Word: montagnard
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...country's new strongman, goateed General Nguyen Khanh, took the occasion to make a second grass-roots tour, this one to mountainous central Viet Nam. At a village of montagnard tribesmen, Khanh let his feet be ceremonially washed in rice wine and buffalo blood. At a bleak infantry fort guarding the Laotian frontier, Khanh trotted out three sparsely clad Saigon cabaret cuties to put on a show, then announced an even greater morale booster-a 20% pay raise for privates and corporals...
...throwing bigger units into battle. In the north at Dakrode, 100 guerrillas assaulted one of the area's strategic hamlets-now renamed "combat hamlets" by the Saigon regime to create a more aggressive image. The attackers blew up barbed-wire defenses and overran the village after 550 montagnard tribesmen defending it fought valiantly until their ammunition ran out, then fled. (They later returned.) Forcing captured tribesmen to carry 30 Communist dead and wounded, the guerrillas faded once again into the bush, leaving behind a trail of bloody bandages...
Sound of Music. Near Plei Mrong, McNamara tramped through red mud to visit a village of Montagnard tribesmen that had been nearly destroyed by the Viet Cong last January; surrounded by goats, pigs, chickens and barebreasted women, the Defense Secretary observed the villagers voting in the national election being held that day, which was carefully arranged to sweep back into office a new Diem-ruled National Assembly. Then the Secretary, Taylor and Ambassador Lodge headed south into the Communistinfested Mekong Delta, where the war has always been an uphill struggle, and where the Reds have recently increased activity. As they...
There are some reasons for optimism. Substantial progress has been made in the central highlands, where U.S. Special Forces teams have molded 150,000 montagnard tribesmen into a tough, well-trained jungle force that is effectively harassing Viet Cong supply lines from Communist North Viet Nam. The government has embarked on a crash program to construct some 12,000 "strategic hamlets." fortified villages where the peasants will be guarded against Viet Cong attacks by trained, well-armed militiamen. Already 9,750,000 people?65% of the population?have been settled in the 7,500 hamlets that have been built...
...week's end, members of a montagnard honor guard at Saigon airport paid their final farewell to their brother as his flag-draped coffin was put aboard a plane for shipment back to the U.S. and burial...