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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06351 to 363-06360.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06351 to 363-06360
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Title
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Article about the state of the War in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "War", Article draft about the state of the war in South Vietnam, for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Dear Mr. Rosenfeld:
Your latest
cable about Khanh's inability to mobilize support
arrived about two hours before the last plane for New York whichwould
cet a story to you in time for the Sunday edition.
Hence, I'll have to send that to you fex as soon as possible,
but not for the Sunday.
I was already
Regarding your request for "Why the V.C. lull",
working on a broader piece than that, but which answers that question.
I'll enclose it and hope that it proves satisfactory.
I was toying in
my own mind how to write the piece when your cable arrived;
and so 1'11
also enclose two pages of an alternate load, if you prefer that instead.
My many thanks.
Sincerely,
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- Page 2
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Beverly Deepe
101 Cong Ly
Saigon
Page 1-War
SAICON-Ten months ago, a Western diplomat described the
anti-Communist war inVietnam as "a ship with all the sails flapping, but not
going anywhere." This week, the same diplomat lamented, "Now the ship is
sinking."
the
The prevailing mood of pessimism inmengen is based one
GOVERNMENT
current instability and uncertainity of the Saigon on the one
hand and the expectations of a political-military offensive by the
pro-Communist Viet Cong guerrillas on the other in
way
This is a sun-up of the viewer political-military sources
in now look at the tangled situa tion:
(More)
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- Page 3
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deepe
war-2
During the
Militer.
1. Pro-Communist Viet Cong guerrillas are now moving
well-equipped battalions to concentrate their strength in a "strangulating
are in the provinces around Saigon, according to reliable military sources.
(See map.)
The troop movement from the lower Mekong Delta region, known
as IV Corps-which the Viet Cong already assume they & dominato-to more than
half dozen provinces around Saigon, increases the guerrilla's capability
for regiment-controlled attacks against all district towns and many provincial
towns around Saigon.
"The Viet Cong will try to use regimental-sized units," one
high-ranking Vietnamese officer predicted. (Informatively only-General Nguyen
Khanh, prime minister). "The are quite capable of doing this and are willing to
But they will have never the force to hold a position. We (the government)
can go anywhere we like to."
do soe
Some military sources believe that the Viet Cong have already in the
past three months condutec conducted well-coordinated operations of three-battalion
strength. In one of these last month, two battalions simultaneously attacked
five outposts, but the third was positioned to ambush reinforcements, which
inflicted heavy casualties on an elite Ranger company.
(More)
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- Page 4
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Deepe
War-3A
Some military sources
Some
A American military sources attribute the "ominous lull" of the
Viet Cong to the success of more than 6,000 small-unit pa trols, many of them
at night. Other American sources note that Viet Cong activities always
flow in cycles, with periods of rest and training alternated between
military offensives.
Some Vietnamese officers, who fouch fought with the
Communist guerrillas during the French Indo-"hina War, believe that the
Viet Cong are writing their semi-annual reports to superior headquarters and
resting after securing their loot during the rice harvest season.
(more)
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- Page 5
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Deepe
War--3
2. This acknowledged threat of Viet Cong reglemental-zi
VHERS IN
regimental-sized operations banged the crucial--and final-Third Phase
which lead to
the disasterous defeat of the French
of guerrilla warfare,
at Dien Bien Phu dami
which ended the Indo-China War
in 1954.
Tse-Tung,
In the Third Phase, described in the military writings of Mao
small guerrilla bands with pm support of the population consolidate
into conventional warfare units, but they operate along a mobile frontline,
to produce what Mao calls "decision or destruction of the enemy." For the
first time in the war, government officials have been picking up Viet Cong
propaganda appealing for populer support during de "this decisive phase of the
war."
However, military sources here dee believe the por pro-Communist
units will attempt a showdown battle in one place, but will get
in many places.
"We're not going to have a Dien Bien Phu," one military officer
a hundred
explained, "but many st
small-er-scale Dien Bien Phus."
Scholas Scholars of guerrilla warfare say that there is little
hope of destroying a revolutionary guerrilla movement after it has survived the
first phase (organization and consolidation) and has acquired the sympathetic
support of significant numbers of the people.
