Lowell Sun (Newspaper) - February 3, 1968, Lowell, Massachusetts VIET CONG IN FRESH ATTACKS THE LOWELL SUN Mass. SATURDAY FEBRUARY 3, 1968 12 10 Cents 90th Year Serving Northern County Fair SEE PAGE 1 County EDmON Token In Shirley Co-Op Bank Holdup By Ralph J. Jacobs i Hie two men escaped out the Sun Ayer Office back The bank have issued Donald F. was at the an all points bulletin for two men who held up and robbed the Shirley Co-operative Bank day shortly after a.m. The at least one of them reported escaped time enroute from Ayer where he had just picked up a amount of money at another bank to begin the day's As the call was being made to Bradford and with say after Chief who was escorting ordering four women employees were nearing the Shirley into the bank They then fled in what police described as a 1965 or 1966 dark blue let convertible bearing yellow license plates with black In later reports the police said they are now looking for a dark colored Oldsmobile Cutlass con- vertible again bearing yellow plates with black numbers said to be ONE OF the the first in the was described as the a large stocky wearing a Navy scull and a leather The second man was said to be very good will thick black hair and wearing a long grey Police are not The considering the possibility that the two men might still be in the bank walked in with his service re- volver at the He did not arrive in time to see the away The police identified the other bank employees who were ed into the vault as Mrs. Doris Mrs. Esther Peter son and Miss Jeannine Michaud all of They told polio the heavy set man first inside the bank and was asking a lot of After the whereabouts of the the man moved tow ard the front an t signal for the second man The women said the overlooking the possibility that man was quite nervous and the a third man may have been in younger man was the one wh swept the cash out of the draw according to the getaway Shirley Police Chief D. Anson assisted by State Police women officers from the Holden and pressed barracks and a State Police lieutenant from the Mid- County said the two who entered the bank made no attempt to cover their faces and composites have now been The State of- fice and the FBI were called within minutes after the alarm was sounded The FBI j noted that since the co-operative was not a federal could not enter the They provide cation of the at the scene within one hour of the reported robbery were State Police Captain Al and Lieutenant Ralph I both of the Holden also Corporal Francis R. honey of the Leominster racks and Lt. James F. DeFuria from office of Middlesex County DA John THE ALARM was first ed by Mrs. Gladys Eight South Vietnam Cities Under Heavy Bombardment By George Esper Associated Press Writer SAIGON Street fighting subsided in Saigon today but the Com- pressed their biggest offensive of the war into a fifth day with fresh attacks on at least eight other Enemy gunners also opened up with the heaviest artillery bombardment in several weeks along South Vietnam's northern where U. S. troops are watching tensely in what they call big Gen. William C. commander of U. S. troops in has said the next phase of the enemy's plans is a major assault in the Of the assaults on South a spokesman for Westmoreland not saying they're going to be trend is ward a slowdown rather than an The full picture still was not particularly in where Viet Cong guerrillas may have gone back into and in the embattled old imperial capital of Hue far to the 1 wounded and one But the allies appeared to At allied along gaining the upper hand in some the demilitarized the fate of the 10 to 20 American civilians reported missing in the The Christian and Missionary Alliance announced that six American missionaries were slain in a Viet Cong assault against Ban Me a provincial capital in the central highlands 160 miles north of hailed since Wednesday because of fighting near the At the U.S. where guerrillas held out in the grounds for more than six hours the wall of armored personnel carriers was removed and replaced with military police jeeps armed with machine euns nist gunners fired more than 600 Westmoreland's rocket and artillery had disappointment the ex- that more money was not Chief Saball said over- looked two cash The Pueblo South Korea S. and North Korean representatives met yesterday for four tours in the trace lage of is the rean demilitarized zone to dis- cuss the release of the USS Pueblo and its 83-man a South Korean newspaper said The report quoted informed sources as saying the the second in two reached no agreements save that an- other meeting would be held in two or three The meeting took place be- tween Rear Adm. John V. UN command ar- and his North Korean A wounded U. 5. Marine crawls for cover on the bridge crossing the fume river in South during action Marines were forced to give up