And Now the Delta

Since American manpower in South Viet Nam has been engaged most spectacularly with the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese regulars in the northern half of the country, the daily headlines tend to overlook another sprawling sector of the war: the Mekong Delta below Saigon. In terms of bullets fired and casualties recorded, the Delta is a good deal quieter than it was two years ago. But it has hardly lost its importance.

Every day there are bloody clashes by the dozen between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese troops, which carry almost all the Delta load. The three divisions of government troops in the Delta conduct some 30-odd battalion-size actions and 2,500 small patrols a week. Last week a truckload of South Vietnamese Delta reserves was disastrously ambushed. In An Xuyen province, government troops have tangled repeatedly with particularly bothersome Viet Cong battalions.

Neck-High. But the fact is that the South Vietnamese do not possess the men or equipment or mobility to conduct sustained operations. Thus for some time they have barely been able to hold their own. Since the rice-rich Delta must be cleaned out if the war is to be won, what is clearly required is American manpower and gunpower. As a result, U.S. military commanders have been giving increasing attention to the need for U.S. troops in what has been the exclusive war of the Delta's IV Corps commander, Lieut. General Dang Van Quang, and his 16,000 men.

The first Americans are likely to arrive by the end of the year. Plans call for an initial 4,000 U.S. troops in the Delta, and the total could rise far above that. Most of the troops will probably be from the Army, though the Marines have long chafed to get into the Delta action. In any case, the campaign will be no picnic. A steam-hot, table-flat expanse of mangrove swamps and paddy-fields often standing in water up to a man's neck, the Delta is rife with an estimated 80,000 veteran Viet Cong guerrillas.

"Winkle Them Out." The American reinforcements will have the benefit of some U.S. preparations. Twelve U.S. Special Forces camps have already been set up in the Delta. The U.S. Navy patrols its 2,500-mi. labyrinth of rivers and canals with 71 PT-type boats and three hovercraft. Along the coast, patrol boats of the Navy's Operation Market Time have cut down on Communist gunrunning. As elsewhere, it will be difficult to separate friend from foe--demonstrated last week when U.S. Air Force jets strafed and bombed a Delta hamlet near the village of Truong Trung (see map), killing 24 inhabitants and wounding 82, among them women and children.

Amid a chorus of protest, President Johnson personally requested an explanation, asking U.S. officials in Saigon to answer three questions: 1) Were there Viet Cong in the hamlet? 2) Were the inhabitants forced by the Viet Cong to remain in the hamlet during the attack? 3) Did Viet Cong shoot at a spotter plane that directed the strike? The answer to all three questions, according to American spokesmen, was yes--and illustrated the tragic dilemma of fighting an anti-guerrilla war. Said one experienced U.S. military official: "We're just going to have to go into the Delta and winkle them out of the villages ourselves."

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