Word: battalion
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...manned by French troops had been gobbled up by the Viet Minh. Four miles from Due Co, the Communists struck hard, and the South Vietnamese column backed off at nightfall into a mile-square defense. Then from Pleiku came the alarming word that a brace of Red battalions was sneaking in from behind to surround the relief column. "Blocking Position." In Saigon, U.S. General William C. Westmoreland, commander of American forces in South Viet Nam, huddled with his Vietnamese counterparts, quickly decided that only massive American intervention could prevent disaster. Out went orders to all available military planes: start hauling...
...them through the swamps. The Reds refused to join battle, fell back slowly under a protective hail of small-arms fire. Then in whirled a covey of U.S. choppers carrying the "anvil"-troops of the South Vietnamese 44th Ranger Battalion, who landed behind the Reds and quickly blocked their avenue of withdrawal. Pinned down, the V.C. had no choice but to fight. The hammer fell with devastating effect: 158 Reds were killed by the ground troops, an estimated 100 more by close-support air strikes. Far to the north, near Danang, U.S. Marines pioneered a new approach to airborne mobility...
After a string of monsoon-season victories in which they chewed up eight South Vietnamese battalions, the Communist Viet Cong suddenly slowed their offensive. Whether they were pausing to catch their breath - or to fathom President Johnson's recent pronouncement, calling for both a buildup of U.S. forces and a renewed try for peace - was un clear. But the fact was that while the guerrillas have conducted some small-unit actions, it has been weeks since they have risked any big, battalion-scale attacks...
...Taylor ought to know: in his 13-month Vietnamese tour, he has seen the war go from bad to worse as the U.S. poured in more men and equipment, and as the Viet Cong chewed up battalion after battalion of South Vietnamese troops. To be sure, the U.S. ground force had little chance to do more than establish its defense perimeters during those hectic months; the Communists gained momentum by launching their own monsoonal drive. Since the onset of the summer rains two months ago, the stain of Red domination has spread swiftly (see map); the Communists now control...
Eighteen years after the British had destroyed the Zulu nation, they crushed Benin. Objecting to the sale of slaves and human sacrifice, a consul general set out in 1897 with eight men to halt the annual ritual of slaughter; they were massacred. In retaliation, a battalion of British soldiers, 1,200 strong, destroyed Benin a month later and brought out as booty 1,000 bronze plaques, which were sold off in London to benefit dis abled veterans. It was the first major appearance of Africana in Europe...