Word: saigon
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...laconic military briefings in Saigon, ARVN officials claimed that nearly 63,000 enemy soldiers have been killed since the Paris accords were signed. The South Vietnamese admit losing more than 17,000 men during this period. Despite the intensity of recent fighting-a last-minute Communist flurry before" the monsoons set in-few in Saigon expect a major Communist offensive. Through interrogation of defectors, South Vietnamese intelligence experts have been able to reconstruct a major document based upon a North Vietnamese strategy directive. The document is Central Office for South Viet Nam (COSVN) Resolution 12, designed to inform cadres...
...reconstructed and as yet un published directive emphasizes a longterm, cautious struggle to take over all of Viet Nam. Communist forces will try to force Saigon to implement the Paris accords ("a great victory") so that the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong guerrillas can nip off territory bit by bit. Says the document: "We will have to attack point by point, grasping partial victories and advancing to ward final victory...
With a tacit bow to the effectiveness of Saigon's counterinsurgency forces in urban areas, the document admits that "our infrastructure has been lost completely. We were seduced by the illusion of peace and became inactive against enemy tricks. We have lost a certain amount of land and population in the Mekong Delta"-estimated by Saigon to be about 20% of the land held by the Communists at the time of the Paris accords...
...resolution acknowledges the strength of Saigon's American-equipped 1.1 million-man army. It also discusses weakness and instability in the Thieu government and refers to signs of a "serious crisis" in Saigon. With only a minimum of hyperbole, it talks of such chronic problems as "less rice, escalation of prices, people so hungry they commit suicide. U.S. aid is being reduced. There is not enough money to pay civil servants and soldiers. The single resource left is emission of bank notes ... These weak points are basic, lasting, difficult to overcome and increasingly serious...
Observes one longtime analyst of Vietnamese affairs: "What is remarkable about the document is its conservatism." Indeed, there are other indications that the Communists are digging in for the long haul. Apparently they have no strong hopes that they can topple the Saigon regime in the foreseeable future...