Thursday, May 4, 1972
U.S. Marines Stand Ready Offshore
SAIGON (UPI) --The United States has kept updated since 1969 contingency plans for a force of 5,000 Marines to screen a hasty withdrawal of remaining U.S. forces from South Vietnam if Communists threaten the country, military sources said Tuesday.A Marine amphibious ready group, under the command of Lt. Gen. William K. Jones, is stationed on helicopter carriers off the Vietnam coast with the 7th Fleet, the sources said.At least one of the carriers, the Tripoli with 1,800 Marines aboard, currently is off the coast, and Jones has visited the Vietnam mainland -his latest trip was Friday -to discuss plans to put landing teams ashore if need be.During the current Communist offensive, U.S. advisers have been pulled by helicopter from bases about to be overrun and taken to rear areas. However, the contingency plans are to be used only if large numbers of Americans are threatened, the sources said.There are other contingency plans, too, including one for rapidly building up U.S. forces to protect South Vietnam. However, the buildup plans have received scant attention at U.S. command headquarters in Saigon since Nixon administration officials up to and including the President have vowed that no American ground troops will be involved in the current fighting.The most likely plan to be put into effect if any large American units were threatened by Communist attack would allow South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians to accompany U.S. troops to the American ships waiting offshore.Other versions, however, include provisions for fighting disgruntled South Vietnamese soldiers on the beach as the Marines protect the withdrawal."Let's face it," said one high-ranking American official, "some Vietnamese commanders may get pretty angry if they see us leaving. You can't rule out the possibility they'd attack the Americans."The first contingency plans for mass evacuation of U.S. forces from South Vietnam were written in 1969 when President Nixon ordered the beginning of the U.S. withdrawals.They have been updated at regular intervals as troop strength fell. There are fewer than 69,000 American servicemen now based in South Vietnam.The sources said that versions of the plan envision withdrawal of all Americans from South Vietnam on short notice, using ships and military and civilian aircraft.If North Vietnamese troops appear likely to overrun all of South Vietnam, U.S. servicemen would be lifted to three major American airbases -Bien Hoa near Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay on the central coast and Da Nang in the north -and flown out of the country to other Pacific bases, the sources said."U.S. Marines Stand Ready Offshore", by Alan Dawson, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Thursday, May 4, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.