Word: conge
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There was courtly old U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, 78, looming over the implausible scene and nursing a martini with great dignity. Next to him, in a separate circle, stood General Tran Van Tra, chief Viet Cong delegate to the Joint Military Commission and the architect of the Tet offensive that reached to the very hallways of Bunker's embattled embassy...
Ever since they arrived in Saigon six weeks ago for JMC sessions at Tan Son Nhut airbase, the Viet Cong have yearned for a chance to talk publicly and make propaganda, but the Saigon government has carefully kept them close to their quarters. On his first night out on the town, General Tra proved to be in an expansive mood...
...releasing 1,032 captives in return for some 7,000 Communists held in the South. The second swap was delayed for more than a week as the two sides quarreled over the accuracy of each other's lists. Saigon says it holds 27,000 Communists, but the Viet Cong says the true number is many times larger. Similarly, the Communists say they hold 4,785 Saigon troops, but Saigon says the real total is 36,603. By week's end some 1,500 more Communists had been released as part of the belated second stage, with Saigon pledging...
...Viet Cong took a few shots at a U.S. plane as it passed over a village. An hour and a half later, U.S. jets swooped down to strafe and bomb, hitting some villagers. After the raid, townspeople menaced the prisoners with clubs and pitchforks. "They would have killed us if the guards had not stopped them. I saw women holding little children saturated with blood...
Douglas Ramsey, 38, was delivering rice to refugees in Hau Nghia province when the Viet Cong grabbed him. The guerrillas, he recalls, turned out to be "almost friendly." As he traveled with them, he noticed that they seemed to know to the minute when the routine of enemy artillery firing would begin and when it would end. After one ambush, Ramsey estimated that they exaggerated the casualties four or five to one in reports to their superiors...