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This is Glenn Rinker saying good night for News 4 Washington and inviting you to stay
tuned for an NBC News special on Vietnam.
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Full Color Four.
Hi, this is Johnny Carson.
As you know, this is usual starting time for the Tonight Show.
And tonight my guest is the New Orleans District Attorney, Mr. Jim Garrison, who is with us
to discuss as he puts it some new and vital information concerning the Kennedy assassination.
But because of the critical war situation in Vietnam, especially around Saigon, NBC
for the next 15 minutes is going to bring you a special news program via satellite.
So stay with us.
We'll return in 15 minutes with our guest, Mr. Garrison.
The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC.
NBC News presents Viet Cong Terror, a guerrilla offensive.
Now here is NBC News correspondent Frank McGee.
The new communist campaign in Vietnam continues.
Just after midnight their time, a band of Viet Cong raiders blew up a power installation
and attacked two police stations in Saigon.
Here small bands still roam the city.
The Viet Cong are reported to be in complete control of a militant Buddhist headquarters
less than a mile from the center of town.
And there are reports that the National Liberation Front has formed a revolutionary council to
run Saigon.
At nearby Tonso Nguyen Air Force Base, which is also American military headquarters, sporadic
sniper fire continues to be heard.
At Hue, the old imperial capital 400 miles to the north, the Viet Cong is holding on
to part of the town as well as half the city of Khon Thum in the central highlands.
Along the northern coastline, Nha Trang and Quynh An have come under fresh mortar fire.
And earlier today, South Vietnamese President Thieu declared martial law.
It all amounts to the most ambitious series of communist attacks yet mounted, spreading
violence into at least 10 provincial capitals, plus American air bases and civilian installations
stretching the entire length of the country.
One had greater psychological impact than the assault on the American embassy in Saigon.
For a late film report on Vietnam countrywide, here is NBC News correspondent Jack Perkins
in Tokyo by satellite.
232 GIs killed and 900 wounded makes one of the heaviest weeks of the Vietnam War.
And it is not a week.
It is just over two days, the past two days, two of the worst we have known in Vietnam.
We have film reports tonight from NBC News correspondents Howard Tuckner, Ron Nesson,
and Wilson Hall.
Howard Tuckner covered the battle at the embassy.
These are American combat military police and troops from the 101st Airborne Division,
half a block from the US Embassy in Saigon.
Viet Cong snipers and suicide commandos were holed up inside the embassy compound and firing
from surrounding buildings.
The Americans had to move cautiously.
About 15 Viet Cong commandos were now on the embassy grounds.
They had rushed in under a Viet Cong mortar and rocket attack that scored at least two
hits on the new three million dollar eight story building.
It was opened two and a half months ago.
Two US Marines who had tried to fire at the Viet Cong through the embassy gate were killed
by automatic weapons fire.
Every time the Americans tried to move through the embassy yard, the hidden Viet Cong, some
of the enemy commandos were killed trying to regroup near the front door of the embassy.
Now CIA men and MPs have gone into the embassy and are trying to get the snipers out by themselves.
The Americans used tear gas but there were not enough gas masks for the troops who needed
them.
Of all the Viet Cong terrorist attacks in Saigon in the last three years, this was the
oldest not only had a Viet Cong unit managed to get inside the US embassy compound but
the terrorists successfully held off an American force for seven hours.
Howard Tuckner NBC News Saigon.
While the battle for the embassy was raging, there was heavy fighting also at the presidential
palace, the radio station, the Philippine embassy, four American bullets and around
the Saigon airport.
Johnson Yook Wilson Hall was there.
sniper fire still coming from some buildings around the border straight from the Joint
Chiefs of Command high ranking South Vietnamese.
The terrorists after seven hours of shooting still have a lot of ammunition left.
An M.G. company held the road between the terrorist stronghold and the Vietnamese headquarters.
They also had enough ammunition to snipe with helicopters and observation planes as they
hovered overhead.
Civilian who were caught in the crossfire were brought out.
No injuries.
One Vietnamese was wearing a government uniform, a stolen one.
He was one of the terrorist snipers.
We've got two more alert forces that are trying to push him out this way but he's got
a he's heavily fortified he's got a lot of ammo.
What's he got small arms?
Small arms, automatic fire, grenade launcher and the hand grenades.
You lost any men here?
No I've got five, six people I've had wounded.
The South Shirt was called out of the alleys to rush back to the consulate airport where
reinforcements were needed as the fighting continued there.
Alton Hall NBC News, Saigon.
And as we said there were other battles throughout the city of Saigon running simultaneously
at the presidential palace though President Nguyen Van Tu was not there he does not live
there.
Also at the radio station which the Viet Cong attacked, mortared, set a fire and destroyed
when finally Vice Premier Ki had to go on the air to announce a general curfew throughout
the city and the imposition of martial law he had to do it on the American Armed Forces
radio station because his own Saigon radio station had been blown to pieces.
