SAIGON -- Combat-ready U.S. Marines swarmed ashore today and took up defense positions around the Da Nang air base only 80 miles from Communist North Vietnam.
It was the first Marine landing in a combat zone since the Korean War.
Communist China and North Vietnam immediately protested the amphibious operation as another American step to "widen the war of aggression."
1,400 leathernecks go ashore
Today's landing involved 1,400 leathernecks, the first of two Marine battalions totaling 3,500 men who were ordered into South Vietnam to provide security at the Da Nang base. It is the jumping off point for American and South Vietnamese air strikes against the Communist North.
The Marines raise the number of American troops in South Vietnam to a record high of 27,000.
In a major political development, South Vietnam's powerful Buddhist leaders called on the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Vietnamese territory. The Buddhists also demanded that the U.S. stop bombing North Vietnam.
Demonstrations may follow
The Buddhist demands were made public at a meeting in Saigon. Observers said it was too early to tell if the Buddhist hierarchy would back the demands with demonstrations.
Buddhist opposition has led to the downfall of three Saigon governments.
The Marine landing party encountered no opposition, but Communist guerrillas were busy elsewhere in Vietnam.
Vietcong unleashed a barrage of mortar and recoilless cannon fire on a U.S. Army Special Forces camp in mountainous Binh Dinh province 275 miles northeast of Saigon.
Preliminary reports reaching here said at least three Americans were wounded.
The camp is in an area where Communist forces recently launched a major offensive to cut South Vietnam in two.
Red positions bombed
In other military action, 16 U.S. Air Force B57 jet bombers dumped tons of explosives on Communist positions in the jungles of Binh Tuy province 75 miles east of Saigon.
The landine on the beaches at Da Nang, a port city 385 miles northeast of Saigon, was delayed for more than an hour by rough seas and a pounding surf. Breakers as high as 20 feet battered the coast.
Brig. Gen. F.J. Karsh of Carmi, Ill., commander of the Marine unit, said he was "very pleased" with the landing.
'Strictly defensive role'
Karsh said the Marines "will be operating in a strictly defensive role" to free South Vietnamese soldiers now performing guard duty at the Da Nang base for combat missions against the Vietcong.
In Washington last night, Secretary of State Rusk said there is "no doubt" the Marines will shoot back if attacked by the Vietcong. He emphasized that the main task of the Marines is to provide "local, close-in security" to the airbase. Rusk said the leathernecks will not engage in "pacification" operations that is combat warfare against the guerrillas.
The Marines were met on the beach by Brig. Gen. Nguyen Chanh Thi, commander of the Vietnamese army's First Corps. He said the troops would "ease our problems," operating initially in the vicinity of the airbase.
Elements of 7th Fleet
Karsh said the Marine landing parties were elements of the U.S. 7th Fleet "that was afloat in the South China Sea for some time as part of the normal force in readiness."
Vietnamese girls placed leis of flowers around the necks of some of the Marines. The girls were dressed in Ao Dais, the flowing traditional Vietnamese costumes. They drew stares and admiring whistles.
The landing was the second time in less than two years that American Marines have been dispatched to foreign soil.
The last Marine mission, in May, 1962, involved a show of force in Thailand at a time of Communist aggression in neighboring Laos.
Seven years ago, President Eisenhower sent a small force of Marines, along with 10,000 other U.S. troops, to Beirut, Lebanon, to prevent a rebel takeover of the government of President Camille Chamoun.
The American force accomplished its purpose without any fighting and was withdrawn a short time later.
