Word: saigon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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EXCEPT for the Communists, America's worst enemy in Viet Nam has been American official optimism. Years of miserable stalemate have been accompanied by overblown pronouncements from Saigon and Washington about how well the war was going. Credibility gapped in the Johnson Administration, when cant phrases like "turning the corner in Viet Nam" and "light at the end of the tunnel" became bitter jokes. In recent months, however, U.S. officials-backed by scattered reports from perennially skeptical journalists -have cautiously begun to spread word that the situation on the ground in Viet Nam looks better than...
Rather, explains TIME Saigon Bureau Chief Marsh Clark, "the enemy is increasingly unable to achieve his own aims, which are military victory and overthrow of the Thieu government. The chance of success for the often repeated U.S. object in Viet Nam-to guarantee the South Vietnamese the right of self-determination, free from outside aggression-has vastly improved during the past year, because gradually an environment has been created in which the South Vietnamese can fend for themselves...
High-ranking U.S. officers in Saigon point out that main-force enemy units have been driven away from population centers. No major city in South Viet Nam has undergone an important attack this year. The strongest enemy divisions are now clustered along the Laotian and Cambodian borders. Local guerrillas and sappers still manage daily forays inland, but American officials argue that at the moment the enemy capacity for full-scale offensives appears drastically reduced...
...Communist slaughter of civilians was wholesale while the Communists held the old imperial capital of Hué during their 1968 Tet offensive. Working from house to house with specially prepared "blood lists," they rounded up all officials and people suspected of working with the U.S. and Saigon governments. Some were arrested, others shot on the spot. The magnitude of the massacre did not begin to become fully evident until after government troops had retaken the city and uncovered a mass grave with 150 bodies. Their find led to the discovery of more grisly caches: 19 mass graves in and around...
...Court ruled that civilians cannot be court-martialed for crimes they committed during military service. The court did suggest a remedy: new laws could provide for trial in federal courts of ex-servicemen charged with military crimes. So far, Congress has not enacted the necessary legislation. Nor can the Saigon government prosecute the discharged My Lai participants-even if it wanted to. An agreement signed by the U.S. and South Viet Nam prevents each country from trying nationals of the other. As an alternative, the Army may ask President Nixon to appoint a special commission to try the men under...