The craft have carried more than 10, troops over the border since the foray against the Ho Chi Minh Trail began Feb. A special craft with Ameri can pilots was assigned to carry newsmen from Khesanh to South Vietnamese positions in Laos. Helicopter gunships were assigned as escorts to protect against heavy ground fire. Secretary of Defense Melvin R.
Laird announced yesterday in Washington that corre spondents would be allowed aboard a specially designated helicopter. Four photographers were lost in Laos on Feb. Reporters complained that the difficulty of getting into Laos restricted the flow of news about the operation. Information from the field of a North Vietnamese attack that overran a battalion of South Vietnamese Rangers just across the border last weekend was not confirmed by the Viet namese military command here until Tuesday.
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Briefings have generally been limited to fragmentary reports on searches of supply caches along the eastern fringes of the trail network. Correspondents had been barred from traveling in Amer ican aircraft because of a long established Defense Department rule against competing with ci vilian airlines in carrying pas sengers across international boundaries. The rule was not invoked during the United States incursion into Cambodia last spring, however.
The only way to go to Laos was in Vietnamese helicopters, which are relatively scarce. Starting tomorrow, according to the officials in Quangtri, American helicopters will be temporarily made available to the Vietnamese officer in charge of the Laotian operations, Lieut. Hoang Xuan Lam, to transport correspondents.
He will control their movements. Military Escorts. See the article in its original context from February 26, , Page 11 Buy Reprints. View on timesmachine. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
