Aug. 26, 1962 - Simmering hostility between U.S. and South Vietnamese forces is imperiling joint efforts against the Viet Cong. Troops of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces are being withdrawn from certain exposed jungle outposts near the Laotian border because of fear they will not have sufficient backing against Viet Cong onslaughts. The Viet Cong has made the Americans special targets. One Vietnamese unit refused to provide armored convoy for Americans planning to evacuate wounded mountain tribesmen. Joint operations in some areas bog down for lack of cooperation. Racial tension is part of the problem. “There’s a continuous ethnological clash here in Vietnam,” a high-ranking U.S. officer said. “There is tension between Vietnamese and American, between Vietnamese and tribesmen, and between the various mountain tribes themselves."
