Word: dmz
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...across Indochina's battlefields; elements of ten divisions-including many units that had been operating in-country or on the borders for months or years-were committed to the adventure in South Viet Nam. Some 35,000 North Vietnamese troops were present in the provinces south of the DMZ in Military Region I; there were perhaps 25,000 in the Central Highlands, 16,000 in the hard-pressed provinces around Saigon, 6,000 in the Delta. Counting Viet Cong soldiers, the total Communist troop strength in South Viet Nam is well over 100,000 men-the highest total since...
Despite the intelligence forecasts, the location and timing of the attack caught the military men in Saigon and Washington off guard. When the first North Vietnamese troops appeared below the DMZ, Pentagon experts assumed that it was a feint. The main offensive, they believed, would come in the vulnerable Central Highlands. Not until the eve of Easter Sunday, four days after the beginning of the massive artillery barrage, was it clear that a major assault was under...
...then, some 10,000 North Vietnamese regulars were driving straight through the DMZ into Quang Tri province to join another 20,000 troops already in the area. By Monday, said one awed CINCPAC officer, "it looked like the Rhine River campaign" of World War II. One column drove south along the beaches of the Tonkin Gulf, despite a heavy barrage laid down by U.S. destroyers offshore. Taking advantage of heavy rains and low clouds, which limited air strikes, other units rolled down French-built Highway 1 aboard Soviet-built tanks and trucks towing antiaircraft or artillery pieces...
Though Vietnamization has not been tested in battle, the process is largely complete, reports Cloud, who has just finished an extensive tour of South Viet Nam's four military regions: "From the DMZ in the north to the U Minh forest in the south, the sunburned or black faces of American G.I.s have been replaced by the delicately carved, pale yellow faces of Vietnamese, who are obliged to carry on the fight. Now, in all but a few corners of the country, the South Vietnamese, trained and supplied by the U.S. and supported by American airpower...
...February. Shortly before President Nixon flies off on his historic visit to China, all hell suddenly breaks loose in South Viet Nam. From the DMZ to the Delta, North Vietnamese troops raid towns, rocket cities, throw Saigon's forces into confusion. In the vulnerable Central Highlands, the Communists capture the inland city of Kontum and then sweep on to the seacoast, slicing the country...