Monday, April 3, 1972
Militia Defection Reported
SAIGON (UPI) --The South Vietnamese command acknowledged Friday, for what is believed to be the first time, that some militiamen in the Mekong Delta have gone over to the Communist side.The acknowledgment came in a brief item in the Saigon daily war communiqué reporting an action in Bac Lieu Province, 120 miles southwest of Saigon.The command called the action "an enemy attack with the support of PSDF (Peoples Self Defense Forces militia) traitors." It said a PSDF team that remained loyal to the government killed 16 guerrillas and captured two in a counterattack, sustaining casualties of one wounded.There have been reports of widespread defections among PSDF troops both in the Delta and in the central coast area, particularly Binh Dinh Province, but the government has not acknowledged officially that they were occurring. No statistics on the size of defections are available.The PSDF militiamen are generally armed with antiquated weapons but some have been given modern M16 rifles recently. They total about 400,000 men nationwide."Militia Defection Reported", by (UPI) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Sunday, April 30, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.