Word: tried
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...reason for this painful loss of precious materiel was the very suddenness of Thieu's decision to abandon several provinces. Soldiers had no time to organize orderly retreats. In northern Quang Tri province, one of the army's best regional defense groups suffered a 15% desertion rate just before the Communist attack on the once lovely Hue; most of the deserters were concerned about the fate of their families. The retreat from Hue reached the frightening proportions of a stampede. Soldiers left behind 105-mm. howitzers and threw away rifles...
...unutterable tragedy for the true victims of the war, the South Vietnamese people. Helped by retreating ARVN soldiers, upwards of half a million refugees trekked by military convoy, on motorcycle, buffalo cart, bicycle or foot toward areas still held by the government. Some 200,000 people fled Quang Tri and Hué for Danang (see box page 34). Hundreds of thousands from the Central Highlands streamed eastward toward the coast. In Military Region II, just south of fallen Darlac, the resort town of Dalat was rapidly being emptied, even though there seemed to be no imminent danger of Communist attack...
Most of the refugees and even a large majority of the withdrawing troops were not bothered by Communist forces. In Quang Tri province, Communist tanks even lit the way at night for both soldiers and civilians. The evacuation of some areas went so smoothly that there were rumors of a deal between the Communists and the Saigon government. Thieu, it was said, had given up the territory in exchange for the safety of the population-a story emphatically denied by Saigon. In any case, there were some reports of Communist efforts to harass the flow of refugees...
...historic rearrangement of the Vietnamese political map. He flew to Danang for consultations with ARVN'S best field commander, Lieut. General Ngo Quang Truong, and decided to carry out plans that apparently had been drawn up months ago: to pull back the main line of defense from Quang Tri and probably Thua Thien provinces down to the coastal city of Danang. General Truong had already lost the backbone of his defense the week before when Thieu ordered 4,000 men of South Viet Nam's crack airborne division back to their original base headquarters near Saigon...
...have to say that I was cynical," said Marine Captain John Ely, 35, who spent nine months at Fire Base Fuller in Quang Tri province. "They've had all the opportunities we can afford to give them. I don't care if they make...