TWO AMERICANS AMONG VICTIMS OF TERRORISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400240015-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: March 30, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanit
Among Victims
Of Terrorisl-s I
CY Tnl W. BROWNE
CPYRGHT MAR 3 0 1965
ed - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7 0
The bombing of the embassy bled toward the embassy, fAingti
was one of the worst terrorist over the bodies of two police-'
'blows delivered by the Commu- men.
Inist Viet Cong. across V i the n subsets a restaurant,
Target of Several Attacks fished, and the wooden rooms
It came as no surprise. The above it crumbled. Goodin said
embassy has been the target of lie looked in the restaurant and
STATINTL
SAIGON. Viet Nam-Terroristfi j,,,,uc Tt had been considered a them dead." He heard a wound- around the embassv also had
_'111k; r of explosives in a parked c ITU.s. air strikes began against from above for help and helped Zorthian said additional pro-
r
and wounding at least obi. l and? visitors were in the embassy Army Capt. Don Elledge o
a newly arrived 400 man U.S.~
Windows and brick work of the building when the black sedan Mabank, Tex., and the two Army military police detach j
Two five-story Americans, building a gwere shat- turned into a street along side' joined the growing corps of meat.
at m the scene and rescuers other in injured assisting out of the secretaries de- A South Vietnamese govern)
tered Just ;rl tecre- ost of before 10' those 30 a.m.
tare and a serviceman, were killed or disabled, but a .bris-littered building. meat statement said the attack
was an act of savagery and.
.were among the the dead, and .
more Americans were murder .and that free Vietna-,
- dicated: mese would avenge the bomb-'
j Vietnamese ured. The other casualties were The car stopped and a Viet- Firemen poured foam on the
ing.
and non-American the hulks of about a dozen cars set
Premier Phan Hu;' Quat visit
ing the trea et when the driver to move on. The driver afire ed American and Vietnamese
foreigners, many them stroll- namese policeman ordered iv s went off at 10:55 The u last the major terrorist attack
massive charge said he had engine trouble. P icked by P debris blast. from the Work street.
wounded and offered his govern-
ment's medical facilities to the
a.m. A motorcycle pulled up, the !
crews Sai an on was the American Christmas installation in Eve
American mission.
driver leaped from the car onto
Quat called on Ambassador
Seven Americans Serious the seat behind the.cyclist and;on hnmghinv of tha Brink Hotel, the
seven of the Injured Amer- Ahey started off. The policeman Johnson to discuss the bombing.
major U.S. VLLittIJ .,rns in -..
secre- fired terrorists and was
leans, including a woman "If the Viet Cong have any
capital. Two Americans were
s they fired back. expectation of intimidating the
killed and 81 Americans and
tart', were in serious condition. killed at t the dropping
U.S. government and the mem-
A total of seven, some with Another policeman wounded Vietnamese were injured.
lesser hurts such as eye injuries the motorcycle driver, bers of this mission by their
A U.S. military billet at Qul
deed today, they are thoroughly
one of two terrorists who i pn 45a - reconstruction of the attack in Cars Sct Afire
yi .him to the street. Just then the
from fl ng glass, were flown to
Clark Air Base in the Philip- bomb exploded with a roar and 23 Americans died. mistaken," Johnson said in a
orist and several policemen Nhon was bombed on Feb. 10,
for miles. The other ter-
pines for specialist treatment. heard statement.
Lass Saturday, Communist
(In Washington, the State De- ,r "I desire to express my ad-
frogmen blasted holes In the
partment disclosed that one of were killed in the blast. miration and appreciation of the
side of an American Landing
e nearby courage and reaction of the
Ship Tank in Da Nang harbor,
the two dead Americans was E.v e r y o n e in th
embassy staff, Vietnamese as
Miss Barbara A. Robbins, 21, ground floor consular section of
injuring a Japanese crewman.
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Buf- the embassy was wounded to earlier attempts on the
ford Robbins of Denver, Colo. some well as American."
