Word: hue
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...been spent in vain? The government of Nguyen Van Thieu was proving much weaker than had been thought, and the fast fallback of his forces approached an all-out rout. Obviously, U.S. intelligence about Thieu and his powers had been grievously faulty. First, the former imperial capital of Hue fell to the Communists; then so did five more provinces, bringing the total under their control to 13 (out of 44). But the real shocker was the swiftness of the fall of Danang, South Viet Nam's second largest city and the onetime center of U.S. Marine operations in Viet...
...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...
...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...
...Honda and went up to the top. There were no soldiers or police organizing things. A bunch of troops had left their trucks and were eating lunch. A couple of beautiful Vietnamese girls were singing and talking to them. Well, I figured we would never get to Hue, so I sort of started directing traffic. Things started moving and a couple of young MPs came and took over...
...friend of mine got blown apart in Hue," said an Army major last week, sipping coffee in a Pentagon cafeteria. "He was in charge of a long-range artillery unit. And now you see the people just walking away from Hué. You don't say to yourself, 'He died for nothing.' But you ask: 'For what?' What have we got after nine years? Twenty-twenty hindsight is always preferable, but we probably did the best we could at the time. But still you ask yourself: 'Was it worth it?' There is just...