#con thien

[yodaprod]

Con Thien (1967)

[doubtspirit]

Life Magazine October 27, 1967 – Marine at Con Thien

Life Magazine Cover : Marine inside the cone of fire at Con Thien.

David Douglas Duncan photographs the Marines in action 18 pages of amazing military photography, includes Kenneth Birdsong, Ninth Marines, Third battalion, Dennis McLean, Bill Dancy, Harry Hutchinson, Charles Tisby, Toby Hooten.

[vietnamwarera]

From the source:

May 17, 1967: A U.S. Marine corpsman leads a wounded comrade, foreground, as others carry bodies toward a helicopter in Con Thien, Vietnam. [AP]

[todaysdocument]

“Two Marines sleep in the rain, mud, and cold of a trench line at Con Thien.” 10/02/1967

87 - Combat - 1967 - October 2, 1967, 10/2/1967.  File Unit: Divider/Subject - 87 - Combat - 1967, 1962 - 1975. Series: Black and White Photographs of Marine Corps Activities in Vietnam, 1962 - 1975. Record Group 127: Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1775 -

Dating from fifty years ago, over 14,000 photos in this series of Marine Corps photographs from the Vietnam War are available to be tagged and transcribed in the @usnatarchives Catalog by Citizen Archivists like you!

How to Get Started as a Citizen Archivist

[auskultu]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19,1968

Agreement was reached in Geneva yesterday by the United States and the Soviet Union on the complete draft of a treaty to ban the spread of nuclear weapons. 

The Administration let it be known that President Johnson, in his State of the Union Message, had not meant to stiffen his conditions for a bombing halt of North Vietnam. Officials conceded that it might have been better if Mr. Johnson had used the terminology of his San Antonio statement of last Sept 29, in which he said he would "assume” that Hanoi would not take advantage of the cessation while talks were going on. In his State of the Union Message, the President said: "The other side must not take advantage of our restraint” 

Meanwhile, however. Secretary General Thant appealed to the United States to stop bombing North Vietnam even without reciprocal action by Hanoi. Without a bombing halt, he said, "I do not see any way how the conflict can be shifted from the battlefield to the conference table.” He criticized as "juvenile” the "simplistic” view of each side that the other’s aggression caused the war. 

U.S. marines fought a six-hour battle with a strong Communist force near the outpost of Conthien, south of the demilitarized zone. American officers believed the enemy movement was part of a build-up for a major offensive in the area. 

In London, Parliament voted formal approval of Prime Minister Wilson’s program to reduce Britain's role as a world power and cut domestic welfare spending. Mr. Wilson, in an hour-long speech, appeared tired and subdued. 

Eartha Kitt angrily told Mrs. Johnson at a White House luncheon that American youth was rebelling because of the Vietnam war. "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” said Miss Kitt. Mrs. Johnson, her voice trembling and tears welling in her eyes, replied: "Violence will not solve all the problems.” 

[auskultu]

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1967

A new political alliance appeared to be forming in South Vietnam between militant Buddhists, disgruntled students and politicians who lost in the recent national elections. As anti-Government pressures mounted, students and Buddhists staged small demonstrations in Danang and Hue, as well as in Saigon, to denounce what they described as the "blatant rigging” of the elections. 

North Vietnamese artillery emplacements in the demilitarized zone north of the Con Thien Marine outpost continued to be the main target of American planes. Nevertheless, enemy shelling continued and 77 marines were wounded. 

After a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Premier Levi Eshkol made his government’s first announcement of concrete plans for the settlement of territories seized from the Arabs in June. Among the plan was the resettlement of the Etzion bloc of settlements, which had been situated on the west bank of the Jordan before the Palestine war. 

In Washington, after virtually 12 hours of uninterrupted debate, the foreign ministers of the Organization of American States reached agreement on a new series of measures to combat and publicize Cuban-fomented subversion throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The official Hsinhua press agency said that party Chairman Mao Tse-tung had returned to Peking after making a wide tour of Communist China to see the results of the Cultural Revolution. The agency said the situation in the areas visited by Mr. Mao was "unprecedentedly fine." 

The national board of Americans for Democratic Action approved a program opposing the war policy in Vietnam and the Administration’s proposal for a tax increase. However, the board rejected a “dump Johnson" drive at next year’s Democratic nominating convention. The liberal organization said the nation needed more tax money, but urged that it be raised by rate increases on corporations and high income earners. 

Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers Union, also expressed his disapproval of Administration policy in Vietnam, and called for a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam. However, Mr. Reuther gave his endorsement to President Johnson for re-election in 1968. 

[auskultu]

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1967

After about a month of negotiations in Moscow, the Soviet Union announced the conclusion of a series of agreements with North Vietnam providing for deliveries of military and economic aid in 1968. A joint communique specified that the military material would include ground-to-air missiles, planes and artillery pieces.

The small Marine outpost at Con Thein near the demilitarized zone received heavy air support from American planes as B-52’s and Air Force, Navy and Marine fighter-bombers hit back at North Vietnamese artillery positions that have been inflicting heavy casualties on the marines for 11 days. 

In Washington, Secretary of State Rusk urged the Organization of American States to adopt a program to tighten the “diplomatic, political and economic isolation” of the Communist regime of Premier Castro in Cuba. 

The Israeli Government ordered the banishment of the spiritual leader of the Arabs on the west bank of the Jordan, Shiek Abdul Hammid as-Sayeh, on charges of inciting subversion in the territory. 

A Federal civil rights authority said that he believed the rate of school desegregation in the South, after doubling in each of the last two vears, was advancing at a slower rate this fall.

[vietnamwarera]

US Marines with a recoilless rifle at Con Thien, date unknown.