South Viet Nam: War by Chopper

A flight of 30 American-piloted helicopters flapped into the pre-dawn darkness last week, carrying 1,000 Vietnamese troops west of Saigon to the steamy, swampy Plain of Reeds for an assault on a Communist Viet Cong stronghold. By Vietnamese count, 99 Red guerrillas were killed or captured, along with large caches of arms and ammunition. It was probably the most successful single action yet fought against the Viet Cong.

Same day, the bodies of four American servicemen were flown home to the U.S. Victims of South Viet Nam’s tortuous war by chopper, they were killed earlier in the week when their helicopter crashed under Communist ground fire. Total number of Americans killed in action so far: eleven.