TROOPS ‘PANICKED IN SAIGON
oce<° [The Johnson: ‘administration has been very apologetic: about the “"Gneident! May 10 when American.troops .in Saigon, thinking. they were under attack, began firing indiscriminately-,) killing and wounding péople-Sn-the strests. The American press. at first printed the official story about the troops being under a real attack. They, then indicated some "mistake" had been made. Next came intimations of a "tragic error." -Pinally: the apologies of official Washington spokesmen.“And alk of it given less and less prominence until. the affair .
‘ly vanishédunder the rug as Just one eats those | "unfortunate"
3° ‘oO Dee ‘oxpected in. any war. Tonto. 3 : .
peer CP,
[For a more accurate version of what ‘happened, we nave ‘¢ransated the co wns account from the BY 11 issue of the Paris daily pe pense pone % /
“The explosion of a mine attached by: ‘the Vietcong & i bicycle near an American barracks in Saigon Tuesday touched off genuine © panic * am dfig the “American: military police, who began. sheokne indiscriminately” ‘in ali. ‘directions: for forty-five. minutes ~ —
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Os VEwo- Ame#féan buses - “were sprayed. with pullets.A, with: fwenty-fiveoVietnamese was converted ‘into a. target. womert were: ‘killed: and twenty-two: others wounded. bop 2x
‘Two hundred meters away, the “French hospital was also. taken, 38,2 target. A Vietnamese visiting a patient was killed. AO: re Americans = ‘some:of. whom: were on- ther way to work, On. motorbikes were hit by bullets. leon eeey
cin: other parts of the cuhy Anerican. sentries, also, began firing; particularly: at a. Jeeps: fos, o
| Altogether there were five ‘dead . and twenty-eight wounded .,
‘The American police intervened with: great. brutality, arresting passersby: and searching homes long after the mine went off. The population: in the surrounding area appears. to have resented. these methods. -£. fs . BL Pry .
The American mission recognized its responsibility and has undertaken méasures 'to compensate ; the, victims and their families insofar as” _¥s possible. : fo Byrrey ced oy
The affair has raised ‘the. “question. of moving ‘the American | troops outside ‘the city. A project to set up new camps is under consideration. .
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