Word: conning
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...Con Thien, plainly, is not Dienbienphu. The French garrison was 76 min. by air from its supply sources, isolated in a narrow valley over 200 miles from the French stronghold at Hanoi. The French were hemmed in and, after the 56-day Viet Minh siege began, had to be resupplied by parachute drops through dense antiaircraft fire. Con Thien can be resupplied within six minutes by helicopter from Dong Ha, ten miles to the southeast, or by land from Cam Lo, seven miles to the south, when the road is not washed out. The French conceived of Dienbienphu...
...Con Thien, by contrast, rising nearly 500 feet above sea level, is the most commanding point all the way to the DMZ. It is supported not only by Marine and Army artillery but also by B-52 Stratofortresses, each packing 60,000 lbs. of bombs, U.S. warships bristling with 5-and 8-in. guns, and clouds of fighter planes. Westmoreland described the bombardment of suspected Red gun positions as the heaviest concentration of firepower "on any single piece of real estate in the history of warfare...
Dienbienphu was a last, desperate gamble to win a decisive victory after seven years of war. If Con Thien was set up somewhat by chance, it nevertheless has a clear-cut tactical purpose. Sitting astride invasion routes from the North, the 1,200-man garrison is there to prevent, or at least slow down, a southward surge by the estimated 35,000 North Vietnamese regulars positioned in and around the DMZ. Poised to meet this threat are eight South Vietnamese airborne and eight Marine battalions strung along the DMZ; in all of I Corps...
Death Valley. Despite the advantages they enjoy over Dienbienphu's doomed defenders, the Marines involved in the Con Thien Sitzkrieg are in something less than an enviable position. The 100 or so Communist guns that are trained on them with lethal accuracy are difficult to spot and almost impossible to wipe out except by direct hits. With ranges of up to 18 miles and guns as big as 152-mm. "bunker crackers," enemy ordnance plasters the Marine outposts almost at will. By firing only a few rounds and then quickly moving their artillery pieces or hiding them-in bunkers...
...artillery bombardments have left the three red hills of Con Thien a crater-pocked moonscape. Monsoon rains, a month ahead of their normal mid-October arrival, have churned the outpost into a quagmire reminiscent of Ypres in World War I. Everything must be brought into the outpost by helicopter to a landing zone grimly known as "Death Valley," or over the unpaved road from Cam Lo. Everything rots or mildews. The Marines at Con Thien live on C rations. Because water is scarce, they shave only every other day and can seldom wash...