Word: crackly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Over the blare of a dance band, the flat, jarring crack of explosions rang loud and near. "Gee," said a woman, "I hope that's a salute." Hubert Humphrey peered into the rainswept gloom outside Saigon's Independence Palace and said: "I hope so, too." The three salvos were in fact salutations from the Viet Cong, whose mortarmen thus welcomed the U.S. Vice President to Viet Nam and attempted to turn last week's inaugural reception for President Nguyen Van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky into a wake. Fired from the roof of a shack...
Next day, a military parade to celebrate the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem went off without a missed beat, its resplendent display watched by Saigonese who lined the streets around Unity Square. First came a crack Vietnamese drill team, and overhead a flyby of jets, transports and helicopters. Then a combined honor guard of Thais, South Koreans, Nationalist Chinese, Filipinos, New Zealanders, Australians and Americans marched past, followed by combat troops and a 56-piece Korean army band. Finally the heavy equipment rolled out, from clanking M41 tanks to giant earth movers...
...mile, away. Since his sight was not calibrated for that distance, the Marine estimated the necessary high trajectory, worked in some Kentucky windage to allow for the breeze, and squeezed off three rounds. The third hit the Viet Cong officer in the head. He was dead before the crack of the rifle ever reached his ears. "A lucky shot," the sergeant conceded. But he and his sniper buddies have learned to make such luck commonplace...
...Crack shots-an old expression taken from competition shooting, in which a bell was rung to announce a bull...
...Coach McKay favors a more conservative approach-like giving the ball to O.J. Simpson 30-odd times a game. At 5.4 yds. a crack, why not? Besides, says McKay, "O.J. doesn't belong to any union. He can carry the ball as many times as we want...