Vietnam ’69 | Dramatic Frontline Footage Captures Conflict at its Height (1969) 

This is Dustoff 163. I have a good copy. We’ll be leaving Cu Chi at this time for the mission. 104 Golf is Dustoff 163. Uh I’d like your tactical situation and route of approaching the area, please. We’re over your area at this time. Been receiving contact to our east, over.  Just over a week ago, the American Secretary of State said from Washington, “The indiscriminate shelling of Saigon

will not succeed in putting any extra pressure on us in the Paris negotiations. The problem now is to give sufficient numbers of the South Vietnamese enough time and experience for them to operate effectively on their own. And the current theory is that they should be able to take over some of the more vital combat roles from the Americans in a matter of months.

”  Hey, don’t worry, Wade.  Some humorist in the American High Command had code named it Twinkle Toes, a search and destroy operation in the jungle 40 miles north of Saigon.  Oh, wow, fish.    This is the third shelling attack on

Saigon in the past 7 days and the 70th throughout South Vietnam in this present long drawn out offensive. This shell came in at 5:00 this morning, demolished four houses, killing 10 people. 14 people are still missing including seven children. This house belongs to Mr. Tran Van Dinh, a 34-year-old electrical engineer.

 It was his first home. He owned it and bought it less than 2 months ago. Today, he has lost a son and his wife lies critically wounded in hospital. Next door took the direct hit. A man and a wife and their sick children died instantly. This is the propelling end of the 122-mm Russian-built rocket that fell here 2 hours ago.

It was probably fired less than 3 miles away from the center of Saigon. The firing equipment being brought up the river by sampan. This irregular shelling of Saigon and other centers in South Vietnam in the past 10 days follows no pattern. Sometimes the attacks come during the day, but most times during the night when the firing locations are harder to spot.

No one is prepared to guess why the Viet Cong are shelling in this way. It can’t be to impress the negotiators in Paris. It would surely take a more spectacular show of force to do that. What it could be is the communists’ way of saying to the South Vietnamese despite half a million American troops, despite the massive build-up of American arms and air strength, you are not safe.

We can shell you when we like and where we like. And having been close to these shellings in the past week, I can vouch that it’s very effective propaganda. American military intelligence still insists that the communists do not mean to launch another offensive on Saigon. They say it would stretch the communist line of communication impossibly and might tempt President Nixon to renew the bombing attacks in the north.

But the same military intelligence admits that there are within 40 mi of Saigon four well-equipped, heavily armed North Vietnamese army units totaling between 40 and 50,000 men. That fact and these shellings must mean another offensive is near. The question is where will it come and when? This is Michael Nicholson, News at 10, Saigon.

    Uh Alpha 36, uh this is Alpha 36. Roger,

uh from our present location, uh uh we’ve uh found a uh another uh possible uh pickup zone, over. Patrols like these in the Mekong Delta are convinced that they’re winning their war against the VC. They put a success there as evidence of their success, the number

of VC dead, and the number of VC defectors. But, they have nevertheless the substantial backing of thousands of well-armed and well-trained troops, plus barracks ships, helicopters, and gunships, and the riverine force to contain and destroy what amounts to scattered handfuls of Viet Cong in these parts.     Inside Saigon, the traditional white dress of mourners has now become a familiar daily sight.

Just over a week ago, the American Secretary of State, William Rogers, said from Washington, “The indiscriminate shelling of Saigon will not succeed in putting any extra pressure on us in the Paris negotiations. These attacks are a reminder of the callous attitude with which the enemy regards the innocence of the Vietnam war.

” Today, despite all subsequent warnings, the shellings go on, and the innocents continue to die. These are the Ong Du Tre Con, the Vietnamese for pipe children, who live in the discarded sewage pipes in the Saigon suburb of Cho Lon. They once lived near Bien Hoa, but their homes and entire village has been destroyed.

On the 3rd of March, a communist 122-mm rocket fell within 10 yd of a children’s hospital in Saigon. And that same morning, schoolchildren played football with a metal casing they’d found in their playground. It was a Viet Cong mine. It exploded, and this child lost a leg. 13 other children were severely wounded, and they were brought to this children’s hospital in Saigon, staffed by a British pediatric team of doctors and nurses, sponsored by the British government.

 He was involved in warlike about 30 km from Saigon was brought in here with bullet wounds of the uh abdominal cavity. He has recent injuries to the bowel, injuries to the bladder. And uh this girl has been in for about a month. She comes from uh village on the main road down to the Delta. And she uh stepped on a mine, lost both one leg.

The other was wounded, but is she’s going to keep it. These stories are by no means unique, and they cannot expect to compete for international attention with a high military death toll on the battlefields. But they are nevertheless part of this war. A war increasingly being directed against civilians in and around the towns and cities of South Vietnam.

This is Michael Nicholson, News at 10, Saigon.      Some humorist in the American High Command had code named it Twinkletoes, a search and destroy operation in the jungle involving the Song Be River, 40 miles north of Saigon. The noise of the tanks aside, the communists were already aware that the Americans knew of their base camps here.

