who
preceded them." Hersh also stated that at least
one Saigon officer wrote a report that Americans
had killed more than 400 persons in the Mylai area,
and at the time American intelligence officers
dismissed the report as "Vietcong propaganda."
Heavy U.S. bombing attacks are continuing,
augmented by air strikes by U.S.-supplied aircraft
of the Saigon air force. It was officially admitted on
Feb. 1 that Saigon planes have been bombing in
Laos since December. In the ground fighting, at
latest reports, the siege was continuing at the
former secret CIA base at Long Chieng, south of
the Plain of Jars. Pathet Lao forces have repor-
tedly cut the road between Vientiane and the royal
capital at Luang Prabang. The area of the royal
capital was also said to be under attack by
liberation forces.... The official revelations of CIA,
activity in Laos is considered part of an ad-
ministration effort to get more funds for U.S.
operations in Laos. Meanwhile, the numbers of
Thai mercenaries being hired by the CIA to fight in
Laos is steadily rising.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP8O-01601 R000300360035-5