Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...DELTA: The first test may well come in the rice-rich Mekong Delta, the South's most populous region. On Sept. 1, the U.S. 9th Infantry Division turned its base at Dong Tarn over to the South Vietnamese Army. During its more than two years of operations, the 9th all but eliminated main-force Viet Cong units, which had previously controlled the area. Now, responsibility rests with the ARVN 7th Division, which is working hard to shuck its former reputation as the "Search and Avoid Division." "Ever since your 9th Division left," Colonel Tran Tien Khang, commander...
...scenario was rewritten last spring, when the Communists mounted an un precedented monsoon offensive, captured the town of Muong Soui and threatened to drive all the way to the Mekong River. Now the scenario has been modified further. In an operation launched amidst extraordinary secrecy early this month, Royal Laotian troops mounted a two-pronged attack against the Plain of Jars in the northeast, and against Communist units guarding the Ho Chi Minh Trail in central Laos. Last week, for the first time in five years, government forces were in control of part of the broad Plain of Jars...
...304th NVA Division, which disappeared into the North after the siege of Khe Sanh was lifted last year. In recent weeks the enemy has ominously deployed troops southward from II Corps to within striking distance of Saigon. North Vietnamese units have also begun showing up in force in the Mekong Delta, where they have never before operated in strength...
Through the years, however, both sides observed certain tacit rules. The Pa thet Lao, backed by seasoned North Vietnamese regulars, did not challenge the government's hold on the Mekong Valley, where two-thirds of Laos' 3,000,000 people live. The U.S.-backed government of neutralist Premier Prince Souvanna Phouma permitted American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos, but allowed no major allied ground forays. Warfare Laotian-style also developed seasonal cycles. The Communists struck during the dry season, phasing their offensives out just be fore the rains came. The government, because...
...trouble centers on Muong Soui, an important garrison on the northwestern edge of the strategic Plain of Jars. It straddles vital Route 7, the only good east-west highway in Laos, and controls the gateway to the Upper Mekong as well as access to Route 13, which links the royal capital of Luang Prabang with the administrative capital of Vientiane. Before this year's Communist spring offensive, it was one of three major government outposts in Communist-controlled northeastern Laos. Then, last April, Communist forces began moving on Muong Soui. To relieve the pressure on the garrison, government troops...