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### Communist Terrorism Singapore had to guard itself against attacks by communist groups. As you learned in Chapter 7, the threat posed by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) had lessened significantly and the British declared the state of emergency being declared. Although the danger of communist...

### Communist Terrorism Singapore had to guard itself against attacks by communist groups. As you learned in Chapter 7, the threat posed by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) had lessened significantly and the British declared the state of emergency being declared. Although the danger of communist takeover had lessened by the 1960s, acts of terrorism by communist groups continued. The MCP had split into smaller groups. While they were no longer a unified force, the communist groups posed a threat to the internal security of Singapore. Police raids against these groups uncovered large quantities of weapons such as pistols and grenades. During this decade, the communists carried out acts of violence that included the killing of a seven-year-old girl in Changi in 1970. The acts of violence included the attempted assassination of Singapore’s Commissioner of Police in 1976. ### International Terrorism Independent Singapore experienced its first encounter with international terrorism on 31 January 1974 when foreign terrorists hijacked the ferry boat *Laju* and held crew members hostage. The terrorists had earlier attacked the Shell oil refinery on Pulau Bukom in an attempt to disrupt oil supply from Singapore to South Vietnam. After several days of negotiations, the hijackers finally agreed to release the hostages in exchange for safe passage from Singapore to Kuwait, a country in the Middle East. ### Did You Know? To ensure safe passage of the hijackers to Kuwait, a group of Singapore government officials led by S. Nathan (pictured in the image below) was then Director of the Security and Intelligence Division in the Ministry of Defence, and would later go on to serve as President of Singapore. The Singapore team comprised Nathan, eight government officials, and four Singapore Armed Forces commandos. ### The Vietnam War At the same time, a large-scale conflict in Vietnam was threatening the stability of Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore. Read the illustrated story on the next page to learn more about the Vietnam War (1954-1975). US helicopter setting down soldiers in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam. November 14, 1965. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between US troops and North Vietnamese forces.