Word: thieu
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Nixon blames South Viet Nam's sudden collapse in 1975 on Capitol Hill, rather than on the weakness of the Thieu regime. By slashing aid to Saigon, he says, Congress "cut off Thieu's water. Congress lost it... and they have to take the blame for it." Was the long, costly effort to buy time for the Thieu regime worth it? "Two years is worth something." Nixon insists. He concedes that history must judge the wisdom of this policy, and concludes, "It will be a close call...
...nation's fastest-growing volunteer movement, the almost 1.5 million-member Village Scouts. Sponsored by the royal family, the scouts preach loyalty to King, country and Buddhism. Besides seeking local allies like the scouts, field commanders claim to have learned from the failures of the U.S. and the Thieu regime in Viet Nam. "If the Thai soldier is corrupt," says an army major, "then the Thais will lose the same way Laos and Viet Nam lost...
After more than a generation of war, few Southern cadres survived to take over when the Thieu government collapsed. Instead, nearly all bureaucracies, farms and factories are being run by Northerners. Helping keep order are fresh recruits, known contemptuously as Ba Muoi ("30s," meaning opportunists who joined the revolution after April 30). Says a recent exile from Saigon: "The North Vietnamese Army is still viewed as an army of occupation, not liberation." Adds Hoang Troung Tan, a former civil servant who escaped this fall: "The officials treated me and my father like slaves. My father is a fisherman...
...Hanoi recognized the reduction of U.S. aid to the Saigon government as a key factor in the war's outcome. Says Dung: "Nguyen Van Thieu was forced to fight a poor man's war." He adds that Saigon's "firepower had declined by nearly 60% because of bomb and ammunition shortages. Its mobility was reduced by half, owing to the lack of aircraft, vehicles and fuel...
...offensive to be either in Tay Ninh province, near the Cambodian border, or farther north in Pleiku. Hence the Communists' decision to launch the initial thrust against the Central Highlands city of Ban Me Thuot. That came as a complete surprise to Saigon and led President Thieu to his hasty decision to withdraw his forces from the Central Highlands. Dung calls Thieu's decision a "grave strategic mistake." Thereafter, he says, Hanoi's main problem was moving fast enough to maintain the military initiative. For example, the Communists sent a commander from Hanoi to take charge...