Nov. 27, 1962 - A Communist guerrilla battalion struck at the heart of South Vietnam’s “Operation Sunrise” hamlet project early today and inflicted severe casualties before disappearing into the surrounding rubber plantations. A Government communiqué reported that the assault was launched against three hamlets in the first attack of its kind since the resettlement project was begun in March with U.S. financial support. The hamlets were Lai Khe, Long Can, and Ben Dong So. The three hamlets, about 40 miles north of Saigon, are populated by more than 3,000 people forcibly resettled there as part of a social experiment to seal them off from Communist guerrillas who controlled the countryside.
