from a sveoial-correspondent.
The 1.2 million men of the US and other intervening forces conducted 41,959 ground actions, 33,354 air sorties, and unumbered naval attacks against the NLF, According to the authorities the results were 2,}1}4 enemy dead, and all this during the space of one week, The troop strength of the Liberation forces however, was still reckoned to be the same as at the end of the previous week. This weeks "modest" accomplishments were achieved at a cost of $500 million to the US and a human cost of 2,027 for the US and its allies and stooges. We are told that 449 of these were killed, the rest wounded. Three eight engined bombers were destroyed and several smaller air craft were also lost during the week. These figures as well as the admission that no territory changed hands indicate the nature of the war. But from time to time US unitdé are ambushed as at Con Thien during the week of July 8th when 800 US were killed or wounded. The Da Nang base (which was thought as safe as Saigon) was attacked by by NLF rockets which destroyed 11 airplanes, damaged 31 others, immobilised the base completely and caused 186 US casualities. Apparently the US authorities say this kind of action is rare, and the NLF forces are still as elusive as ever. "it's like Indian wrestling" a US colonel said. "About the only way to win is for the other guy to get tired and give up". It is in the context of that kind of war that the Johnson administration has consented to send from one to four more divisions to Vietnam. That new troops will bring about dramatic changes ineither the nature or the course of the war is considered unlikely by both civilian and military observers . In fact some US officials wonder if this build up might even have adverse effects. They fear US manpower will mean less effort by K}s puppet army. According to the US,'respectable'Vietnamese are themselves worried by an increase in US troops. "How can you make peace when you constantly make waéR". That position is of course wholly at odds with the position of the military dictators in Saigon. "Chief of State” Gen. Van Thieu said recently that it is better for the Americans to send reinforce ments than for his government to undertake a full scale mobilisation of manpower, which might cause dislocations in the economy. No claims are made by the military men in Washington that the increase in American troop strength will make any immediate difference, whether the buildup involves 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 more men, They will face the same problem the 460,000 Americans already in Vietnam are faced with- finding the enemy in numbers large enough for "productive warfare".
FEE REI