Relief Moving To Khe Sanh

Only Light Resistance Met as Allies Act to Ease Siege

April 2, 1968

SAIGON (AP)-About 20,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops have launched a drive to lift the enemy siege of the Marine base at Khe Sanh, the U.S. Command said Wednesday. Against little resistance, the column was reported about eight miles from Khe Sanh.

The relief force was expected to push through soon to the battered fortress in the northwest, where 6,000 Marines and 1,000 South Vietnamese have been encircled since January by from 16,000 to 20,000 North Vietnamese regulars.

As this drive, which kicked off Monday, was announced informed sources said that a Cambodian navy boat shot down a U.S. Navy plane on patrol off the west coast of South Vietnam.
The patrol boat was looking for gun-running Viet Cong trawlers in the Gulf of Siam. Its 10-man crew was missing.

The lack of resistance on the road to Khe Sanh and three days of inactivity elsewhere puzzled U.S. officers, who pointed out this had

happened before. One senior U.S. officer said it was too early to tell whether the enemy was de-escalating in response to President Johnson's order curtailing the bombing of North Vietnam.

In the advance on Khe Sanh, U.S. 1st Cavalry Division troopers were cooperating with Marines and South Vietnamese troops. In all, 8,000 troops were engaged in the drive.

The advance is west over National Highway 9 from Ca Lu to Khe Sanh, a distance of 12 miles. The relief force last was reported about a third of the way to Khe Sanh, the advance slowed by blown up bridges.
"We want to open a road and defeat any enemy we encounter," said Maj. Gen. John J. Tollson of New Bern, N.C., commander of the cavalry division who has assumed control of the operation called Pegasus. "There should be enough here to keep us busy."
As Marines pushed along the highway, cavalry units made helicopter assault landings on each side of the highway but ran into no resistance, field reports said.

Khe Sanh has been supplied hazardously by air since the siege began. North Vietnamese have moved in close around the base-which blocks an invasion route into the northern tier of South Vietnam.

From their nearby positions, the North Vietnamese have laid down intensive mortar, artillery and antiaircraft fire at helicopters and cargo planes dropping supplies and removing dead and wounded.

Intelligence reports have indicated the North Vietnamese have been withdrawing from their siege lines, but officers pointed out that the enemy is only a few hours away on the Laotian border.

It was too soon to tell if a major battle would erupt when the relief force strikes the main North Vietnamese positions.

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