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What could be the climactic battle of the war seemed likely to come soon, perhaps even this week. Both sides had focused their forces on the city of Hué, sitting on the Perfume River five miles from the South China Sea. With its sizable population and its symbolic importance as the seat of the 19th century Vietnamese empire. Hué is coveted by the Communists as the putative site for an insurgent government with national pretensions. For President Thieu, the loss of the city would have grim consequences both in Paris and at home. Coming on top of ARVN...
Thieu himself underscored the importance of the city, flying in last week to order personally that it be held "at all costs." "I'm very confident," he added. Mustered for the defense of Hué were South Viet Nam's best units. They included the 1st Division, a marine division and infantry units hastily brought up from the Mekong Delta and nearby Quang Ngai province. Thieu's biggest asset may be his new commander in the north, Lieut. General Ngo Quang Truong. Truong is regarded by Americans as ARVN's most effective field commander...
General Giap has thrown his strongest forces into the drive on Hué. Three divisions are closing on the city from the North and West, and a fourth is poised to the Southwest. The seasoned Communist troops, many of whom took part in the bloodying of ARVN in Laos last spring, are equipped as never before. They have tanks and heavy artillery, including Soviet 130-mm. guns with a range of 17 miles. Some of their equipment is even more sophisticated: last week a portable heat-seeking Soviet missile downed two U.S. helicopters and a light plane near Quang...
Daily Toll. Much of the fear and panic that engulfed Hué sprang from memories of the Tet offensive of 1968, when more than 3,000 residents were mercilessly massacred by the Communists and the once graceful city itself was permanently scarred in the bloody battles to rout them out. Now exhortations to HANG THE COMMUNIST TROUBLEMAKERS and HONOR THE ARVN SOLDIER were painted on the walls of the modern Kieu Mau school. Stores were closed, restaurants empty, and much of the population-200,000 in normal times, more than 300,000 early last week as refugees from the fighting...
...refugees who stayed on in Hué found spots on the grassy banks of the Perfume River if they were lucky, in fetid vacant buildings if they were not. "Highway 1 is the setting for this Asian Grapes of Wrath,"' reported TIME Correspondent David DeVoss. "Some families ride atop trucks, others are jammed as many as five to a Honda, but most of them walk. Exhaustion, hunger and heat are not the only enemies they face. Land mines, carefully planted each night by the North Vietnamese, take their daily toll in suffering...