Word: saigon
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...RESIGNATION. Huong, under pressure from U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin and Saigon leaders to resign, capitulated at about 4:30 Sunday afternoon, saying that he would transfer the presidency to the "personality" chosen by South Viet Nam's legislature?and "the sooner the better." Hours later, the National Assembly voted 134 to 2 to give the job to Big Minh...
...night before, an overwhelming force of 16 Communist divisions had tightened its vise around Saigon, moving to cut Route 15, the city's only escape to the sea. Sunday night there was heavy fighting at several points around the capital, including a murderous artillery assault against the airbase at Bien Hoa. Poised on the outskirts of the city, the Communist troops faced virtually no resistance. Most of the top ARVN military leaders had already fled or were making plans to do so; the regular troops were leaderless, demoralized and overpowered...
...INAUGURATION. By dawn Monday, Saigon, for the first time, was totally cut off from the rest of South Viet Nam. Communist forces had brought enough artillery to the edge of the city to level it utterly if they chose to do so. On the northern edge of Saigon, flatbed trucks piled high with crated ammunition roared away from the supply depot at Newport, their air horns shrieking. The Newport tank farm burst into flame with a series of explosions that shook the ground and sent clouds of black smoke, easily visible from the center of Saigon, billowing into...
...carpeted and hung with gold brocade, great rolls of thunder and flashes of lightning accompanied him. The Communists were not impressed. P.R.G. representatives promptly rejected Minn's proposal, charging that he had not met their conditions: 1) all U.S. military personnel must leave Viet Nam, and 2) the new Saigon government must have no holdovers from the old U.S.-supported regime. As Minh worked frantically to arrange a settlement, Saigon was gripped by the fear that the Communists would launch an all-out attack. "There is just one way out for us now," said an official, "by American choppers...
Just after 6 p.m., three A-37 jet fighter-bombers struck Tan Son Nhut airbase, destroying several planes on the ground and causing explosions that rocked Saigon. It seemed most likely that the attackers were South Vietnamese pilots venting their frustration over the endless agony of their country. That, too, seemed to be the reason for an outbreak of small-arms fire in Saigon that soon followed. Every ARVN soldier and policeman in the city seemed senselessly to empty his gun. After 15 minutes the firing sputtered and died. But there was still the concussion of distant bombs from Bien...