Ford plans next move in crisis over ship's capture
AP and UP Washington Bureau Dispatches
WASHINGTON -- The United States will fly about 1,000 Marines to Thailand in the crisis over Cambodia's seizure of a U.S. cargo ship, Pentagon sources reported today.
As President Ford called a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the ship's capture, the sources said the U.S. Marines would be flown from Okinawa to the U.S. air base at Utapo in southern Thailand.
There was no immediate word about what use would be made of the Marines once they reached Thailand, but the move apparently was designed to back up Ford's warning of possible "serious consequences" if the new Cambodian government does not release the merchant ship Mayaguez and its crew.
The White House said, meanwhile, that the Mayaguez, seized yesterday morning about eight miles from a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, had been moved to the island of Koh Tang, some 30 miles from the Cambodian coast, under the escort of two Cambodian gunboats.
The United States was working through intermediary countries to obtain release of the merchant ship, but was also preparing a number of military options.
Marines could be flown by helicopter or carried by amphibious ship to the location of the vessel if Ford should decide to commit them to some effort to retake the Mayaguez.
A number of U.S. 7th fleet ships were ordered yesterday to start steaming from the South China Sea area toward the Gulf of Thailand, but were given no orders to act beyond that.
Just after dawn, a White House spokesman said at a briefing that U.S. military planes were keeping the captive ship under observation.
White House officials said yesterday that the ship was taken under force to Kompong Som harbor, 102 miles from the location radioed by the Mayaguez. But the officials said today that a radio report from the ship about its destination was misinterpreted. They reported that air reconnaissance has pinpointed the ship's location at Koh Tang. Before its capture, it was en route from Hong Kong to Thailand and was due in the Thai seaport of Sattahip today.
Official sources in Washington said President Ford hoped to recover the 10,485-ton freighter and its crew of 39 men, most of them Americans, through diplomatic channels, reportedly using China and other countries as intermediaries. None of the crewmen are from Michigan.
White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen told reporters at 7 a.m. that during the night, Washington time, the Mayaguez was escorted by two Cambodian navel vessels from Poulo Wai, the rock island hear where it was originally fired upon and boarded yesterday, to its present location.
"The ship is being kept under observation by United States military aircraft," Nessen said.
Ford was kept informed of developments during the night, he said.
Ford was being kept informed of developments by Brig. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, deputy national security affairs adviser.
Just before the White House announcement, Thai Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj told reporters in Bangkok that the United States was going through a third country to recover the Mayaguez.
Pramoj reiterated that Thailand would not allow the United States to use bases in his country for the purpose of forcibly retrieving the ship and crew.
Secretary of State Henry H. Kissinger, speaking in St. Louis last night said President Ford "has called it an act of piracy and demanded the release of the ship and the release of its crew. At present, there are efforts to bring about this release. This is not the time for me to give a checklist of possible American responses."
The ship carried no weapons -- "not even a pistol," a crewmember said.
Adding to the present difficulties with the ship, some administration sources said, was the question of whether the United States could afford the appearance of weakness in Southeast Asia in the wake of the collapse of American-backed governments in Cambodia and South Vietnam.
White House counsel Philip W. Buchen said that neither of two laws restricting presidential use of military force would prevent Ford from calling on U.S. armed forces in this instance.
Another difficulty is that the United States has no direct ties with Cambodia's new Khmer Rouge government.
Ford said through a spokesman that Cambodia's failure to release the ship "would have the most serious consequences." That diplomatically tough language is used only in grave situations carrying the possibility of military action.
Newsman traveling with Kissinger to St. Louis learned the United States has told Cambodia it won't allow extended detention of the ship.
Chairman John J. Sparkman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, "We ought to go after it," and Sen. James L. Buckley, Con.-R-N.Y., urged "immediate punitive air and naval attacks on appropriate targets in Cambodia."
But Sen. Jacob K. Javitz, R-N.Y., said, "Let's keep our shirts on and see if they return the ship."
Nessen said the Mayaguez was seized in international waters, 60 miles off the coast of Cambodia and brought about eight miles from a small rock island apparently claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam. He said no crewmen were injured.
Although the United States considers all waters more than three miles seaward to be in international territory, Cambodia is one of about 40 nations that claim jurisdiction over waters extending 12 miles from shore.
Several South American countries which claim a 200-mile limit have seized American tuna boats which were returned following diplomatic protests and the payment of fines.
Nessen said the Mayaguez was not a spy vessel.
