Word: hue
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...heavy; five provinces fell to Communist control last week alone, raising the total number of lost provinces to thirteen (out of 44). First to go were Quang Tin and Quang Ngai in the north. They were followed by Thua Thien; its capital, the old imperial city of Hue, easily fell to the Communists early one morning at midweek. That left only the city of Danang, swollen grotesquely with panicky refugees, as a final enclave in the entire five-province northern area that is referred to as Military Region I (see box, page 33). Some of the government's best...
...awareness of the mortal enemy gathering strength in the dark outside the city. Restaurants, cinemas and pool halls remained open and crowded; the seedy waterfront bars, lit with garish neon, and the French-style cafes were packed with people, especially the young. A 19-year-old university student from Hue typified the air of unreality. He was not in uniform, he said, because he had to complete his studies. But what if there was to be no more university? he was asked. "The government could not let that happen," he said, shocked. "The Americans would not let them." Soldiers seemed...
...very suddenness of Thieu's decision to abandon several provinces. Soldiers had no time to organize orderly retreats. In northern Quang Tri province, one of the army's best regional defense groups suffered a 15% desertion rate just before the Communist attack on the once lovely Hue; most of the deserters were concerned about the fate of their families. The retreat from Hue reached the frightening proportions of a stampede. Soldiers left behind 105-mm. howitzers and threw away rifles...
Even the refugees who flowed unendingly into the city showed few tears and little panic. From the old imperial capital of Hue, 50 miles to the north, the lines moved in silence, sometimes edging forward down the packed roads at the frustrating rate of only 20 miles a day. In all, 500,000 people swarmed into the city, doubling Danang's population in a matter of days. Amazingly, most of them were swiftly absorbed, off the streets, out of the makeshift sidewalk shelters and shanties. They moved into all of Danang's 100 schools (8,000 packed into...
...desperate unease gripped Danang. With it came a growing hatred and confusion that are new even to this war. Gradually the city realized that it might not be safe after all, that the war was going much worse than anyone had feared. The news of the fall of Hue, which everybody expected the government to defend, came as a severe shock. Equally frightening, the dusty buses pathetically crowded with refugees were no longer coming in only from the northern provinces; they were arriving from the south as well, bringing with them the terrible news that the escape route down...