World: The Biggest Week

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Never before had the Communists been hit so hard and in so many places at one time. From south of Saigon to coastal Quang Ngai, over 25,000 allied troops stalked the Reds in six separate operations (see map). It was far and away the biggest battle week of the war. The big six:

> Operation White Wing, mounted by 12,000 men of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry, Vietnamese airborne and South Korean marines, the first division-size assault of the war. Target: the longtime Viet Cong strongholds between Qui Nhon and Chu Lai along the South China Sea.

> Operation Double Eagle, dovetailing on the north with White Wing, made up of 5,000 U.S. Marines off amphibious assault craft driving south and west toward the Communist enclave of An Lao valley, with flanking support from 2,000 government soldiers.

> Operation Mallet, hammering at a tunnel-and-village complex a scant 15 miles southeast of Saigon. The Thors: some 2,000 men with tanks and artillery of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, the "Big Red One."

> Operation Van Buren, presided over by 2,500 troopers of the American 101st Airborne and South Korean marines, aimed at guaranteeing that the rice harvest would get to the peasants west of Tuy Hoa—and not to the Viet Cong.

> Operation Buckskin, in which 1,800 men of Big Red One scouted and cleared 13 sq. kil. some 30 miles northwest of Saigon—advance housekeeping in the area due to be the permanent base of the 2nd Brigade of the newly arrived U.S. 25th Infantry division, late of Hawaii.

> Operation Taro Leaf, which fell to the 25th, a search-and-clear maneuver in Hau Nghia province about 20 miles northwest of Saigon.

Pleasant Living. Far and away the most important operation was White Wing, led by 1st Air Cav Colonel Hal G. Moore, 43, a lean, laconic Kentuckian who earned a battlefield promotion at bloody la Drang last November. In that fight, he held together a single infantry battalion surrounded by three battalions of North Vietnamese regulars. This time he was the aggressor, leading the largest allied force of the war: five infantry battalions, four artillery battalions, plus a team of combat engineers and a troop of aerial reconnaissance men, all riding the helicopters of the most mobile force warfare has ever known.

For four years the pleasant coastal plain of Binh Dinh has been a private Communist demiparadise of palm-topped villages and emerald paddies. But underneath paradise were the ubiquitous mole holes of the Viet Cong —an estimated 3,000 strong in the area. It was, as one U.S. officer put it, "V.C. Fat City—mighty pleasant living for them." That came to an abrupt end early one rainy morning when the first helicopter assault forces of the 1st Air Cav took off from Moore's staging area, called "Dog," and headed for LZ-4, a landing zone nestled between two villages.