Vietnamese War:
Vietnamese War:
Chinese and Soviet Ships Hit
U.S. planes were accused of bombing a Chinese Communist ship in the North Vietnamese port of Campha January 3 and a Soviet ship in Haiphong harbor January 4. Peking charged January 12 that American planes also had dropped bombs across the border in Yunnan Province, China and had killed or injured several Chinese. [See 1967 Vietnamese War: Air War; 1967 Vietnam War: Moscow Charges U.S. Jets Hit Ship; Other Developments]
The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed January 7 that the American air strike on the freighter Hongqi 158 had wounded several crewmen and seriously damaged the vessel.
A Soviet protest message January 4 said that American planes that day had bombed the Russian freighter Pereslavl-Zalessky as it was unloading flour in Haiphong harbor. According to the Soviet account, U.S. jets, during a raid on Haiphong, dropped 8 time bombs around the Soviet vessel; one of the bombs, exploding 25 minutes later, punctured the ship's hull, smashed the stern and damaged the engine room. The vessel was completely disabled. No casualties were reported. The other bombs were said to have exploded at intervals of 12 hours.
Moscow warned that "appropriate Soviet agencies will be compelled to take measures to insure the safety of the Soviet vessels sailing for [North Vietnamese] ports."
The Soviet Union charged January 6 that the attack on the Pereslavl-Zalessky had been deliberate and "cunning." The purpose of the attack, Moscow claimed, was "not to hit the ship directly. The idea was to drop delayed-action bombs all around the ship."
The captain of the ship said 15 American planes had passed over the vessel several times before the bombs were dropped.
A U.S. State Department statement January 5 said that an official investigation of the incident had "neither substantiated nor ruled out the possibility" that the U.S. was to blame. The department asserted that "careful precautions are and will continue to be taken" to avoid hitting foreign ships in North Vietnamese ports during American raids. But it was "impossible to eliminate completely the risk" taken by foreign ships entering the combat zone, the department said.
Soviet Ambassador-to-U.S. Anatoly F. Dobrynin had delivered a protest to State Secretary Dean Rusk January 4. Meeting Dobrynin again January 5, Rusk handed him a reply that said: "If any damage to international shipping in the Haiphong area was produced by ordnance dropped by United States aircraft, it was inadvertent and is regretted by the United States government."
Communist China charged January 12 that "3 pirate planes of U.S. imperialism and its lackey Laotian rightists" January 7 had "intruded China's airspace from the direction of Laos and barbarously bombed and strafed the Miaochai area of Yunnan Province [which bordered Laos, Burma and North Vietnam], throwing and launching more than 20 bombs and rockets." The planes had "caused serious loss to life and property" but had been "powerfully rebuffed by the Chinese armed forces and people" and had "fled hurriedly in the direction of Laos," the Peking statement said. (The target of the alleged American attack was believed to have involved the Sibsong Panna Autonomous Region, adjoining Burma and Laos, which was inhabited by people of Lao and Thai stock.)
Peking described the incident as a "war provocation against the Chinese people" and warned that China would take "all necessary measures to support the just struggle of the Laotian people" if the U.S. extended the Vietnamese war into Laos.
(The U.S. Defense Department January 12 said it had no confirmation of the alleged raid on Chinese territory.)
A statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry later January 12 claimed that "pirate aircraft of United States imperialism, including Thailand-based B-52 bombers," were attacking pro-Communist rebel Pathet Lao areas in Laos while Laotian government forces had "even started a massive military attack on the upper Laotian liberated areas bordering China and Vietnam."
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