Word: commandeering
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...capital lulled by repeated boasts that the military war was being won, the strength and duration of the Red offensive came as an unpleasant, even humiliating surprise. In the midst of his own headquarters outside Saigon, U.S. Commander General William C. Westmoreland was forced to take refuge in a windowless command center. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker had to be whisked to a secret hideout...
...Washington, there was little public discussion in the early stage of the crisis. Only toward week's end did President Johnson publicly discuss it. By then, the worst of the general offensive seemed repulsed and the U.S. command in Saigon was reporting that the attacks had cost the Communists 14,997 dead (a figure considered by many to be inflated) against 367 American and 738 Vietnamese fatalities...
Another Price. In the end, however, the Communist victory may be classed as Pyrrhic. The allied command reported nearly 15,000 of the attackers killed. Even if the total is only half that?and some observers think that that may be the case when all the combat reports filed in the swirl of battle are cross-checked?it would still represent a huge bloodletting of the enemy's forces in South Viet Nam. Even the lower estimates leave no doubt about who won the actual battles: U.S. dead numbered 367 and South Vietnamese military dead about...
...proposed in the first instance by the Viet Cong and reluctantly agreed to by the allies, the Communists, as U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker indicated, made it highly unlikely that there would ever be a holiday truce again. By demonstrating their resources of manpower, the resiliency of their communications and command networks and the quality and quantity of their weaponry in the widespread attacks, the Communists also made it highly unlikely, as President Johnson all but said, that there would be any bombing pause over North Viet...
Guerrilla Guides. In the An Quang Buddhist pagoda, the Communists set up a fully equipped command post for the attack. Shortly after midnight, the raiders assembled in units ranging from small suicide squads to well-armed company-size teams, and were led to their targets by local Communist guides. Some were dressed in neat, white button-down shirts and khakis, others in parts of ARVN uniforms or ragtag sports clothes. Dark clouds hung over the city, and only an occasional Jeep moved quickly through the eerie silence. Warned to expect something through captured enemy documents, military police had donned flak...