from a Far East correspondent
Western news agencies, quoting authoritative U.S. military sources in Saigon, have reported that in November alone, the United States sent 800 troops as reinforcements to South Vietnam. On December 4, another 150 U.S. marines landed at Da Nang in the Northern part of South Vietnam, thus doubling ‘the cordon of leathermecks around the U.S. jet base at Da Nang, Still more troops were report as having been sent to the U.S. base at Bien Eoa, which suffered heavy damage after an attack by the Vietnam Liberation Front forces in November,
According to a UPI report from Saigon, December 6th, the United States is sending 25 more Skyraider fighter bombers to South Vietnam to replace those destroyed in the attack on Bien Hoa. The report added that the U.S is sending more "advisers" to each South Vietnam military unit. The number is being increased from 3 to 5 per battalion. "Other Americans were long ago assigned to give even more advice at the headquarters of each of South Vietnam's 45 provinces," the report continued, and "now more of them are being assigned to. give military advice to the chiefs of districts." Another UPI report, same day, stated that “senior Americans" in Saigon "are hard put to think of anything else the U.S. can do inside the country. They are pretty well convinced that few uses can be found for still mote American men and money within the frontiers of South Vietnam."
These reports are very disturbing in view of the continued discussion in the U.S- press about extendin:, the war to the North,~* It would be the height of folly for ‘/ilson to, in way, shape or form, underpin U.S. Vietnam policy.