Word: saigon
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...more than a decade of combat and at a cost of 46,000 American dead and 304,000 wounded, the last American forces were scheduled to pull out on March 28, leaving any future warfare to the Vietnamese themselves. As the milestone day approached, G.I.s crowded the streets of Saigon, bidding farewell to their bar girls, jamming the U.S. consulate to get visas for Vietnamese fiancées, wives and children and buying souvenirs...
...troops were ready to depart, the cease-fire agreement hit a snag. U.S. Government officials in Saigon insisted that the North Vietnamese release, in addition to all remaining U.S. prisoners in both Viet Nams, the ten P.O.W.s known to be held in Laos, arguing that that had been part of an "understanding" between Le Due Tho and Henry Kissinger. Until that condition was met, the U.S. said, it would refuse to continue the withdrawal of its troops...
...North retaliated with new demands of its own. A spokesman for the Viet Cong declared in Saigon that the North would not consider the U.S. withdrawal complete until the 825 U.S. soldiers on the Joint Military Commission and the 159 Marine guards who are to serve at the U.S. embassy are withdrawn along with the 5,249 other remaining American servicemen. Up to that point, the U.S. had planned to keep its JMC soldiers on hand in case the four-party commission agreed to continue functioning past the March 28 deadline. As for the P.O.W.s held in Laos, the North...
...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. Was it true that he himself had visited Saigon on a reconnaissance mission before the Tet offensive? Tra smiled. "That," he said, "is top secret...
...book gives a very appealing sense of a good young reporter's old-fashioned professionalism. Willwerth's spare form, with its effort to "avoid history and politics wherever possible," naturally mixes death with lukewarm eggs, bad Saigon traffic, disappointing bar girls, and the other irritations Willwerth keeps counting. But the book brings the war home with fine, straight reportage on the G.I.s, their Galley debates and fraggings, and a heroin network he stumbles upon. When the year is up, Willwerth leaves Viet Nam, wondering whether his journalism mattered...