Word: kontum
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...long history; 1975 will probably be worse. Although a general offensive is not expected, Saigon fears that because the Communist forces are stronger than ever, they will continue their "choking strategy" aimed at Hue and Danang in the North, the Central Highlands city of Kontum, Tay Ninh near the Cambodian border, the area around Saigon, and the heavily populated and agriculturally rich Mekong Delta. Saigon's troops, short of weapons and ammunition, will find themselves stretched thin and on the defensive throughout their country...
...Fire II had been signed, while ARVN losses totaled 218. By the Saigon command's own admission, however, most contacts in recent days have amounted only to mortar and rocket exchanges. What fighting has occurred has been limited to the Chuong Thien province in the Mekong Delta and Kontum in the Central Highlands. In the northerly I Corps area, virtually no combat has been reported. Said a Western diplomat: "The combat statistics show that incidents are only a fifth of what they were after the January ceasefire. There is a far lower threshold of violence...
...Patricia Smith, 46, has lived and worked in the Highlands capital of Kontum for 14 years. A graduate of the University of Washington Medical School, she has spent that time working with the Montagnard tribesmen, operating an 87-bed hospital that is funded by contributions from the U.S. Soft-spoken and portly, she drives about Kontum in a red Honda sedan. Dr. Smith has survived many minor disasters and at least two major ones. In 1968, her hospital was badly shot up during the Communist Tet offensive; four years later, the ARVN 23rd Division set up a fire base...
Most of the 150,000 Montagnards who remain in resettlement camps are forced to live chiefly on meager handouts of rice. At the Nguyen Hue camp in central Kontum, one refugee told TIME Correspondent Rudolph S. Rauch that he had been given fish or fish sauce only three times in three months, and had never received any meat or vegetables. Other Montagnards complained that they were not even getting their full portions of rice, supposedly 500 grams per person...
...Saigon and An Loc, and the task was finally abandoned altogether last week as the two divisions assigned to it were regrouped in an effort to head off Communist units that are believed to be moving toward Saigon. The North Vietnamese are still staging ambushes on the road between Kontum and Pleiku in the Central Highlands, and there is sharp fighting in Binh Dinh province on the central coast. Worse still, the South Vietnamese suffered a major defeat three weeks ago south of Danang in the Que Son Valley, losing between...