Operation Backfire

Into a ragged rubber plantation 30 miles northwest of Saigon swarmed 115 helicopters. The craft disgorged 1,100 taut, trigger-happy South Vietnamese troops while another 6,000 men charged in aboard armored personnel carriers to block potential escape routes. Rockets laced the 40-sq.-mi. area, smashing huts and sending greasy black smoke pluming skyward, while a 19-boat force stirred up the Saigon River in watchful patrol. This was "Operation Brushfire"--the long-awaited, widely discussed push against the Viet Cong of Binh Duong province, the men who had probably mortared

Biehhoa airbase and destroyed 13 U.S. bombers (TiME, Nov. 13).

It should have been called "Backfire."

By the time the troops arrived, the main Viet Cong force had long since departed. Villagers who survived the harsh pre-assault bombardment by government forces shakily reported that the Communists had pulled out three days earlier. A few, at least, stuck around, as the South Vietnamese learned to their dismay later in the week. Recombing a maze of tunnels in Boi Loi forest, army patrols suddenly found themselves under accurate but sporadic machine-gun fire. Ten Vietnamese soldiers died, and a helicopter carrying wounded away was knocked down, killing eleven more. History's hugest helicopter operation netted only two confirmed Communist guerrillas, three rifles, 15 grenades and a battered motor bike.

By contrast, a spur-of-the-moment raid in Quang Nam province caught the Communists with their black pajamas down. The 17-chopper "Eagle" force dropped 54 Rangers on a company of surprised Viet Cong; the toll was 17 Red dead, 21 captured. To the precariously balanced Saigon regime of Premier Tran Van Huong, still hanging on despite another week of student demonstrations, the lesson was painfully clear: any operation plan more than eight hours in the making is bound to be found out by the Viet Cong. Just as the French learned during their long, losing Indo-China campaign, the South Vietnamese and their U.S. advisers were discovering that you can't swat a fly with a sledgehammer--particularly if it takes too long to lift the hammer.

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