Thursday, May 25, 1972
To Bomb N. Viet Industrial Plants
WASHINGTON (AP) --The Pentagon Tuesday signaled a widening of bombing targets in North Vietnam, saying that U.S. planes will hit industrial plants supporting the enemy's war effort.Until now, the revived U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, ordered by President Nixon after North Vietnam opened its spring offensive against South Vietnam, has concentrated on petroleum storage depots and transportation facilities, including bridges, railroads and truck parks.Pentagon spokesman Jerry W. Friedheim said these kind of attacks will continue on a major scale and that U.S. bombers "will be hitting some of the other targets such as power plants and some of the industrial facilities which support the military effort of the North."Friedheim's words indicated that this was the beginning of a new phase in the bombing which will aim at some of North Vietnam's basic economic resources, as well as more directly military type targets.During the 1965-1968 phase of the air war, U.S. bombers virtually knocked out about a dozen thermal power plants. Most have been rebuilt and some have been protected with blast walls to minimize damage from bombing.Friedheim declined to go into any kind of detail on what kinds of plants will now be subject to U.S. bombing, but it appeared probable that the old target list from 1965-1968 bombing days will again be in use.At another point, Friedheim said he "would not rule out any sort of industrial target" that supports the enemy's war effort.Under questioning, Friedheim acknowledged that U.S. commanders now exercise more authority in carrying out bombing of North Vietnam without the sort of day-to-day control and supervision which prevailed during the Johnson administration."By the nature of the rather substantial effort going on at this time," Friedheim said, "military commanders probably have more flexibility in their targeting than was exercised in the 1967-1968 period."Under the present setup, Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird give approval for striking certain types of targets and then leave it to Gen. Creighton Abrams and other senior commanders in the war theater to determine what specific sites to hit and how to hit them.Nixon has ruled out any strikes on dikes which control water for North Vietnamese rice growing and the administration claims all targets approved play a part in supporting the North Vietnamese attacks on South Vietnam.Friedheim justified attacks on power plants on grounds they are important to the operations of North Vietnam's air defense network and to switching of railroad trains.The importance of such industrial facilities as steel mills and machine tool plants would seem to be much less direct and longer range in affecting the outcome of the fighting in South Vietnam.On another phase of the new U.S. effort against North Vietnam, Friedheim said the United States intends to maintain active minefields off seven North Vietnamese ports and said that the mines are still lethal.There has been some speculation that the mines dropped two weeks ago would be allowed to become inactive during Nixon's current visit to Moscow.Friedheim said all of the 25 or so ships which were bound for North Vietnamese ports when Nixon ordered those ports sealed by U.S. mines have now changed course and gone elsewhere. He would not say where those ships, about half of them Russian, had gone.No additional ships are known to be heading for North Vietnam, Friedheim said."To Bomb N. Viet Industrial Plants", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Thursday, May 25, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.