South Viet Nam: Communist Revenge

The South Viet Nam army was feeling exhilarated about its victory three weeks ago over a big Viet Cong guerrilla force on the Plain of the Reeds. The Communist Viet Congs obviously could not leave it at that. They handed out leaflets cockily warning that trouble would come at any moment in President Ngo Dinh Diem’s capital stronghold of Saigon. That same night, trouble came. As a truck loaded with troops pulled out of an army camp scarcely two miles from Diem’s palace, a terrorist lobbed a grenade from the shadows. Two soldiers were killed, three more seriously wounded. And in the countryside, Communist attacks continued. A district chief of Bienhoa province was ambushed and wounded; a bus rolled over a mine on a road southwest of Saigon, killing nine, injuring six.

Diem’s army could only prepare for greater dangers. Captured documents indicated that Ho Chi Minh’s Red guerrillas had a major new campaign in the making. Massive new U.S. aid is already arriving (TIME cover, Aug. 4) to equip new battalions of South Vietnamese troops. To get the manpower it needs in uniform, Diem’s government last week announced new draft laws extending the present term of military service from 18 to 24 months and ordering 20-year-olds to report for duty Oct. 1.