Word: quang
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Thieu's obsessive reclusiveness has cost his country dearly in recent weeks. Apparently, after consulting only two close aides, he summarily ordered ARVN to abandon three provinces in the Central Highlands and the northernmost province of Quang Tri. Most Pentagon analysts acknowledge that on paper Thieu's strategy may have been sound: by shrinking his lines of defense, he should have, theoretically, made it easier to protect the most important areas of the country. But the same analysts roundly condemn Thieu's execution of that strategy. A "retrograde" maneuver ? as the experts euphemistically term such a withdrawal ? requires...
...loss of territory continued to be heavy; five provinces fell to Communist control last week alone, raising the total number of lost provinces to thirteen (out of 44). First to go were Quang Tin and Quang Ngai in the north. They were followed by Thua Thien; its capital, the old imperial city of Hue, easily fell to the Communists early one morning at midweek. That left only the city of Danang, swollen grotesquely with panicky refugees, as a final enclave in the entire five-province northern area that is referred to as Military Region I (see box, page 33). Some...
Most disastrous from Saigon's point of view was the unexpected weakness of its army's defense. In Tarn Ky and Quang Ngai City, government forces simply evaporated before the Communist advance, often dropping their arms and supplies in the process. In Ban Me Thuot, the provincial capital 160 miles northwest of Saigon, panicky troops fled a Communist offensive three weeks ago, abandoning 1 million gallons of gas, 3,200 tons of ammunition and 10,000 tons of rice. Three days before the city's collapse, 100 trucks arrived with supplies that were soon captured...
...reason for this painful loss of precious materiel was the very suddenness of Thieu's decision to abandon several provinces. Soldiers had no time to organize orderly retreats. In northern Quang Tri province, one of the army's best regional defense groups suffered a 15% desertion rate just before the Communist attack on the once lovely Hue; most of the deserters were concerned about the fate of their families. The retreat from Hue reached the frightening proportions of a stampede. Soldiers left behind 105-mm. howitzers and threw away rifles...
...have to say that I was cynical," said Marine Captain John Ely, 35, who spent nine months at Fire Base Fuller in Quang Tri province. "They've had all the opportunities we can afford to give them. I don't care if they make...