Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 5.djvu/158

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  From mid-1959 onward) there was a definite upsurge in Viet Cong activity, marked not only by the increase in terrorism noted in the statistics presented above) but also by the fielding of large military units which sought) rather than avoided, engagement with units of Diem’s regular army. On 26 September 1959 two coml1anies of the ARVN 23d Division were ambushed by a well-organized force of severa l hundred identified as the "2d Liberation Battalion"; the ARVN units lost 12 killed) 14· wrounded, and most of their weapons. 156/

On 25 January 1960 the same Viet Cong battalion launched an attack coordinated with four guerrilla companies -- a total force of 300 to 500 men -- which penetrated the compound of the 32d Regiment, 21st ARVN Division at Tay Ninh, killed 23 ARVN soldiers, and netted a large haul of arms and amraunition. 157/ On 29 January 1960 an insurgent band seized the town of Dong Xoai, some sixty miles north of Saigon) held the place for several hours, and robbed a French citizen of 200,000 piasters. 158/ In the same month) large VC forces opened operations in the Camau peninsula and the Mekong Delta. In Kien Hoa province VC units numbering hundreds effectively isolated the province capital from six of its eight districts. 159/ Bernard Fall) in his continuing study of Viet Cong operations) detect ed a new strategy operating: a shift during 1959 and early 1960 from base development in the Delta to isolation of Saigon. 160/

It Incident COMMUNIST. REBEL ACTIVITIES April 19~9 - 1101 1900 ViETNAM Rh