There were attacks on the Philippine embassy, there were attacks on four different American
bullets, GIs tried to defend them, they moved out, GIs who perhaps had never fought before
in Vietnam, clerk typists, cooks, grabbed themselves rifles or machine guns or whatever
they could find and moved into the combat.
It was not only in Saigon it was throughout the country in every major city almost in
provincial capitals and as it raged it was apparent that these attacks were very well
planned and very well coordinated.
They had been laid out for a long time in advance that was clear or they couldn't have
been pulled off with such skill and timing and so the question arose if there was so
much planning to them then did intelligence, American or Vietnamese intelligence know about
them and if they did what did they do about them?
Do we have the film from Da Nang now?
Well we do not have the film from Da Nang and we apologize for that this has been a
hectic time and the film got out of Vietnam very late because the airports have been closed.
It is sometimes said that Americans have grown weary of seeing pictures of GIs fighting all
over the countryside of Vietnam, they have seen it so much that it has little impact.
Well here, here then is the Da Nang film we do have, this was the beginning of the series
of raids, if the climax was in Saigon this was the start at the Da Nang air base, the
Viet Cong came in with mortars, and they did much damage, they did much destruction.
Americans like sometimes, perhaps too smugly to think that at least if we do not control
the countryside of Vietnam as we would like to, we do control our own bases, but this
is one of our bases and for these moments and hours the Viet Cong controlled it.
Jack Perkins, NBC News, Tokyo.
Thank you Jack, we appreciate that effort.
As the Viet Cong mounted attacks down the length of South Vietnam, the massive buildup of North
Vietnamese Army regulars continued at Quezon.
Thousands of enemy troops are poised, ready to strike at Quezon, the western anchor of
the demilitarized zone.
The Pentagon is less concerned with the Viet Cong attacks on the cities than with the prospect
of a massive onslaught against Quezon.
NBC News correspondent Robert Gowalski.
Even the American military must grudgingly admire what the Viet Cong were able to do
and what they achieved.
The perfectly timed attacks are going to be remembered a lot longer than the less dramatic
but hard fought American victories of late.
Pentagon officials believe the Viet Cong paid dearly for their acts of rampant terrorism,
but surely the communist leaders must feel they were worth it.
They do not appear to be final acts of desperation.
Remember too, not a single North Vietnamese regular was involved.
Hanoi's troops are however poised near Quezon and that battle, which could be decisive,
has yet to be fought.
The U.S. military may now have to rethink basic tactical and strategic concepts in Vietnam.
Troops may have to be redeployed.
The Americans are painfully weak in many important areas, particularly in the central highlands.
The communists may not be winning the war, as the Pentagon claims, but they don't seem
to be losing it either.
Robert Gowalski, NBC News, Washington.
So all in all we have these sobering facts to consider.
The enemy, supposedly confined to the countryside, is clearly capable of attacking cities spread
the length of the country.
Forty, perhaps 50,000 enemy troops are now massed near Quezon.
The North Vietnamese have reopened the war in Laos, where it is reported they have an
estimated 40,000 troops.
Truck traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail has risen sharply.
One official, disputed by the Pentagon, said there are more targets on the trail than planes
to hit them.
And combat commanders report enemy troops are receiving more modern, sophisticated weapons,
significantly increasing their firepower.
Well what to make of all this?
The most hopeful speculation could be that the enemy is mounting some last desperate
campaign.
Another possibility would be that the North is trying to improve its bargaining position
before entering any negotiations.
Most ominously, this could mark the beginning of a new, far more hazardous phase of the
war.
And there remains the official explanation that it's all an attempt to divert American
forces from Quezon.
But officials have a poor record of interpreting this war.
It will be difficult now, even more, for even more rather, to believe the United States
has been doing as well as these officials have said.
Now standing by in Washington is NBC White House correspondent Ray Scherer.
Congressman, and the people too, are beginning to show signs of restlessness over what happened
to the United States Embassy in Saigon.
The question being asked is, if the United States had advance information, the communists
would strike during the truce period.
Why no more guards around the embassy?
The White House answer is yes, we did have advance word on expected terrorist activity,
but we had no information on where the Viet Cong would strike.
The word at the White House today was, you cannot prevent commando-type raids.
Saigon is an open city.
The fact that all the intruders were killed demonstrates there was no slackness.
In sum, the President senses trouble ahead on the political front over administration
stewardship of the armed forces and has begun a public relations effort to head off that
trouble.
Ray Scherer, NBC White House correspondent.
And Frank McGee, NBC News.
Good evening.
This has been a presentation of NBC News, which is solely responsible for its content.
Stay tuned for the tonight show starring Johnny Carson with his special guest, Jim Garrison.