Word: arvn
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...question that may never be settled is whether a reduction in supplies ? because of cutbacks in U.S. military aid ? fatally undermined ARVN's confidence. According to one line of argument, that same scarcity made it impossible for ARVN to continue the tactics learned from the U.S. ? constant harassment and interdiction of Communist troops to keep them off balance and to prevent them from massing in numbers capable of launching a coordinated, deadly offensive. Ceilings were placed on the number of shells that field guns and mortars could fire daily, and there was a severe cutback in helicopter...
Both Washington and Saigon realized that ARVN's only chance of standing alone was if it had enormous amounts of U.S. supplies...
Even so, most experts believed that in the face of a major Communist attack, ARVN would again require the support of U.S. bombers. The fact that the Administration had not obtained congressional approval or even a moral commitment for this aid should have made the U.S. Government more circumspect...
...which $3.3 billion was military); this year it asked for $1.4 billion in military aid and so far has got $700 million, with Congress still to vote on $300 million in supplementary funds. Plainly, congressional reductions did not pauperize Saigon. When the debacle began a month ago, ARVN was still equipped with some of the world's best weaponry ? U.S. grenade launchers, artillery, M-16 rifles, M48 tanks, helicopters, jet warplanes, trucks, transports and an extensive communications network...
What can be argued is that the reductions were large enough to rule out a one-to-one replacement of equipment lost in battle by ARVN. At the same time, there was no diminution in Moscow and Peking's backing of Hanoi; aid in 1974 is estimated to have totaled $1.57 billion. Defense Secretary Schlesinger maintains that Pentagon analysts underestimated the adverse impact an aid cutback would have on ARVN's "morale and organizational cohesion and resiliency...