Saturday, May 13, 1972
Mines Activate; 31 Ships Trapped
WASHINGTON (AP) --Five ships left Haiphong harbor before the U.S. mines outside it became active, the Pentagon reported Thursday. Four of the vessels which sailed out of North Vietnam's chief port during the last "daylight grace period" were Russian, two tankers and two freighters, the report said. The fifth ship was identified as a Hong Kong-based British vessel. Pentagon spokesman Jerry W. Friedheim told a briefing that the five were believed to have unloaded their cargo before departing.That leaves 31 foreign merchant ships still in Haiphong, 12 of them flying Soviet flags, five Communist Chinese, three Hong Kong-based British craft, three Polish vessels, two Cubans, one East German and five under the flag of Somalia. Friedheim refused to say whether the remaining ships now bottled up behind the mine barrier will be bombed. However he indicated they might not be attacked."Our main concern is with ships that may deliver supplies in the future," Friedheim said.The Pentagon spokesman said there has been "no change in the status of 25 or so ships en route."He declined to pinpoint their locations.However, Friedheim said officials believe that one of the Russian ships in this group "is destined for another port outside North Vietnam." This was the ship which earlier was reported to have turned away from the approaches to Haiphong.Asked whether Russian naval ships are en route to the Tonkin Gulf area, Friedheim said, "I have nothing to report this morning on either Chinese or Soviet fleet movements."This left open whether or not the Russians have directed any of their minesweepers or other naval craft in the Russian Pacific fleet to the scene.Friedheim spoke with newsmen about four hours after the mines, sown earlier this week across the entrances of Haiphong and six other North Vietnamese ports by 7th Fleet airplanes on President Nixon's order, automatically became lethal. Nixon gave foreign ships in the ports three days to leave before the mines were activated at 7 a.m. EDT.So far, Friedheim reported, there "are no minesweeping operations going on" in the entrances to the seven North Vietnamese ports.The Pentagon spokesman said there are three or four small coastal freighters, mostly under North Vietnamese flags in some of the ports other than Haiphong.According to Friedheim, although the North Vietnamese Navy is listed as having four minesweepers, the North Vietnamese have little capability to remove mines from the harbor entrances.Some North Vietnamese patrol boats might be "jerry rigged" to try and sweep mines, Friedheim said, but this would not be very effective.Defense Secretary Melvin Laird said at a Florida news conference Thursday "a number" of Soviet Bloc ships had remained within Haiphong Harbor when the U.S. mines activated this morning.Laird said the ships remaining "made a conscious decision to remain ... and unload their cargoes."The mines are not going to go out and seek the ships -but if the ships seek out the mines there will be an explosion," Laird said.The secretary said the mines had been laid only within territorial waters of North Vietnam and, therefore, minimized the possibility of a direct confrontation between U.S. and Soviet Bloc ships on the high seas."Mines Activate; 31 Ships Trapped", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Saturday, May 13, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.