-'Seduce and Destroy'

DA NANG, South Vietnam (AP) - That beautiful Vietnamese girl, her silken black hair swirling about her fragile body as she bathes in the stream, can be an angel of death.

Viet Cong terrorists around this big Marine base are using "seduce and destroy" squads of girls, in attempts to entice Marines to their deaths.

Marine sources said three Marines were missing and one was killed by the female assassination teams in three months.

A captured Viet Cong confirmed that attractive girls were being recruited and trained in English for assassination team duty.

In one recent incident, three Marines on patrol near their camp spotted three girls swimming nude in a stream. A few minutes later, one Marine lay dead, face down in the water. The other two are still missing.

"It is considered probable that the females were used as lures," the sources said.

The first inkling of the death-dealing decoys came in January when Marine counter-intelligence units uncovered what they called a "Viet Cong suicide platoon, composed of approximately 30 females." The girls were already operating near this sprawling Marine complex.

The girls, many believed to be fresh-faced teen-agers like many Marines, strike up a conversation get the Marine talking about himself, make an appointment for a quiet rendezvous, then arrange the kill.

Marine sources said the effectiveness of the "seduce and destroy" missions - a play on the Marine plan of "search and destroy"-is still limited. But they are concerned enough to begin putting out warnings. The curfew, which is imposed at 8 p.m. in the once-lovely city of Da Nang, is strictly controlled.

Stars and Stripes
03May68