. Deputy Police sources said the plan
degree.
embassy was one in which a
is
She was a secretary in the U.S Ambassador U. Alex for bombing the embassy had
grenade concealed in a loaf of
at his desk in his
Embassy and had been assigned Johnson was been known to both Vietnamese
office when the win- Among
bread was thrown at the build-
to Saigon since last Aug. 5. fifth-floor and American authorities for
ing. It failed to go off.
three weeks. They said the plan
(The other American was a doves shattered. Slivers of glass
cut his face. His office furniture Ten days ago, police an-
chief petty officer in the Navy. overturned. nounced they had foiled a plot to was to use a motorcycle or car
The State Department said the was loaded with expla;ives which
bomb the embassy. They found
Pentagon would suffer "motor failure"
ignored his injuries
35 pounds of plastic explosives
Pentagon would release his Johnson w
outside the embassy. While the
until he had supervised handling
hidden in a Saigon house by
driver, ostensibly went for help,
of the dead and dispatch of the
terrorists.
wounded to hospitals. Communist terrorists
The sidewalk in front of the
(The State Department report- One secretary was carried out the bomb was to explode.
ed a total of 196 casualties. It In the consulate section Thom'
Embassy is cordoned off with
police as Wilson, 37, of Spurt Ste.,
listed two Americans and 11with a U.S. Army jacket thrown
deeply barbed wire. Vietnamese Marie, Mich., said he heard tho
always on duty outs e the
'Vietnamese dead; 54 Americans.! across her face and
h d body Another had deep are id thshots and asked an aide,`Edith
~ and 129 Vietnamese injured.) Wounds in the chest. At least 30 bronze gate and Marine guards Smith, of Evanston: Ill., if they
The Vietnamese dead included other women . suffered facial are inside. were automobile in ekfires. S113
r wounds. The embassy is they; were
other t who in the bombing. The i Richard Robertson, a security Street, a main on Saigon Ham through. replieshots.d she though'.,
other, who carried a .45 pistol, official, carried his wounded fare half a mile from the press- Looks ig out the Window, they'
was was in shot by serious a condition: policeman just 'wife from the building. ential palace. Traffic moves saw i parked car and started' err,
ere inbeforejtheured by bomb the blast were aRichard Cleveland of Wayne, The embassy was to be - re- refuge under their desks.
Among non American foreign- Pa., said everyone in the office placed eventually becausei~ fias A Vietnamese employe stood
of Robert Miller, deputy chief of no fire escape and was so close Eby the window look ing into the
French businessman and sev the embassy's politicall section, j to the street. street and died as tl e blast blew
eral Japanese residents of appeared injured. Miller was cut .Red China's New China News in the window.
1Saicnn? about the face and body. Wilson, a vice consul, was
i The mighty blast' p fiic ed a American servicemen ran to Agency reported the embassy'slightly ilso scratched and Miss
gaping hole in the five-story the scene from blocks away and bombing without comment to-i Smith was not seriously hurt.
concrete embassy. It shattered dashed into the building to help day. Robert Burke, 42 from Wash-
every window the'_ rater in the in jured. U.S. E ni b a s s y spokesman ington, D.C., said t~'e blast blew
dug an enormous ca ter in "For few moments, hell and the air conditioner i Tto his office
the tarred street. devil a paared on the street," Barry Zorthian said the embas- on the third floor. it said office
Flames and smoke mush- ,said Army Sgt. Lyle Goodin;sy. had many reports in recent retaries in the office were in-
300 roomed all feet into the air. The from Pekin, Ili. lie was walking months that the Viet Cong in- jured but most put away classi-
~Ae~F{._A~ennrt nherne' mac sa.
. _ .. . .. __ - .. __ _
t
i
l
before
yards
led and ma
er
a
s
creted in a F'rencn MVW t ~ l ?.322e'i
ja terrorist drove on ~lmockLip~him down. e. etutp?,~.easeu3 and'thit police activl !~o~ ?~ ?'1 f