Word: phuoc
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Ominous Change. Though Phuoc Binh itself is of little strategic importance to Saigon, the ease with which the Communists overran Phuoc Long province was a major psychological defeat. "Its fall showed that the central government in Saigon is quite weak," conceded one State Department analyst. "A year ago it would have gone in to defend or recover the place." Equally important, the offensive against Phuoc Long was an indication of an ominous change in the Communists' overall strategy in South Viet Nam. Since the Paris Accords, the Communists have concentrated on building up their hold on rural areas...
Within hours after the fall of Phuoc Binh, Communist forces drove a government garrison off the 3,000-ft. Nui Ba Den, or Black Virgin Mountain. Nui Ba Den is only seven miles from a far more important provincial capital, Tay Ninh (pop. 250,000). If the Communists can hold the mountain, they will be in a strong position to launch a Phuoc Binh-style artillery barrage on the city, thus making it the next target in the Communist effort to further weaken the Saigon government...
...promise that he would ask Congress for $300 million in supplemental funds for new weaponry for Saigon, increasing the current $700 million already appropriated for 1975. Proponents of the request will surely argue that Saigon's shortage of ammunition and aviation fuel seriously hurt its cause in Phuoc Binh and will weaken its defense of other Communist targets. Administration spokesmen predicted that some emergency funds would be approved, but the heavily Democratic Congress, already preoccupied by recession, the oil crisis, and the confrontation in the Middle East, is bound to be reluctant to come once again...
...therefore the only real alternative to him, that only the PRG is likely to lead the Vietnamese people in rebuilding their shattered country into a land where it is at least conceivable that freedom and democracy will be more than just words. That is why the capture of Phuoc Binh last week--the first hint in three years that the continuing battle may have reached a turning point or be drawing toward an end--is such a welcome development...
...United States government did not find the fall of Phuoc Binh welcome. On the contrary, it provoked a flurry of threats of and preparations for stepped-up military involvement in Indochina such as have not been seen since Congress finally forced Richard Nixon to stop bombing Cambodia, two and a half years ago. North Vietnam charged last weekend that U.S. planes have directed Saigon bombers operating in South Vietnam and that U.S. reconnaissance planes have been flying over Hanoi. The long record of lies and cover-ups by the U.S. embassy in Saigon and the Defense Department made their responses...