Word: dak
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...They really don't like these sharp actions like Dak To," says one American general. "They prefer the drip, drip, drip of so many American casualties every week, every month. But they can't have both the drip, drip, drip and the sharp actions...
...that time, Westmoreland asserts that many of the enemy units have been pushed back to the frontiers, or prevented from crossing them. Large Communist forces are now in three bor der areas: in North Viet Nam along the DMZ; at the junction of Laos and Cambodia near Dak To; and along eastern Cambodia near Loc Ninh. With the extra U.S. troops expected early next year, the majority of them destined for combat instead of support duties. Westmoreland is convinced that he can keep the Communists there...
Night of Terror. One mile away, at the town of Song Be. Dak Son's intended defenders, a battalion of South Vietnamese soldiers, clenched their fists in helplessness as they watched the flames on the plateau mount higher and higher into the dark sky. Their small force of helicopters had earlier been sent out on another mission and could not be recalled. A march on foot to relieve Dak Son would lead through a wild and deep ravine separating the burning hamlet from Song Be. It meant three miles on a tortuous and twisting trail in the darkness...
Only when they ran out of fuel for their flamethrowers did the Viet Cong resort to guns. Forcing 160 of the survivors out of their dogholes, they shot 60 of them to death on the spot. Then, finally abandoning the smoking ruins of Dak Son at dawn, they dragged away with them into the jungle another 100 of the survivors...
...Viet Cong's aim was clearly to frighten the rest of the Montagnards from seeking haven in government towns like Dak Son. But in this case, Communist terrorism had clearly overshot its mark. Chanting and weeping as they buried their dead, the Montagnard survivors resolved to stay in Dak Son and rebuild the hamlet. More than 100 men immediately volunteered for irregular-force training and a chance to defend Dak Son should the men with "the guns that shoot fire" ever show up again...