South Vietnamese End 45-Day Laotian Drive

The South Vietnamese ended their 45-day Laotian campaign yesterday with a quarter of their task force reported dead, missing, or wounded.

American officials reported 89 helicopters lost, 51 soldiers killed, 29 missing, and 78 wounded since the U.S. air-supported drive into Laos began February 8.

Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird said the South Vietnamese operation into Laos ended sooner than plannedbecause of "the tremendously vicious and violent reaction on the part of the North Vietnamese."

While the South Vietnamese withdrew their forces from Laos, the North Vietnamese increased their attacks on support bases in South Vietnam. They continued heavy fire for tenth day on Khe Sanh, the main U.S. support base near the border during the Laotian campaign.

According to South Vietnamese chief spokesman Col. Tran Van An, government forces accomplished 80 to 90 percent of their objectives. South Vietnamese and American officials have said their objectives were to disrupt North Vietnamese traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trail and destroy NLF supply dumps.

U.S. intelligence sources, however, say that the North Vietnamese are repairing South Vietnamese cuts in the trail and are rebuilding at Sepone, a major supply area 25 miles from the South Vietnamese border.