For the past three nights, B-52 bombers flying in from Okinawa had made nine saturation bombing runs over the 25 square-mile area. The blast could be heard in Saigon.  Well, the big boys do that. Oh, well, they don’t mind that.  On Friday the 14th of March, the morning after the last bombs had dropped, three companies of M48 tanks, 36 armored troop carriers, 300 infantrymen, flamethrower units, all from the 11th Armored Cavalry moved off in three separate columns, coded Mike, Hotel, and Delta.

Colonel George Patton, son of World War II General Patton, controlled the operation 100 ft up, directing his tank commanders from a spotter helicopter to areas where communists had been sighted. Four Cobra helicopter gunships armed with rockets accompanied him. At 4:00 that afternoon, as it began to rain slightly, some North Vietnamese had been seen running to a bunker 3 mi west of us.

 there are gooks in there now.  Delta Company was the nearest, and Colonel Patton gave the order to search and destroy. Sometime later, the tanks we were with were ordered to move in as a backup force. 16 communists, including three young women identified as North Vietnamese soldiers, were dead. Well, there they had survived the B-52 bombings.

 The craters 15 ft deep were only 10 yd away from them. They had attempted to fight their way out of the bunkers and through the tank cordon with rifles.  Set up right in this area, knowing that there were at least uh two people in this particular bunker.  Yeah.  And we tried to get them to come out uh using our interpreters.

 We got no reaction. Thought they might have been dead because we had uh thrown grenades and stuff in there. Finally had an American trooper go in and was shot. As a matter of fact, I heard this morning that he did die uh trying to get them out. Uh we then started throwing in the high explosive grenades and this sort of thing.

Again, thinking we had them uh dead, started digging them out and about 10:00 last night, two of them came out throwing grenades and firing weapons. And of course  that.  After After any human being you’d think had been killed, but the bunker was deeper and had more levels to it than we thought.  The documents taken from the bodies established them as a small reconnaissance company.

They’d been relaying information of American troop movements back to their headquarters of the main force division camped close to the Cambodian border, 35 mi away. They’d lived on rice, lemons, and tinned fish.  Oh, wow, fish.  This document came from the body of a 20-year-old cop, recently promoted in rank after 5 years service in the North Vietnamese Army.

Another document we were not allowed to film gave detailed, and we were told quite accurate, locations of American military installations. This was the first, and as it turned out, the only contact with the North Vietnamese in the entire 3 days and 2 nights of the operation. This was perhaps not surprising. From the outset, it’s doubtful whether such a large, slow, and unwieldy armored convoy in this kind of jungle could accomplish much more than a routine clearing up, blowing the few bunkers left untouched by the bombers.

And with the one exception, the communists had evacuated every bunker long before the tanks arrived. This is Michael Nicholson, News at 10, Sang Bay River, South Vietnam.     The problem now is to give sufficient numbers of the South Vietnamese enough time and experience for them to operate effectively on their own.

Time for the Americans to teach them the more advanced techniques of war. By the end of this year, the South Vietnamese will have around 1 million men in their armed forces, both regular and volunteer. And the current theory is that they should be able to take over some of the more vital combat roles from the Americans in a matter of months.

In the battle areas, they are becoming more successful, though this might be due to other factors, namely that the communists are certainly weaker now than they’ve ever been. And the nightly saturation bombings by American B-52 bombers depletes the communist ranks long before they get to the South Vietnamese held areas.

Without question, the South Vietnamese are better equipped now, supplied with the same arms as the American forces. A Vietnamese officer commands men entirely trained, armed, fed, and clothed by Americans, and is advised by a full-time American of equal rank. It has already been described as a condition of total dependence.

The handover to the South Vietnamese of American arms and specialized equipment is substantial, if not well advertised. The Air Force now has 36 pilots trained in the United States to fly the first jet fighter squadron of American F-5s. Their present missions are confined to communist ground positions around Saigon.

But soon they take delivery of the newer A-37 jets which will give them the range to flying north as far as Hanoi. In February, the South Vietnamese Navy were given 25 river patrol boats, 10 gunships, and 12 landing craft for river marine patrols in the Mekong Delta. Total cost to the Americans was around $16 million.

This is Michael Nicholson, News at 10, Saigon.     Cu Chi Dustoff, Cu Chi Dustoff, Dustoff 163, flight equipment check.  23, this is Cu Chi arriving mission follows. Coordinates X-ray Tango 576 265 urgent.  Cu Chi Dustoff, this is Dustoff 163. I have a good copy. We’ll be leaving Cu Chi at this time for the mission.

14 Golf, this is Dustoff 163. Uh I’d like to get your tactical situation and route of approach in your area, please. We’re over your area at this time.  Been receiving contact to our east, over.  Uh Roger, I understand the contact is to the village to the east. Okay, we’ll be coming in from the west behind your tracks.

 Okay, going down.  All right,

nice job.  Okay, buddy, what’s your last name?  Svarc.  Svarc?  S V A R O T H.  First name?  Steven.  Rank?  Sergeant.