Word: civilianization
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...dramatically convey the totality of the military collapse. In the five northernmost provinces constituting Military Region I, the government a month ago had 152,000 troops. By last week 100,000 of them had been put out of service by the Communists. Most simply fled, joining the rush of civilian refugees that streamed desperately southward. In Military Region II, the twelve provinces of central South Viet Nam, the losses were equally staggering. One of the best infantry divisions, the 23rd, was completely annihilated in the battle for Ban Me Thuot, with no more than 700 of its 9,000 troops...
...took Danang, there was looting, pillaging, murder and madness. In their panic to get away, soldiers elbowed past women and children to board the planes and boats that managed to evacuate 90,000 people from Danang in the hours before the city fell to the Communists. In some cases civilian refugees were killed by troops stampeding away from the enemy. "True enough," said one Army tactician, "the Vietnamese soldiers fight with their families along, but they even deserted their families to fight their way aboard a plane or a boat...
...early last week 200,000 refugees, many of them defeated soldiers from farther north, had arrived in Nha Trang, doubling the city's usual population. Everyone had heard of the agony of Danang, not only of its loss to the Communists but of its civilian panic and, worse, the violent behavior of its soldiers. The city made an effort to seal itself off from the war. Newly arriving refugees were barred from entering the town...
...variety of reasons, many South Vietnamese had cause to fear their own armed forces. After ARVN abandoned one town last month, the South Vietnamese air force promptly flattened the place with bombs. In city after city, marooned South Vietnamese troops were running wild. A British diplomat noted: "The civilian refugees have as much to fear from the vanquished soldiers as they do from the victors...
...Daly-who started with two war-surplus C-46Fs in 1950-has built World into the largest of the nation's supplemental airlines. Originally, he prospered largely by battling for and winning Military Airlift Command (MAC) contracts; lately, he has successfully expanded his civilian tourist business. Last year World's fleet of 14 jets, including three 747s, flew charters (85% commercial, 15% military) to more than 30 countries...