Word: pleiku
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Changed Rules. When the U.S. finally acted, it was almost a classic case of too little too late. What finally stirred Lyndon's choler was the Viet Cong attack on two U.S. camps at Pleiku in February. Eight Americans died, 125 were wounded. "I've had enough of this," raged the President. Next day, scores of U.S. Navy jets roared beyond the 17th parallel for the first time to plaster "bloodless" military installations in North Viet Nam. In return, the Viet Cong blew up a U.S. enlisted men's billet in the port city of Qui Nhon...
Most of the Communist reinforcements are concentrating in such plateau provinces as Kontum and Pleiku, where the only fire brigade at Westmoreland's disposal has been the overworked 1st Cavalry. To lend them a hand, a 4,000-man contingent from the Army's 25th
Saigon thinks the enemy may well try to pair its new terrorist campaign with an offensive in the field. Most likely spot: the Kontum-Pleiku region in the western highlands, where the Ho Chi Minh trail feeds men and supplies from Laos into South Viet Nam. The Communists have been notably quiet there since the bloody battles in the la Drang valley last month. Intelligence experts say they detect signs that the North Vietnamese regulars are busily regrouping, perhaps preparing for an unprecedented division-sized assault...
...through its middle, cutting the Americans into two isolated halves. "After that," said an officer later, "it was man-to-man, hand-to-hand fighting between two very well-disciplined and very determined outfits." Though artillery and air support were soon on the way, and reinforcements were rushed from Pleiku (where many were abruptly called out of a memorial service for their dead at Chu Pong), la Drang quickly succeeded Chu Pong as the costliest U.S. battle of the war in human lives...
...Corps headquarters in Pleiku, a government relief force was quickly assembled but more cautiously dispatched. While its tanks, M-113 armored personnel carriers, artillery and a thousand infantrymen crept in by road, a helicopter landing force of 250 Vietnamese Rangers dropped boldly into Plei Me at first light. Commanded by burly, boulder-bellied U.S. Army Major Charles H. Beckwith, 36, of Atlanta, the Rangers quickly filled the vacuum caused by the Reds' initial assault...