Its owners, the Sea-Land Corp. of Menlo Park, N.J., said it carried a military and commercial cargo with an estimated value of $1 million.
The firm also said the ship had an insured value of $5 million and a replacement value of $22 million.
Sources in Bangkok, Thailand, reported that an SOS message radioed from the ship as it was being attacked said, "We are being fired upon and boarded by Cambodians. Vessels in vicinity please keep assisting."
Administration sources said no U.S. ships were nearby when the Mayaguez was seized.
The American naval vessels ordered to sail to the Gulf of Siam, also known as the Gulf of Thailand, were reported two days away at the time of the seizure.
U.S. officials were uncertain about Cambodia's motives for taking the ship.
Some Pentagon officials said the new Cambodian rulers were trying to embarrass the United States and perhaps demonstrate what they might believe is U.S. powerlessness to act militarily in that area any longer.
Some officials also suggested Cambodia might use the Mayaguez and its crew as a bargaining chip to gain possession of 101 aircraft flown by pilots of the ousted Phnom Penh regime's air forced into Thailand as the Khmer Rouge were closing in on their victory.
The new Cambodian government has demanded that those aircraft, including more than 50 T28 propeller-driven bombers, be returned.
There is also some speculation that the 39-man crew of the Mayaguez was seized to be held as hostages for use in future bargaining for the U.S. surrender of Lon Nol and other Cambodians who fled to the United States. Such a proposal would place the United States in a dilemma, U.S. sources said.
Howsever, some officials wondered if the seizure might not have been an independent act of a Cambodian gunboat captain.
This could pose risks if the new Cambodian government might feel it necessary to back up the captain and adopt the action as its own, the U.S. officials said.
The Rev. Paul D. Lindstrom, head of the "Remember the Pueblo" Committee after the Pueblo was seized by North Korea in 1968, said he learned from Washington sources, Cambodia wants a U.S. apology for "criminal actions against the Cambodian people" as well as return of planes flown by refugees to Thailand."
He said State Department sources told him four crew members were injured by gunfire in the seizure of the Mayaguez.
Another possible reason for the seizure of the ship was its presence close to an island in controversy between Cambodia and Vietnam.
A Panamanian merchant, the White House disclosed yesterday, was similarly seized in the same waters, headed for the same destination.
The Panamanian ship was released and allowed to proceed but no information was available about what took place or why it was detained.
A Washington source said the Cambodian vessel in the seizure of the U.S. merchant ship was a onetime U.S. Navy submarine chaser.
In asserting Ford's legal right to use military force to recover the ship, Buchen restrictions of the Cooper-Church amendment and the 1973 War Powers Act would not apply in this situation.
The broadest of the measures, the Cooper-Smith measure, was aimed at stopping U.S. bombing of Cambodia effective Aug. 15, 1973.
It said "no fundsmay be allocated or expended to finance the involvement of U.S. military forces in hostilities in or over the shores of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia unless specifically authorized by Congress."
The War Powers Act gives the president the right to introduce military forces into hostilities for up to 60 days to protect Americans.
"I don't think we're prohibited from military action in a situation such as this," Buchen said in an interview.
The Cooper-Church Amendment was to keep the United States out of existing hostilities in Indochina, he said, but "it was assumed we could go in and rescue American citizens if their lives were in jeopardy."
He emphasized that Ford has not asked his opinion on the matter.
The president has already employed force to protect Americans despite possible legal restrictions.
Without waiting for congressional approval, he used Marines to aide in the final evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh and from Saigon last month.
As an extreme measure, U.S. Air Force bombers from neighboring Thailand or from aircraft carriers might try to sink the U.S. ship if it could not be brought out.
But Pentagon officials are worried about the possible fate of the U.S. ship's crew if any such measures are attempted.
The seizure of the Mayaguez marks the third time since 1964 that an American president has faced a crisis triggered by U.S. ships in confrontations in Asian waters.
However, a commercial vessel was not involved in either of the two earlier cases: the Gulf of Tonkin incident 11 years ago in which two U.S. warships reported being fired on in international waters by North Vietnamese gunboats or the seizure by North Korea of the Navy spy ship Pueblo.
The commander of the Pueblo, whose 82-man crew was held in captivity 11 months before release, said the United States has an obligation to retrieve the Mayaguez.
"They should take whatever steps are necessary to get the ship back as quickly as possible," said former Commander Lloyd M. Bucher. "That should not rule out the use of force."
