Word: danang
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...early last week 200,000 refugees, many of them defeated soldiers from farther north, had arrived in Nha Trang, doubling the city's usual population. Everyone had heard of the agony of Danang, not only of its loss to the Communists but of its civilian panic and, worse, the violent behavior of its soldiers. The city made an effort to seal itself off from the war. Newly arriving refugees were barred from entering the town...
...everything is changing," remarked one well-to-do Vietnamese company manager. "The people are afraid of the V.C., they fear the soldiers at loose like this, and they hate the government, which has only tried to profit out of the people. It's going to happen here, just like Danang...
...Vietnamese divisions. The price had been high: nearly two-thirds of its men had been killed or injured. Early in the week the outgunned and outnumbered division gave way, leaving open the route to Qui Nhon, third largest city in South Viet Nam (pop. 230,000) after Saigon and Danang. If Qui Nhon went, so would Nha Trang, 100 miles to the south...
Beyond that, the Communists for well over two years have repeated again and again their allegiance to the Paris accords. Reports filtering out of newly occupied areas, like Danang, indicate that the Communists are setting up administrations that include third force representatives and leave a place for representatives of the Saigon government; the South Vietnamese flag has even been left flying over government buildings, though now it shares billing with the single-starred Viet Cong banner. The Communists apparently feel that with their basic strengths in organization and leadership, they will eventually be able to gain dominance within a coalition...
That may be true. But in a broader sense, it could be argued that Hué and Danang were abandoned not because South Vietnamese troops lacked ammunition and equipment, but because of a disastrous failure of leadership and loss of will to fight. Congressional delays in approving the latest request for supplementary aid were seen in Saigon as a demoralizing signal and in Hanoi as an encouraging one. But after a decade of direct involvement, $150 billion and 56,000 American lives, it is hard to see how a few hundred million dollars more would have been decisive...