the bridge due AP Painful Retreat to heavy fire from combined Viet Vietnamese force ling areas in the ancient portions of the Two Die In Bedford Crash men were killed in a accident this morning at approximately when their late model convertible went out of control on Mid- Turnpike near the Mitre Corporation and wrapped around a telephone The bodies were removed by Burlington Fire and Bedford Fire and removed via Burlington ambulance to Emerson Last rites were administered by Rev. Roger Cormier of St. Malachy's church while emergency some of whom were off duty at the used torches and axes in an effort to extricate the bodies from the No immediate cause for the accident is The driver is believed to be a Billerica but identifications await notification of next of So. Korea Asks More U.S. Troops Washington or American might be sent to Korea to rein force the U.S. troops now tant treasurer at the who I was first to leave the vault after SEOUL South Korea has formally asked the United States for more American troops to guard against government sources said There were hints Korea might consider withdrawing its forces from Vietnam if the peal was turned No immediate comment was forthcoming on the request from Much of tion apparently was focused on a third meeting with North rea reportedly scheduled today at the Panmunjom truce office on the Pueblo stationed The Korean sources said the government is also seeking troops from its 15 other Korean War allies and that Foreign reported that over the past five days allied forces killed Communist troops by body count in the heaviest week of fighting in the In headquarters Com- munist suspects had been cap- tured and individual and 545 weapons Allied losses for the same riod were put at 983 killed and These included 318 American dead and Associated Press Eddie Adams and Le Ngoc touring Saigon and its reported at noon that city is But in the early morning the U.S. Command re- ported allied forces and U.S. Army helicopter gunships were squeezing in on Viet Cong troops attempting to escape up the gon River to the Just before heavy fighting was reported in the northern suburbs of bu it broke off At the old imperial capi tal which has been under siege since South Viet troops reported turing the airfield inside the city's walled a seat o emperors in the 19th but now a pile of Govern merit troops also reported lifted the siege at one of the cil adel's main The U.S. Command said some of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops inside th city had been pushed into the norther portion of the after South Vietnamese am U.S. and rocketed the Communist po These included enem antiaircraft guns mounted towers of the citadel's cute rounds into U.S. Marine tions around Con Thien and an- other 36 rounds at Khe Sanh in the northwest corner of South Farther the enemy hit the U.S. air base at Da Nang with 40 the lird attack in five days THE shillings in the by unofficial killed five and wounded 25. One aircraft was reported the street was She appar ne moderately damaged and ently thought it Suddenly ve lightly five men dressed in gray uni- Westmoreland told a news Since the U.S. intelligence Minister Cho had ship was seized Jan. 23 by sounded out the ambassadors of Korea there have been reports Australia and Turkey that two American divisions on the AP correspondent John Len gel reported from Hue Frida night that the city was out and that the situation wa He said the Viet Cong supported by students apparently still much of the There was no further word on Leaflets dropped by the urged Saigon residents to turn over to authorities any guerrillas that had melted into the The leaflets said the South Vietnamese army bad crushed the Red offensive m the countryside and had killed 660 enemy soldiers in Saigon One incident indicated the Viet Cong may be taking refuge in civilian A woman stepped out of her house near the An Quang scene of heavy fighting and quickly looked around to see if How Viet Cong Entered Saigon i Conference Thursday that the Communists would follow up the drive against ment cities with an even bigger against South nam's two Quang Tri and Thua Both provincial Hue in Thua lave come under attack in the recent offensive against The battered combat base at Kbe held by U.S. resembles a Western cowtown wailing for the big AP correspondent Seorge McArthur reported Each man is convinced the base is the next target of the Red of In the eight fresh attacks re- ported today by the U.S. Com the Communists general ly moved into parts of the city hit at allied installations am then pulled out under fire fr U.S. helicopter gunships and ar The cities mainly weri hi the rice-growing Mekong Del ta south of Saigon and the prov just north of the At 150 miles northeas of an enemy force of un known size attacked with ma chine guns and small arms U.S. the stations