Saturday, April 29, 1972
S. Viet Losses Soar
SAIGON (AP) --North Vietnam's onslaught inflicted the heaviest South Vietnamese casualties of the war last week and the heaviest in six months to American forces; the allied commands reported Thursday.The South Vietnamese command said 1,149 government troops were killed in action and 3,376 were wounded.The U.S. Command reported 10 Americans killed in action, 8 missing and 78 wounded. Four more died of nonhostile causes.The total of North Vietnamese dead dropped off sharply, however, from 7,117 two weeks ago to 4,890 last week according to the South Vietnamese command.In all 17,820 North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese and American troops have been reported killed in the past three weeks of the North Vietnamese offensive. There is no estimate of the number of civilian casualties.Thirty-four Americans have been reported killed during that period and 173 wounded, plus 37 more missing, although some of these may have been transferred to the "killed" column.The total number of American casualties reported last week was the highest since Oct. 2, when 21 Americans were reported killed and 117 were wounded.Reported South Vietnamese losses for the past three weeks are 2,792 killed and 8,198 wounded. The last comparable casualties were during the enemy"s 1968 Tet offensive. The previous weekly high was 1,152 killed and 3,349 wounded in the week of Feb. 4-10, 1968."S. Viet Losses Soar", by (AP) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Saturday, April 29, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.