Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for NVA helicopters
For date 680621
South Vietnam
Description: 21Jun68-Use of Helicopters Would Cost Reds: Westy
TOKYO (S&S) - Use of helicopters by the North Vietnamese would only make the Reds more vulnerable to American weapons systems, Gen. William C. Westmoreland said here Wednesday. Westmoreland made the comment at a luncheon meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Club after he was asked about press reports that enemy helicopters had been observed below the Demilitarized Zone. The Army chief of staff-designate also said he discounts most news reports of a split between South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky. "I don't take the rumors seriously," said Westmoreland, who has just completed 4 1/2 years as commander of U.S. Forces in Vietnam. "They have worked together for many years, and I believe they will continue to work together. Winding up a two-day visit to Japan en route to the United States with his family aboard the SS President Wilson, Westmoreland said he believes the allied forces can keep the pressure on the Vietnamese Communists indefinitely. "I do not anticipate any change in strategy or tactics," he said, pointing out that he and the new commander, Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, had worked closely for a year. Westmoreland said he does not view the introduction of helicopters into the war by the North Vietnamese-if they have done so - as an escalation of the war. "It would not be escalation, but new tactics," he said. "As he (the enemy) introduces more equipment he must expand his logistics system, and this makes him more vulnerable to our firepower," Westmoreland asserted. He said that sophistication of weapons has already made the Communists introduce trucks to replace corvee labor and that this had required a large amount of road-building in Laos. He said he did not believe the limited bombing of North Vietnam could have been responsible for the reported introduction of Red helicopters. He pointed out that the reported sightings were from points south of the northern limit of U.S. bombing. Westmoreland, who will succeed Gen. Harold K. Johnson as chief of staff on July 2, said reports on the recent rocket attacks on Saigon have ballooned out of proportion. "They are a sham," he said. "The Communists have switched from their pose as protectors of the people and now are killing civilians to try to develop an image of strength." The rocket attacks have actually hardened South Vietnamese opposition to the Communists and rallied them behind their own government, he asserted. Westmoreland left Tokyo Wednesday afternoon for the United States via Honolulu.
Comments: GEN Johnson. Harold K.; ; ;
GEN Abrams, Creighton W.; MACV CG; ;
GEN Westmoreland, William C.; ; ;
The source for this information was 6806PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines 3/97
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023