and a government then pulled out after 15 Reports from Vinh a provincial capital 45 miles southwest of said Viet Cong forces had broken up into small groups and some 300 iers were scattered throughout fie U.S. allied Editors did the Communist Viet Cong manage to into action in the capital of South and effort for four An Associated Press re- porter has covered nam for nearly six years the By Peter Associated Press Writer SAIGON The Viet Cong commandos who stormed the U.S. Embassy Wednesday rode into Saigon concealed in a Only on one previous occasion The fighting in the city has commandos test fired their has the Vietnamese Tet been so rudely That was in 1789 by Gen. Nguyen He was a Vietnamese patriot who celebrating Tet with his army five days marched 300 not been a hit and run The past few days have shown that the Communist under- ground is as effective and pervading in Saigon as in the weapons during all this and nobody identified the regular troops as belonging to the 165A Viet Cong Regiment that has long miles up the central Vietnamese and routed a Chinese in- j The commandos and vasion force that presumed he I nisi regulars who slipped into most contested hamlets in the j the commandos were assigned The Communist assault on j ed around This unit was Saigon was launched in two thought destroyed by the U.S. In the most Army's 199th Infantry Brigade j would be holidaying like the rest of the Gen. Nguyen Hue now is the greatest Vietnamese military When the Communist guns the city in the days before Tet were absorbed into the Saigon population by the underground like out-of-town relatives ing a family The Com- d of flowers started hammering the operate in Sa gon in the Greek who of Saigon Wednesday truckload of hid in a wooden horse to enter the Vietnamese population j These cells managed to secret Viet Cong employed de- i remembered their 1500 commandos and troops Sai ceil and surprise to launch their tactics as old as THE Viet Cong announced war itself would honor a seven-day truce Hiding under the blooms on i at Tet and the allies half be- flower trucks was but one i them despite the od used to infiltrate a city nist record of truce violations pilv preparing to embark on the over the years annual celebration of Tet to attack the U.S. the presidential palace and the dio These were suicide The operatives were from the CIO Sapper a unit that developed from the FIDO I Sapper squad that blew up the j 1 and the Brinks bachelor quarters at THE second part was the tration of the populous Saigon suburbs by uniformed regular way into the These troops had been ICT in 1967. The moved away from the Saigon environs at the end of the leaving security to a Vietnamese ranger task The Communist regiment moved in right under the scooters and cars into With the normal midnight to dawn they would have been accosted long before they reached the embassy The Saigon authorities snowed little interest in increasing rity on the night of even though that morning the Com- had hit the northern city of Da Nang and a dozen other places with intense ground I force in r the first day of ad stockpiled the But the battle of Saigon and munitions mission was not suicidal to The in- Vietnamese lunar new year and Continued into its fourth day of but by its provided the A total of five Communist Security at the U.S. Embassy increased by only one The success of the in gaining easy access to the city and staying for at least three days also throws into doubt the effectiveness of the Vietnamese security in around in the populated regions of the Mekong Delia and the provinces around the were believed committed to the gon Vietnamese security men have determined that only a few the commandos had previously headquarters said that troops recaptured the U.S. Navy patrol boat base at Vinh Long that the Viet Cong seized two days A U.S. spokesman said one re- from that city said Viet suspects taken into dy there are averaging between 13 and 14 years old and are armed with new Among other enemy attacks were raids in Xuan 38 miles east of and Ben Can Mo Cay and Vinh Loi in the Some of the tension appeared lo be easing hi The 24- hour curfew was modified to low the three million residents on the streets between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. But the city did not bustle as it normally Commercial airlines resumed flights into Saigon's Tan Son Senior American commanders had high hopes that the Viet army would effectively traditionally a time of it became apparent I mendous casualties could be and the Stalie over the security rote in and the major reason for the the Communists the provinces around The Viet Cone arrived in Viet Cong's successes in South ceil was at zw The Communists proved to be apparently deliberately used g in on j capital was the Cap s. masters of the little details strangers for the Quake