Word: binh
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...difficult to put any other interpretation on their actions during the sudden governmental crisis in Saigon. French colonials in the city openly aided the Binh Xuyen rebels against Premier Diem's nationalistic government. Almost as soon as the rebellion broke out, French officials in Paris happily, although somewhat prematurely, consigned Diem to the dustbin and attempted to persuade the United States to do likewise. Even Chief of State Bao Dai, France's obedient servant, took time out from his duties on the Riviera to help preside over Diem's downfall. After the embarrassing failure of the attempt to unseat...
...Mortars started up again, but the Binh Xuyen fire was inaccurate. Nationalist reinforcements-a battalion of paratroops-moved expertly, strung out in single files along the boulevard, using the picturesque trees for cover. Scout cars zigzagged towards Binh Xuyen bunkers, slamming at them with 37-mm. cannon fire. Sirens howled. Telephones jangled. A baby wailed. A scout car was hit, its machine gunner twisted dead out of the hatch, and it came screaming back out of the battle in reverse. Yet for all the commotion and concussion, the young Vietnamese Nationalists were calm. Just as one terrorist shell exploded...
Victory at the Arroyo. As the day darkened, the sky a shroud of smoke, the Nationalists concentrated four battalions and 18 armored cars against the sandbagged Binh Xuyen strongpoints. In the European quarter, French colonials and a few Americans sipped apéritifs on balconies and watched the distant show-most Frenchmen rooting for the terrorists and most Americans for Ngo Dinh Diem. Soon the news looked bad for the French: the young Nationalists, it seemed, were fighting with efficiency and fervor. During the night the Nationalists attacked and knocked out half a dozen Binh Xuyen strongpoints, one after...
...battle's second day the Binh Xuyen fell back across the Chinese Arroyo, an evil-smelling canal on the southern edge of Saigon, blowing the bridges. The Nationalists regrouped, and in the evening they crossed the canal on both of the Binh Xuyen flanks, clobbering them, driving the terrorists clean out of town. The Nationalists destroyed the headquarters of the Binh Xuyen's General Le Van Vien, the place where he kept his pet crocodiles. Only three Binh Xuyen posts remained; they were inside the cordoned-off French quarter. "Your courage has written a glorious page," Diem proclaimed...
...first and bloodiest battle was over. As the succeeding days of struggle for power continued and shifted from the streets to the seats of power, the Nationalists counted their losses: about 100 killed and 400 wounded against 200 killed, 600 wounded for the outgunned and badly beaten Binh Xuyen...