Word: compound
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...bluntly-and injudiciously-by a U.S. major involved in the battle for Ben Tre. "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it," he said. The Viet Cong had nearly the whole town under their control. The ARVN defenders were pinned down in their barracks, the U.S. advisory compound was in danger of being overrun, and the Viet Cong were within 50 yards of the provincial tactical operations center. "They are our friends in there," said one of the Americans ruefully. "We waited until we had no choice...
...enemy force of at least 700 men tackled the city's most vital military target: Tan Son Nhut airstrip and its adjoining MACV compound housing Westmoreland's headquarters and the 7th Air Force Command Center, the nerve centers of U.S. command in the war. The Communists breached the immediate base perimeter, slipping past some 150 outposts without a shot being fired, and got within 1,000 feet of the runways before they were halted in eight hours of bloody hand-to-hand combat. All told, the Communists attacked from 18 different points around Tan Son Nhut, getting close enough...
...symbol of U.S. power and prestige is encased in a massive concrete sunscreen that overlaps shatterproof Plexiglas windows. The $2.6 million building contains such an array of fortresslike features that Saigon wags soon dubbed it "Bunker's Bunker." Yet the Viet Cong attackers gained access to the embassy compound and rampaged through it for 6½ hours before all were killed and the embassy was once again secure...
Unable to penetrate the main chancery, the V.C. commandos ran aimlessly through the compound, firing on everything they saw. Meanwhile, small groups of Marines and MPs began arriving outside the walls of the embattled embassy. The Viet Cong burst into the embassy's consular building and various other buildings in the compound, but the Americans on the scene threw such heavy fire at them that the guerrillas were kept too busy to set off their explosives...
Under atmospheric conditions approximating those that probably existed on earth 4.5 billion years ago, scientists have duplicated the creation of many of the basic chemical building blocks of life. But one compound essential to the continuance of life has never been found in the primeval atmosphere of the laboratory: chlorophyll, which enables plants to use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into the food that plants and animals need. Now the missing compound may well have been created, further encouraging scientists to believe that they are on the right track toward understanding how life arose spontaneously...