Word: thailander
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...Viet Nam, the sacrifice and sadness seem always to come wholesale. During the ten years of war with the U.S., 1.5 million Vietnamese were killed. In the decade since the Communists took over, another million have fled the country, sneaking through the bush to Thailand via Laos and Kampuchea, or huddling in boats headed into the treacherous South China Sea. Viet Nam is now quiet and bucolic, the battlefields lush once again. But it is also an anxious, impoverished country, more than a little grim: the terrible random death of war has been replaced by the mean certainties...
...most people, life's basic necessities are satisfied, but anything more--a cup of mocha in a cafe, a second pair of shoes--is a luxury. The per capita income is about $125, less than a fifth of that in neighboring Thailand. Government workers earn monthly salaries of between 200 and 500 dong--worth no more than $55 even at the official exchange rate. Housing is free for civil servants: Nguyen Than Tan, 24, a Foreign Ministry employee, shares a 10-ft. by 12-ft. dormitory room with three other men. Food is subsidized, but rations are meager. Officially...
...spend at least three years in the military. The army, 1.2 million strong, is the world's fourth largest (after the Soviet Union, China and the U.S.). Some 160,000 Vietnamese troops occupy Kampuchea. Nguyen Ba Mai is a deserter from the occupation force, who is now living in Thailand. "In Viet Nam," he says, "whenever you talk, you have to beware of spies...
During similar offensives in past years, the Vietnamese always shelled the camps, driving tens of thousands of refugees into Thailand, but then retreated from the border posts relatively quickly. The guerrillas always managed to rebuild their bases during the rainy season, beginning in May. When they did, as many as 100,000 Khmer refugees would flood back over to the Kampuchean side. This year, however, Hanoi seems bent on the elimination of the resistance altogether. With the Vietnamese firmly entrenched close to the frontier, the refugees may have to remain in Thailand, a situation that puts considerable political and financial...
Nonetheless, the character of the conflict clearly has changed. For several months now, Thailand, China and the U.S. have been advising the resistance to regroup in small, mobile units that can strike swiftly, rather than relying on static defenses. Said one U.S. official: "The resistance can't fight and win this war from fixed camps. They must become real guerrillas...