Word: saigon
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...this week. Iacobucci found himself trapped in Quang Tri with 80 U.S. advisers. The North Vietnamese barrage was so intense that rescue helicopters could not get in for days. The only newsman still with the group, Iacobucci phoned periodic reports of the battle's progress back to Saigon. The Italian freelance also called friends to say goodbye-prematurely, as it turned out. Helicopters finally were able to take the advisers and Iacobucci to Danang. "In four years in Viet Nam," he says now, "I have never been so scared...
...attacks and the resulting panic among some South Vietnamese units (see THE WORLD). Hanoi doubtless was stalling until it could perceive the outcome at Hué and Kontum, where Communist victories could demoralize the South's military and civil authority and perhaps achieve the goal of toppling the Saigon government of President Nguyen Van Thieu. Thus Hanoi stuck to its past bargaining positions in Paris. The U.S., while proclaiming flexibility on its negotiating points, remained firmly behind Thieu. Said Kissinger: "The only thing we have refused to do is to end the war by imposing a Communist government...
...Even George Wallace concedes that he is. Americans want their troops back home, the prisoners released and the killing stopped. To be sure, they do not want to see U.S. forces humiliated in a panicky flight for the beaches or watch Communist troops seize immediate control of a Saigon government that the U.S. has supported at such a high price for so long. But they are certainly in the mood for reasonable compromise. Moreover, even most military men feel frustrated by the futility of the conflict, especially the prolonged demonstration of the limits of U.S. power in a restrictive situation...
...fall of Quang Tri cast a pall of gloom over Saigon and Washington, and raised urgent questions about Vietnamization, the hopeful policy through which the U.S. had built up the army of South Viet Nam, at immense cost in lives and treasure, to fight the Communists on its own. Could ARVN survive, much less defeat the North Vietnamese offensive? Could President Thieu-and even the U.S. presence and influence in South Viet Nam-outlast another similar defeat...
When would the attack on Hué come? After the fall of Quang Tri, an ominous slack-off in Communist activity occurred last week on all three major battlefields, while the foe regrouped and marshaled his forces. In the Saigon area, Communist pressure eased on the long-besieged city of An Loc, 60 miles north of the capital. In the Central Highlands, the Communists made no move to follow up their rout of the ARVN 22nd Division with a direct assault on Kontum, which has been surrounded by Communist troops and is highly vulnerable to capture. Would the Communists strike...