SOUTH VIETNAM: AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE OFFICERS OF THE JOINT MILITARY COMMISSION SHOT DEAD IN GUERRILLA AMBUSH.

Record ID: 230410

  • Title: SOUTH VIETNAM: AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE OFFICERS OF THE JOINT MILITARY COMMISSION SHOT DEAD IN GUERRILLA AMBUSH.
  • Date: 17th December 1973
  • Summary: 1. AERIAL SHOT Helicopter comes in for landing 0.05 2. AERIAL VIEW FARMS 0.13 3. SV Helicopters on ground 0.18 4. SV Vietnamese on stretchers taken to truck (2 shots) 0.46 5. SV Burning wreckage of helicopter 1.10 6. GV PAN Burning wreckage 1.18 7. CU Helicopter propeller blade carried by soldiers 1.28 8. GV Helicopter in field. 1.33 Initials AE/19.18 AE/19.31 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st January 1974 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BINH CHANH, SOUTHWEST OF SAIGON
  • Country: Vietnam
  • Reuters ID: LVA25IAF1QZIDQN18OZIVZJBCBVV
  • Story Text: A United States officer and a Vietnamese pilot were killed on Saturday (December 15), when a party of Joint Military Commission officers was ambushed by guerrillas southwest of Saigon.

    The group -- taking part in the search for soldiers and airmen missing in the Vietnam war -- had just touched down in three helicopters in an overgrown rice paddy in the Binh Chanh area, 12 miles (19 km) from Saigon.

    The American officer -- the first killed in South Vietnam since the January ceasefire--was shot dead as the guerrillas opened up with heavy rocket and machine gun fire. He was the leader of the search party.

    Seven ???her Americans and these Vietnamese were wounded. One of the helicopters bearing the distinctive sign of the Joint Military Commission was blown to pieces.

    The following day, the United States and South Vietnam protested to the International Commission of Control and Supervision, calling the ambush "a deliberate and outrageous attack on an unarmed search party."
    The Viet Cong denied that any helicopter mission in south Vietnam had been authorised for that day by the four-party Joint Military Commission. An American survivor of the ambush said the search mission had been authorised by the Viet Cong earlier this month, but no check had been made with local Viet Cong forces before the group went to the area.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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