Word: dak
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...ground in a perpetual, skyless twilight. But, on the Highlands border where Laos and Cambodia meet, there is a valuable piece of real estate: a natural valley that funnels through the worst border mountains out into the gentler highland countryside rolling down to the sea. Astride the valley sits Dak To, until three weeks ago a dusty airstrip guarded by one U.S. battalion and a 500-man Vietnamese paramilitary unit in a Special Forces camp...
Flares Like Fireworks. The North Vietnamese obviously saw Dak To as not much of an obstacle to their plan to sweep down through the valley to overrun the town of Kontum, then turn eastward for a damaging drive into the Highlands' heart (see map). Four regiments of North Vietnamese, some 10,000 men strong, began positioning themselves in the hills around Dak...
...border-Laos, Cambodia or North Viet Nam -where the lethal arm of U.S. power cannot pursue. The result is likely to be more and more border warfare, from the year-long face-off along the DMZ to recent battles like those for Loc Ninh two weeks ago and for Dak To last week-both of which resulted in major Communist defeats...
...Dak To last week, a deadly clutch of running battles took place within 20 miles of the Cambodian border. In the craggy jungles of the western Central Highlands around the town, six North Vietnamese regiments with a total strength of some 17,000 men have been bivouacked for months. Some 20,000 soldiers of the U.S. 4th Division and 173rd Airborne Brigade have been guarding the area, which includes the major U.S. base of Pleiku. This is the time of year when the rainy season comes to an end around Dak To-and the Communists dry off and come...
...would go to work. B-52s several times came in to pound enemy positions, particularly along the lines of retreat to the Laotian border, where 150,000 Ibs. of explosives were dropped in a single raid. At week's end the fighting was still flaring in spots around Dak To, having already cost the Communists some 500 dead. This time the price was also heavy for some U.S. units, which lost a total of 53 dead...