Dec. 18, 1962 - South Vietnamese forces engaged in a major clash with a Viet Cong battalion in rubber plantation country 50 miles north of Saigon today. First reports indicated at least 20 of the enemy had been killed. Elsewhere, in the mountains 320 miles north of Saigon, a U.S. Army adviser on patrol with a Vietnamese unit was hit by sniper fire. His name and the extent of his injuries were not disclosed. The plantation fight began when a South Vietnamese ranger company moving through a Communist patrol zone ran into heavy fire from a Viet Cong unit estimated to be several hundred strong. The rangers were forced to withdraw, but ten U.S. Army helicopters took reinforcements to the fight to help gain what appeared to be a major Government victory.
