High rate of Negro deaths in Vietnam The ‘imes on February 16 had an interesting article which gave important information about the: rate of Negro casualties in Vietnam, The key passages read: "Roughly speaking, about one American out of 10 is Negro, but in 1965 12.5% of all servicemen in Vietnam, and 14.6% of the battle dead were Negroes, In the first 11 months of 1966, the proportion of Negro Servicen= men there had dropped to 11%, but their death rate had risen to 17. Sie A breakdown of available stastistics shows that their death rate in the Army is proportionally much higher in this land war, Here is the table provided by the Defence Department. The proprtion of Negroes in each service is given in the first colum, and of combat deaths in the second: Army 14,5 per cent 22.4 per cent Navy 6.4 " " Nil Merine Corps 7.5 " is 10.8 " " Air Focre::11,3 " . 3 out of 38 "The rate of Negro voluntary reenlistment does not explain the high casualties of course, As every American knows, the draft system is most unfair, Negroes do not suffer because of their colour, but. because they are more often poor, Fewer of them go to university where they can apply for deferment of military service. Once inside the armed services, they are more likely to be riflemen because they do not have the skills for technical, clerical and other non-—combatant jobS.eeeelhe Negroes are not so very different from the poor Irishmen, Scotsmen, "Geordies" and cockneys who joined the British Army...." U.S. puts foreign newspapermen under military control There is a rare old rumpus going on in the newspaper world of Vietnam = On February 15 the United States mission in Saigon brought in a regulation bringin U.S. civilians and "third country" nationals under military jurisdiction, It took this step after denying its intention off doing so. It based this regulation which covers British, Australian and Korean troops and civilians - and many others = on a Congress ruling'that in time of war the U.S. Army has broad powers over civilians,"serving with or accompanying" military forces, Those affected include thousands of construction workers, seamen, correspondents andeven entertainers, After the announcement there was a stormy press conference, during which British French and Japense correspondents objected in the strongest terms, According to press reports, both the Australian and British embassies have cabled home for instructions and legal advice, U.S. scientists to probe chemcial warfare A special committee of American scientists is going to Vietnam next month to examine the effects of chemcial warfare weapons, The committee,which is to be appointed by the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is also to visit Fort Deitrick, the U.S. Army's chemcial and biological warfare research centre at Frederick, Maryland, Last week, over 5,000 American scientists protested to Johnson over the use of chemcial and biological warfare in Vietnam,
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