Word: kontum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Many of the Communists' civilian victims died singly or in small groups, as the Viet Cong sought to exterminate effective local leaders loyal to the government in Saigon. In 1960, Father Hoang Ngoc Minh, a popular Kontum parish priest, was ambushed by Viet Cong who drove bamboo spears through his body, then machine-gunned him to death. In 1961, the Viet Cong shot and killed two Vietnamese National Assemblymen near...
...virtually all ground access to it. Though ammunition remained plentiful, Ben Het's defenders suffered from a lack of fresh water and hot food. They also suffered from the lack of an on-the-spot commander. Directing the battle from his headquarters at Kontum, 30 miles southeast of Ben Het, Lien rarely flew into the besieged outpost. As a result, he was unable to make the most effective use of the massive U.S. air power and artillery that were put at his disposal. Communications between the various defending units were also poor. Meanwhile, communications to the outside world about...
Perhaps in an attempt to counter such bad publicity, Colonel Lien explained his strategy to newsmen in Kontum. In excellent English, the cocky colonel confided that he deliberately used Ben Het as "bait" to lure the North Vietnamese into a position where allied firepower could destroy them. At Ben Het and Dak To, U.S. officers laughed openly at Lien's suggestion. U.S. headquarters in Saigon pointed out that General Creighton Abrams has specifically forbidden ever using allied men as bait...
...where some of the bloodiest fighting of the war took place last fall. Moving in bad weather, North Vietnamese are filtering along the mountain ridges and positioning themselves close to Route 14, along which most of the 250,000 people in the Highlands live. Their aim is to capture Kontum and hold it for at least a while, thus scoring a propaganda victory; but they cannot begin to do that until they eliminate or neutralize the protective string of allied outposts, such as the Special Forces camp of Polei Kleng twelve miles west of Kontum. Last week they began their...
Harrowing Operation. Some 5,000 North Vietnamese troops closed in on the Kham Due outpost astride Route 14 about 70 miles from Kontum. The post was defended by 1,300 allied soldiers; most of them were civilian irregulars, reinforced by a U.S. Marine artillery platoon and an element of the U.S. 196th Light Infantry Brigade. Kham Due shaped up as the kind of set-piece battle that General William Westmoreland yearned for in the early days of the massive U.S. presence in Viet Nam, when so much of his military force was expended in fruitless hunts for an enemy refusing...