Word: dienbienphu
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Sanh went on special alert to mark an ominous anniversary: the 14th year to the day since General Vo Nguyen Giap's initial assault on the French bastion of Dienbienphu. But the day came and went without any North Vietnamese attempt to celebrate with all-out fireworks...
...mainland. In the process, CAT became Nationalist China's civilian transport arm and the most shot-at airline in history. When Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, CAT went along. From time to time, its crackerjack pilots moonlighted, accepting such missions as dropping French paratroopers into Dienbienphu...
...they'll stop now," said Khe Sanh's commander, Colonel David E. Lownds, 47. With new NVA bunkers spotted only 300 yards from Marine lines, corpsmen with stethoscopes knelt on Khe Sanh's red clay to see if the enemy had tunneled underneath, as occurred around Dienbienphu. So far, they have heard nothing suspicious...
...doubt and deepening divisions. Some ranking officers wondered if the enemy buildup there was only a diversion for the urban offensive further south or for a bypass thrust at Quang Tri or Danang. There was also a dawning realization that, for all President Johnson's warning against another Dienbienphu, Khe Sanh could be overrun by overwhelming human-wave attacks. A top U.S. general in Saigon reckoned that the base could be taken by 25,000 men in concerted assaults, "but a hell of a lot of them would stay on the wire...
Westmoreland and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who unanimously approved his strategy, are counting on U.S. airpower, firepower and troop strength to make the difference. Unlike the French, who had few warplanes and were able to mount only 10,400 air missions to Dienbienphu in five months, the U.S. could equal that number in a few days with the 5,900 planes and helicopters it has in Viet...