Word: phuoc
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Dusty Halt. A long column of army trucks drove 27 miles north of Saigon, straight into an arc of Red-controlled territory that provides a safe Communist 50-mile "supply corridor from the Cambodian frontier to the province of Phuoc Thanh. As the first light of dawn slanted down through the thick forest in the district of Ben Cat, the truck column came to a dusty halt, 600 troops of the Vietnamese 5th Division poured over the tail gates and fanned out across the harvested rice fields and rubber plantations to flush out Communists. Typically, the Viet Cong faded away...
...Saigon one night last week, the cafés were crowded and new cars streamed along the boulevards beneath the red, green and blue of neon signs. But 40 miles to the north, the small provincial capital of Phuoc Thanh was shrouded in darkness, and the only sounds were the hoots and crackles of the jungle. Its inhabitants slept uneasily behind the protection of a low earthen rampart and tangles of barbed wire guarded by a handful of sentries...
...Phuoc Thanh woke to the bludgeoning explosion of a plastic bomb that ripped away a corner of the concrete administration building. As the provincial chief and two of his aides rushed to the street, they were shot down. Over the rampart swarmed 600 Viet Cong Communist guerrillas brandishing rifles and machetes. Most of the town's 50 Civil Guards were machine-gunned as they slept. A company of 70 U.S.-trained Vietnamese Rangers retreated to the jungle, leaving the town to its fate. Their commander explained later that he intended to ambush the guerrillas as they withdrew...
Catching Hell. A rescue battalion of Vietnamese paratroopers arrived in the morning. They found Phuoc Thanh gutted by fire, with 42 of its defenders dead and 35 wounded. The Communists had captured 100 rifles and 6,000 rounds of ammunition, and had freed from jail 270 suspected Communist prisoners. Then the entire party had vanished in the jungle...
...Phuoc led French counter-espionage agents to an Indo-Chinese Socialist in whose home police found 80 copies of the Revers report. The Socialist said he had received the report from a known informer whom the cops suspected of playing a double or triple game-informing not only for the French in Indo-China, but also for Ho Chi-Minh's Communists, and possibly checking on Ho for Moscow. The informer in turn told police that he got the report from General Charles Emmanuel Mast, onetime Resident-General in Tunisia, since 1947 on the inactive list...