Word: combats
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...infused with folklore. Barricading the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter, arching cobblestones on the heads of the "flies," clinging to your comrade and meeting the police charge, even getting blackjacked and later displaying your "wounds" were in part a celebration, reminiscent of Le Grand Soirdance, song, love, and combat...
ARVN morale probably reached its nadir in 1965, when the army was losing the equivalent of a battalion a week to the onrushing Communists. From 1965 until last year, most ARVN units were engaged largely in pacification work, while the Americans took over the major combat role. "Naturally," said a U.S. general, "we felt that we could do the job better and faster, and, of course, ARVN worked less and less. Unfortunately, once you imply that a fighting force is second-rate, and treat it that way, it becomes pretty hard to reverse the trend." To G.I.s, South Vietnamese soldiers...
...11th Regiment, said last week, "we have had to work very hard. Before, every man averaged 20 days a month on operations; now, they average 28. This means that men are on patrol, on search missions or night ambushes, almost every day." So far, there has been little combat-in keeping with the recent passivity of the enemy throughout South Viet Nam. But two North Vietnamese regiments (about 1,200 men) are reported to have infiltrated into the Delta since the G.I.s departed...
...will have been withdrawn, leaving the gap to be filled by ARVN's 1st Division. The U.S. Commander in Viet Nam, General Creighton Abrams, calls the 1st the equal of any American division in the country. In line with its slogan, "More sweat in training, less blood in combat," it gives each trooper an extra five weeks of special training, and its combat record is excellent. Though it is twice the size of most other ARVN divisions, with its six regiments, the 1st may well have to be spread too thin across the 37 miles of vulnerable frontier...
...last of the U.S. combat units are not withdrawn for a few years, the South Vietnamese might develop, as the Koreans did in the 1950s, into effective fighters. So some of the more optimistic U.S. planners argue-possibly ignoring not only the differences between the two wars but between the two peoples and their ethnic characteristics. At any rate, a key element in the Vietnamization program may be time. If Richard Nixon, in response to domestic pressure, feels compelled to accelerate U.S. withdrawals, the program could fail. If the pullout is gradual, it might work. "It is a very hopeful...