Word: hue
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
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...
...slung carelessly over their shoulders, crowded the streets; some of them were raucously drunk. One came up and put his hand against my chest and started to push, looking into my eyes without saying a word until his friends led him off. At the harbor, the troops withdrawn from Hue disembarked in mixed units, arriving in the confused state of a total rout. Enlisted men and officers alike dispensed with the niceties of rank or discipline. No one saluted, no one marched or regrouped. They just got off and wandered into town with their friends...
...Vietnamese here were showing an emotional side that few Americans have ever seen. They were full of hatred. "Vietnamese soldiers and Vietnamese people hate the Americans so much," said Cao Van Tarn, 24, a private who arrived from Hue with his legs and one arm riddled with shrapnel. "The Americans have left us without notice, without...