Oct. 12, 1962 - One of South Vietnam’s largest operations against the Viet Cong this year finally made solid contact with the enemy on its second day. Observation planes spotted the Viet Cong in sampans (pictured) relayed information to amphibious troop carriers, and the carriers moved in. They are reported to have killed 37 Communists. Other than this, however, Operation Morning Star, a massive strike against the Communists in areas northwest and southwest of Saigon, has turned up little besides evidence that the Viet Cong has been there recently. “The operation showed that our intelligence was good, and that theirs was a bit better,” one American adviser said after the first day of the attack. “They seemed to be one step ahead of us all day. Everywhere we went, we found signs that they had just been there — lots of their rice, empty sampans, propaganda tracts, beds they had slept in. We get where we are supposed to go, all right, but the swamps and marshes still belong to the Viet Cong.”
