Word: tra
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...Trung. Actually, Nam Trung is a nom de guerre meaning "south central" (after the portion of Indochina more commonly known as South Viet Nam) and has probably been used at various times by at least three commanders, a fact that has caused endless confusion. Even after Tran Van Tra publicly emerged in 1973 as the Communists' top general in the South, many experts were still not sure that he was indeed the shadowy Trung. Last week, as his troops pressed in on Saigon, there was no longer much doubt that Tra and Trung were one. But few Westerners...
...rapidly becoming an undeveloped country." A country, moreover, whose pristine beauties and excitements are now largely invisible to those who tra verse...
...Secret. The American G.I., said Tra, had been a worthy foe. "His equipment was better than anything we had. And there is no doubt that he was a good fighter and courageous. But an army has to have an ideal to fight for. It can't defeat an army that has a cause...
...true that the Viet Cong had received advance word on B-52 strikes, as some have claimed? Tra laughed. "We lived in the jungle and we knew the country and the leaves and the grass," he said. But what about the B-52s above? "We also knew our sky," he boasted. "We even knew the schedule of their flights. We had the support of the local people, and they told us the things we needed to know...
...looking back on the war, Tra was inclined to view the Tet offensive in 1968 and the Easter offensive in 1972 as the turning points. "The aim of Tet was to get the Americans to de-escalate," he said. "The aim of the 1972 offensive was to force the Americans to sign a peace agreement. These were both victories." And what of An Loc, the South Vietnamese town that held out for three months against the assaults of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops? Tra glowered. "There are some things that it is best not to talk about," he said...