Word: north
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Hanoi's handling of its casualties is an especially intriguing point. Since the 1968 Tet offensive, the North Vietnamese have borne the brunt of the fighting in the South; during that time, they have suffered an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 battle deaths. Yet the Hanoi regime does not inform parents and wives of the fate of their dead sons and husbands. Possibly Hanoi's silence on the subject indicates that the government fears popular reaction to the big losses. On the other hand, the regime's behavior may simply indicate that it does not have...
...other side of the casualty ledger, some North Vietnamese may be skeptical of their government's war reports, which continually boast of inflicting outsized losses on the enemy. A letter, signed by "Many Readers," appeared in the March issue of Popular Current Events, a party periodical, asking: "If, since the war began, we have annihilated 1,500,000 of the enemy, including 500,000 Americans, why does the enemy still have more than 1,000,000 troops in South Viet Nam?" The editor's reply was strictly party-line-that the U.S. is a huge industrial country that...
Conflicting Reports. What little direct reporting there is from North Viet Nam is sketchy and often contradictory. A Japanese businessman, who has made many trips to Hanoi during the past 14 years, returned home recently with the impression that the North Vietnamese capital was cleaner and more sprightly than he had ever found it. According to his tourist's-eye view, cafes and beauty shops were full of customers, food was plentiful and moderately priced, and Hanoi's women had blossomed forth for spring in new pink blouses. Boats on the artificial lake in the city...
...defector from Hanoi, however, reported that life for the average North Vietnamese is grim, and that at least 50% of the people no longer supoort the government. The defector, a onetime portrait painter in his late 20s, testified that there is much discontent, but that people are afraid of talking honestly except among friends since the penalty for dissent is jail. Rationing is still strict, he said, and the 30-lb. monthly rice allotment is now 60% laced with Soviet wheat, a fact that distresses the North Vietnamese, who, like most Asians, find cereal grains untoothsome...
Morale Problem. From its monitoring of Hanoi's broadcasts and press, U.S. intelligence is increasingly convinced that the North now faces a morale problem. The U.S. reasoning runs like this: so long as the bombs were raining down, the North Vietnamese people saw the need for sacrifice. But once the bombing stopped, the populace began to look for some fruits of what their leaders said had been a glorious victory. None were forthcoming, and the regime has been forced to exhort its people more than ever to work harder and retain a warlike spirit. If this analysis is correct...