Word: nams
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...refugees who have fled Viet Nam since the fall of the Thieu government in 1975 have also cut into the country's human resources. According to officials in Thailand and Hong Kong, where many of the refugees arrive, Vietnamese officials are privately profiting from the exodus of their citizens who are seeking food and freedom abroad. After interviewing refugees, investigators believe that as much as 50% of the money would-be refugees pay to leave Viet Nam ends up in the pockets of local Communists...
According to the refugees, one of the most striking recent changes apparent in Viet Nam is the corruptibility of middle-level party officials. Revolutionary zeal has given way to a cynical exploitation of Viet Nam's economic problems. Corrupt Communist officials have moved into the black market trade once operated by the ethnic Chinese. All of the Red River delta's major arteries south of Hanoi feature Communist-run "floating markets" that offer goods stolen from ships or directly off the docks at Haiphong. Conspicuous consumption among Communist officials has become so flagrant that Premier Pham Van Dong...
...forces engaged on the rugged, inhospitable terrain of northern Viet Nam were the object of intense scrutiny by military analysts last week. In Washington, a task force raised from the U.S. intelligence community began meeting within hours of the Chinese invasion, evaluating what data could be obtained from military communiques and by satellite observation of the battle scene. In Moscow, strategists were equally attentive to the broader implications of the war. How well the People's Liberation Army does in its first real combat test since the Korean War nearly 30 years ago could provide clues to its capability...
...Chinese have about 10,000 tanks, compared to Viet Nam's 900. But the mountainous terrain of last week's fighting precludes the use of tanks except in very narrow corridors, and China's aged T-34 tanks are vulnerable to the extremely accurate Sagger antitank missiles supplied to the Vietnamese by the Soviet Union in the past three years. The Chinese have nothing comparable to the Sagger. "This is one of their major combat deficiencies, which they are trying to correct by buying HOT (antitank) missiles from the French," notes one U.S. expert...
...Vietnamese air force is vastly inferior to the Chinese in quantity, but the quality is vastly superior. Hanoi has 300 combat aircraft in all; about 700 Chinese planes are within striking range of Viet Nam. Most of those ready for combat, however, are outdated MiG-17s and MiG-19s, whereas the Vietnamese have not only the slightly more advanced MiG-21s but also the versatile F-5 "freedom fighters" captured from the Americans...