Shakes Mexico forms and wearing the red arm of the Viet Cong army lashed out of the But hiding on a oof gunned two down and The fifth got The spokesman for and trend is wards He seems to have run out of The enemy offensive are subsiding at the We're not saying they're going to When you com- pare today with the last two or three days when 20 cities were under there are a hell of a lot less Doesn't that mean Challenge LBJ's Assessment WASHINGTON dent Johnson's assessment that the Viet Cong uprising this week failed to achieve its military and psychological goals in South Vietnam is challenged by con- gressional critics of his war But Congress members who favor those policies gave the President solid backing for his statement at a Friday news conference that the Communists had lost an attempt to over- throw the Saigon government and force the to accept a coalition Critics contended the fighting disclosed lack of popular port for Saigon's elected They said it also American South inability to defend even Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield said he doesn't subscribe to the theory of Gen. William C. U.S. in that the Viet Cong terrorists are running out of Agreeing with Sen. frank said if the raids were a effort by the Viet are gling with a mighty lively But Sen. John G. said that after two days of briefings by Gen. Earle G. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of and Secretary of Defense Robert S. he's convinced that re- cent suicidal attacks by the Viet major progress is being made toward an ultimate conclusion of our effort provincial motor scooters and by i taking organizational work in They easily entered a wide open the months preceding the on- INSIDE THE SUN Nixon In New Hampshire Starts Long Climb Back Bark report of the the sappers killed at the j prisoners captured so far has The 199th Brigade had broken enemy forces size in Gia down Dinh to squad which surrounds the of U.S forces in American Embassy been able to give the location of j In the month the 199th gon police discovered two forged curfew passes that would where they picked up enemy forces grew back to before the schoolteacher and his daughter who lived there didn't The Communist Celtics Stop 120-93 6 lure includes people from all es of automatic nave closest their weapons and maps of the city and red used an elaborate system were issued the weapons arm bands in the house just two 0[ recognition such as i at night by the cell The fastening the top button of Communists have lost many colorful i but the underground re- of similar sappers used official U.S. vehicles that they had stolen mains in perfect shape in battalion and larger A similar picture emerges in every other government center in Vietnam at- MEXICO CITY shuddering earthquake rippled across southern Mexico i today leaving large sections of Mexico City without power and jarring luxury in Health authorities said there I i were no immediate reports of I Seismograph measures by the U.S. Earthquake Information tacked in recent days by the Center at said Westmoreland the shock measured 6.5 on the open-end Richler The With all their planning and troops in defense of these cities center was placed 45 miles may be forced to deploy U.S. Amusements Classified Crossword Puzzle Deaths 10. Suburban News walks of Saigon life with one months earlier to ride into the careful the and a role he has southeast of thino in ATP u- j t. managed to carry out their Sports TV Women's News 2 in common are radio I dedicated to the The mission of the Saigon assault only because of i and don't break was to fight to the unintentional assistance by the 1 Saigon police were vaguely i The regulars that slipped from Saigon authorities The rumbled for two lo three minutes in Mexico witnesses and was felt as To reach WANT AD DEPT. of The Sun TELEPHONE GLENVIEW 8-331! All Departments GLENVIEW would be carried out by the A veteran of the French Indo- and jolt in the resort of Acapulco 250 miles to the the festivities and the for at least three effortlessly get into position in defend the There are just i section of Mexico City snapped inn i J. I n 11101, K wjn i 11 Tiai m icti i n 6. f j aware of the events building the into the The city curfew was lifted I the French defeat in Indochina around them on Tet But and Gia Dinh suburbs of Saigon completely for permitting j to the time they were worry dissolved in the gaily were to bold out as long as the Communist commandos to forced to use French to innocent roar of the cording to prisoner p the early houi s Wednesday I Police since have I learned that Communist t Vietnamese intelligence I when the coordinated attacks has They rode on not enough troops to dp both I with brilliant purple jobs in the cities and I the leaving the in the I area in New Want Ad Phone Number GL 8-3311 THE SUN Foi Certainty Oi Results