In the Pueblo incident,Ford took a generally moderate tone as then-House minority leader. Unlike some critics of the incident, he did not call for military action by the United States.
As President Ford called a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the ship's capture, the sources said the U.S. Marines would be flown from Okinawa to the U.S. air base at Utapo in southern Thailand.
There was no immediate word about what use would be made of the Marines once they reached Thailand, but the move apparently was designed to back up Ford's warning of possible "serious consequences" if the new Cambodian government does not release the merchant ship Mayaguez and its crew.
The White House said, meanwhile, that the Mayaguez, seized yesterday morning about eight miles from a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, had been moved to the island of Koh Tang, some 30 miles from the Cambodian coast, under the escort of two Cambodian gunboats.
The United States was working through intermediary countries to obtain release of the merchant ship, but was also preparing a number of military options.
Marines could be flown by helicopter or carried by amphibious ship to the location of the vessel if Ford should decide to commit them to some effort to retake the Mayaguez.
A number of U.S. 7th fleet ships were ordered yesterday to start steaming from the South China Sea area toward the Gulf of Thailand, but were given no orders to act beyond that.
Just after dawn, a White House spokesman said at a briefing that U.S. military planes were keeping the captive ship under observation.
White House officials said yesterday that the ship was taken under force to Kompong Som harbor, 102 miles from the location radioed by the Mayaguez. But the officials said today that a radio report from the ship about its destination was misinterpreted. They reported that air reconnaissance has pinpointed the ship's location at Koh Tang. Before its capture, it was en route from Hong Kong to Thailand and was due in the Thai seaport of Sattahip today.
Official sources in Washington said President Ford hoped to recover the 10,485-ton freighter and its crew of 39 men, most of them Americans, through diplomatic channels, reportedly using China and other countries as intermediaries. None of the crewmen are from Michigan.
White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen told reporters at 7 a.m. that during the night, Washington time, the Mayaguez was escorted by two Cambodian navel vessels from Poulo Wai, the rock island hear where it was originally fired upon and boarded yesterday, to its present location.
"The ship is being kept under observation by United States military aircraft," Nessen said.
Ford was kept informed of developments during the night, he said.
Ford was being kept informed of developments by Brig. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, deputy national security affairs adviser.
Just before the White House announcement, Thai Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj told reporters in Bangkok that the United States was going through a third country to recover the Mayaguez.
Pramoj reiterated that Thailand would not allow the United States to use bases in his country for the purpose of forcibly retrieving the ship and crew.
Secretary of State Henry H. Kissinger, speaking in St. Louis last night said President Ford "has called it an act of piracy and demanded the release of the ship and the release of its crew. At present, there are efforts to bring about this release. This is not the time for me to give a checklist of possible American responses."
The ship carried no weapons -- "not even a pistol," a crewmember said.
Adding to the present difficulties with the ship, some administration sources said, was the question of whether the United States could afford the appearance of weakness in Southeast Asia in the wake of the collapse of American-backed governments in Cambodia and South Vietnam.
White House counsel Philip W. Buchen said that neither of two laws restricting presidential use of military force would prevent Ford from calling on U.S. armed forces in this instance.
Another difficulty is that the United States has no direct ties with Cambodia's new Khmer Rouge government.
Ford said through a spokesman that Cambodia's failure to release the ship "would have the most serious consequences." That diplomatically tough language is used only in grave situations carrying the possibility of military action.
Newsman traveling with Kissinger to St. Louis learned the United States has told Cambodia it won't allow extended detention of the ship.
Chairman John J. Sparkman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, "We ought to go after it," and Sen. James L. Buckley, Con.-R-N.Y., urged "immediate punitive air and naval attacks on appropriate targets in Cambodia."
But Sen. Jacob K. Javitz, R-N.Y., said, "Let's keep our shirts on and see if they return the ship."
Nessen said the Mayaguez was seized in international waters, 60 miles off the coast of Cambodia and brought about eight miles from a small rock island apparently claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam. He said no crewmen were injured.
Although the United States considers all waters more than three miles seaward to be in international territory, Cambodia is one of about 40 nations that claim jurisdiction over waters extending 12 miles from shore.
Several South American countries which claim a 200-mile limit have seized American tuna boats which were returned following diplomatic protests and the payment of fines.
Nessen said the Mayaguez was not a spy vessel.
Its owners, the Sea-Land Corp. of Menlo Park, N.J., said it carried a military and commercial cargo with an estimated value of $1 million.
