Word: dienbienphu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...town of Nam Bac sits in a fertile valley astride communication routes from Dienbienphu in North Viet Nam to Communist areas of Laos, and was an important Royalist island in Pathet Lao territory. The Royalists had taken the town from the Reds two years ago, started a rural-development program, and promised the peasants that they would defend them...
Confrontation of Sorts. Giap's main claim to fame is that he led the forces that defeated the French at Dienbienphu, but he is well aware that he is up against a very different enemy now. Even as his speech was beamed southward by Hanoi, the North Vietnamese homeland felt the full impact of U.S. airpower. The bombing of the North has become so intense in the days before the monsoon hits in full force that the number of prohibited targets in North Viet Nam has been falling almost as fast as the torrents of bombs...
General William C. Westmoreland called Con Thien "a Dienbienphu in reverse," but he added that the Reds would probably be back. Even so, Con Thien represented a U.S. victory. The Marines had taken the best that the Communists could throw at them and had held their ground and fought back valiantly and effectively. Their showing can only have given some pause to Hanoi's war strategists...
...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...