Smoke, Fire & Welfare

There was an unsettling scent of political smoke, the roar of gunfire, and a search for social progress in the news from Viet Nam last week. The nation's political Buddhists provided the smoke, trying to gain political advantage following the dismissal of General Nguyen Chanh Thi. A rising crackle of Red rifles signaled the growing aggressive ness of Communist troops. And U.S.

Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John W. Gardner led a 23-expert team on a five-day tour of South Viet Nam probing the war-torn na tion's social needs.

Buddhist Demonstrations. In the Sai gon government's ouster of popular, powerful I Corps Commander Thi fort night ago, the politically ambitious Bud dhist bonzes thought they had a torch to hold to the feet of the government.

Last week they organized peaceful demonstrations all over the I Corps area, shut down Danang, where Thi's head quarters were located, with an all-day general strike. In Saigon, 10,000 gath ered at the Buddhist Center to hear bonzes demand elections and a return to civilian rule.

Though South Viet Nam's most powerful Buddhist, Thich Tri Quang, accused Premier Ky of "indulging in a cult of personality," most of the Buddhist plaints and placards were aimed at Chief of State Thieu. Thieu is a Catholic, and it is political paramountcy over the Catholics that the bonzes want, rather than an outright overthrow of the government just now.

Ky took charge of the Saigon protests himself, meeting with Buddhist leaders and assuring them that he supported their program for elections and social reform-but also warning that street demonstrations would be ruthlessly crushed. Ky is a man of his word: last week, in fulfillment of his pledge to shoot war profiteers, Chinese Merchant Ta Vinh was executed at dawn by a firing squad. U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge also met with Thich Tri Quang to caution moderation. To quell the demonstrations in the north, Ky sent the ousted General Thi back to I Corps to calm and reassure his own disappointed supporters, who included many of the soldiers in the two divisions he commanded there. It was a risky move: in his speeches Thi was obviously torn between a desire to rally support for a comeback and his soldier's distaste for adding to dissension, which helps only the Viet Cong. At week's end both Thi and the Buddhists, happily for the nation, had not yet set any fires. In fact, one leading Buddhist at week's end disavowed any intention of bringing down the Ky government. "We are very grateful to the generals," he said. "Ky brought about some stability in the last eight months."

Red Challenge & U.S. Response. The Communists' willingness of late to stand and fight whatever the cost, plus evidences of a mounting buildup of forces now coming directly across the demilitarized zone separating North and South Viet Nam, suggests that Hanoi is desperately in search of a victory. One reflection of this need was the attack on A Shau fortnight ago.-Large Red forces have been moving eastward from the mountainous regions around A Shau along the Laotian border, building base camps and supply depots as they go. In effect, the Communists are shortening their supply lines.

Yet another reflection of Hanoi's heat for battle turned up to the south, in long enemy-held Zone D only 35 miles northeast of Saigon. As part of a 10,000-man allied sweep of the dense jungle area called Operation Silver City, the 173rd Airborne's 2nd Battalion had cleared an area for helicopter resupply.

Short of water for days, they thirstily watched the first water-laden chopper drop down from the sky. Suddenly an enemy automatic weapon chattered, knocking the chopper in flames to the earth. On the signal, the jungle around the paratroopers erupted in gunfire. The landing zone, called Zulu Zulu, was completely encircled by the 400 Communist troops-90% of them North Vietnamese regulars-of the Viet Cong's 271st main-force regiment.

Thus began a seven-hour battle won by the Airborne with fewer casualties and more enemy dead than any major engagement of the Viet Nam war. Time and again the outmanned and outgunned Viet Cong charged. Coolly and methodically, the well dug-in paratroopers cut them down. Australian artillery laid a lethal ring of steel around Zulu Zulu; dive-bombers plastered the attackers on an average of every six minutes for five hours running; "Mad Bomber" Huey helicopters rigged with plywood tubes pointing downward dropped 81-mm. mortar shells right on the heads of the Reds. The Reds finally gave up.

Health & Education. HEW Secretary Gardner's team found in their five days of unobtrusive visits to hospitals and high schools that implementing the Honolulu conference's promise of a social-welfare revolution for the Vietnamese people would be a long and arduous task. The health experts toured a province hospital where two physicians were responsible for a population of 201,000-a microcosm of the nation's problem as a whole of only 1,100 doctors for 16 million people. The education advisers found that elementary-school expansion had not been matched by a comparable building of high schools; only one out of every four or five elementary-school graduates is able to continue school.

South Viet Nam's biggest welfare problem is that there are simply not yet enough trained Vietnamese to implement a massive program. "We are not here to provide overnight answers, but to learn, to observe," explained Gardner as the group departed from Saigon. And, with emphasis, he added that the U.S. "is in this for the duration.'1

>Days after the loss of A Shau came reports of a grim episode in the fortress' final days. When U.S. helicopters fluttered in, dodging bullets, to rescue the survivors, scores of panicky Vietnamese civilians who had served as ragtag guards at A Shau before the attack swarmed over the choppers in their desperation to flee. In the rush, many used guns on one another; one even blasted his buddies with a grenade. In the melee, two choppers crashed. Finally, U.S. troops had to turn their guns on the civilians or see the whole rescue mission end in disaster. At least seven were killed. Said a Marine helicopter pilot: "It was either that or sacrifice everybody."

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