The firm also said the ship had an insured value of $5 million and a replacement value of $22 million.
Sources in Bangkok, Thailand, reported that an SOS message radioed from the ship as it was being attacked said, "We are being fired upon and boarded by Cambodians. Vessels in vicinity please keep assisting."
Administration sources said no U.S. ships were nearby when the Mayaguez was seized.
The American naval vessels ordered to sail to the Gulf of Siam, also known as the Gulf of Thailand, were reported two days away at the time of the seizure.
U.S. officials were uncertain about Cambodia's motives for taking the ship.
Some Pentagon officials said the new Cambodian rulers were trying to embarrass the United States and perhaps demonstrate what they might believe is U.S. powerlessness to act militarily in that area any longer.
Some officials also suggested Cambodia might use the Mayaguez and its crew as a bargaining chip to gain possession of 101 aircraft flown by pilots of the ousted Phnom Penh regime's air forced into Thailand as the Khmer Rouge were closing in on their victory.
The new Cambodian government has demanded that those aircraft, including more than 50 T28 propeller-driven bombers, be returned.
There is also some speculation that the 39-man crew of the Mayaguez was seized to be held as hostages for use in future bargaining for the U.S. surrender of Lon Nol and other Cambodians who fled to the United States. Such a proposal would place the United States in a dilemma, U.S. sources said.
Howsever, some officials wondered if the seizure might not have been an independent act of a Cambodian gunboat captain.
This could pose risks if the new Cambodian government might feel it necessary to back up the captain and adopt the action as its own, the U.S. officials said.
The Rev. Paul D. Lindstrom, head of the "Remember the Pueblo" Committee after the Pueblo was seized by North Korea in 1968, said he learned from Washington sources, Cambodia wants a U.S. apology for "criminal actions against the Cambodian people" as well as return of planes flown by refugees to Thailand."
He said State Department sources told him four crew members were injured by gunfire in the seizure of the Mayaguez.
Another possible reason for the seizure of the ship was its presence close to an island in controversy between Cambodia and Vietnam.
A Panamanian merchant, the White House disclosed yesterday, was similarly seized in the same waters, headed for the same destination.
The Panamanian ship was released and allowed to proceed but no information was available about what took place or why it was detained.
A Washington source said the Cambodian vessel in the seizure of the U.S. merchant ship was a onetime U.S. Navy submarine chaser.
In asserting Ford's legal right to use military force to recover the ship, Buchen restrictions of the Cooper-Church amendment and the 1973 War Powers Act would not apply in this situation.
The broadest of the measures, the Cooper-Smith measure, was aimed at stopping U.S. bombing of Cambodia effective Aug. 15, 1973.
It said "no fundsmay be allocated or expended to finance the involvement of U.S. military forces in hostilities in or over the shores of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia unless specifically authorized by Congress."
The War Powers Act gives the president the right to introduce military forces into hostilities for up to 60 days to protect Americans.
"I don't think we're prohibited from military action in a situation such as this," Buchen said in an interview.
The Cooper-Church Amendment was to keep the United States out of existing hostilities in Indochina, he said, but "it was assumed we could go in and rescue American citizens if their lives were in jeopardy."
He emphasized that Ford has not asked his opinion on the matter.
The president has already employed force to protect Americans despite possible legal restrictions.
Without waiting for congressional approval, he used Marines to aide in the final evacuation of Americans from Phnom Penh and from Saigon last month.
As an extreme measure, U.S. Air Force bombers from neighboring Thailand or from aircraft carriers might try to sink the U.S. ship if it could not be brought out.
But Pentagon officials are worried about the possible fate of the U.S. ship's crew if any such measures are attempted.
The seizure of the Mayaguez marks the third time since 1964 that an American president has faced a crisis triggered by U.S. ships in confrontations in Asian waters.
However, a commercial vessel was not involved in either of the two earlier cases: the Gulf of Tonkin incident 11 years ago in which two U.S. warships reported being fired on in international waters by North Vietnamese gunboats or the seizure by North Korea of the Navy spy ship Pueblo.
The commander of the Pueblo, whose 82-man crew was held in captivity 11 months before release, said the United States has an obligation to retrieve the Mayaguez.
"They should take whatever steps are necessary to get the ship back as quickly as possible," said former Commander Lloyd M. Bucher. "That should not rule out the use of force."
In the Pueblo incident,Ford took a generally moderate tone as then-House minority leader. Unlike some critics of the incident, he did not call for military action by the United States.
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