Briggith in Mao Tse-Tung on Guerrilla Warfare;
(More)
(See notes of Sammel B.
page 27).
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Deepe
War--4
3.
However, despite this concentrated military threat,
observers believe the Viet Cong are not interested in military victories,
but in producing the "proper political climate" in this capital city
already rent with political uncertainty.
"This political xt climate is not necessarily neutralism
as the Communists wanted six months ago," one reliable Western military source
explained. "They do not need that now. They're now strong enough to
expect absolute accommodation to whatever they wish to dictate."
Simultaneous with this consistent, spectacular military offensive,
the
which is expected during the monsoon season lasting until October,
Yg "invisible" political subversion of the
pro-Communist elements is becoming increasingly evident in Saigon and other
urban centers. The prime focus is on current Catholio-Buddhist tensions.
Many persons believe both the Ctholio and Buddhist organizations are either
infiltrated of influenced by the Viet Congs almost everyone acknowledges
that even if this is not true, the Viet Cong more than anyone any other element
benefits from these dissensions.
"We know these regions religious tensions are part of the
Viet Cong strategy," a high-ranking Vietnamese security officer lamented.
"But we can not prove who their agents are."
(More)
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- Page 7
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Deepe
Waz-5
Other reliable sources note that 18 of the more than 30
Vietnamese-language newspapers in Saigon have Viet Cong a gents on their
staffs. But the security source = explained, "the government dare not
arrest these people because they are close associates of powerful economic
interests and high-ranking government officials."
"Behdind all this anti-government talk is the Buddhists, Catholics,
political parties," one militant Vietnamese anti-Communist explained. "And
behind them are the Viet Cong. And behind the Viet Cong are the French,"
who during the past ten months have proposed a neutralist settlement for
South Viet Nem and allied themselves with the Communists in proposed
Leotian and Cambodian conferences.
5.
While the Viet Cong political agitation has resulted in
dissensions end uncertainties incon, the inherent weaknesses withing the
Saigon government has done likewise.
"There's a Crisis in leadership and a crisis in confidence in
the Vietnamese government," a university professor explained, A growing fear
persists among the Indian and Chinese business community; middle-class parents
are attempting to get their children out of the country; young mid married
couples try to secure false French citizenship pepers or to smuggle themselves
over the Cambodian border. Exit permits are becoming increasingly prised.
of 22 young ind mm English-speaking Vietnamese working in a translating
Vietnamese now in exile in Paris and
pool, eight are trying to leave Viet Nam.
the United States are select reluctant to return upon the request of the government.
(More)
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Deepe
War-6
Speculation of a pending government reshuffle along the lines
Now
of de- de Gaulle's France has not become entangled with rumors
the persistent threat of a violent military coup d'etat against prime minister
Generel Nguyen Khanh, But even the intellectuals in Saigon are in
disagreement as to whom should be named as a new strongman to replace
the energetic goateed general, who has been caught in a cris crossfire between
hix the Catholic-Buddhist tensions, between various factions of Vietnam's
Sim flimsy political parties; between in-fighting within his own military
junta.
In fact, about the only point of agreement at all is, as one
Vietnamese intellectual explained, "the Vietnamese government is at the end
But knobody knows what's
of something and the beginning of something new.
going to happen."
-30-
(Note:
Source for most of the first two pages of this is Col. Serong,
head of the Australian Training theam here. He's on Gen. Harkins staff and
He forecasted
everytime I've interviewed him, he turned out to be right.
the collapse of the strategic hamlet program months before it happened;
he's seen Communist tactics in Burma and Malaya and is generally considered
an excellent source.)
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Beverly Deepe
101 Cong Lys Saigon
War--1
Se con-Reliable military sources report pro-Communist Viot Cong
guerrillas are moving heavily-equipped battalions to concentrate their
military strongth in a "strangulating are" in th
of provinces around Saigon.
(See map.)
Sources believe the purpose of troop novements of classified
number of battalions is not for direct military attacks on Saigon, but for
the establishment of the proper "political climate" in this capital city
already rent with political uncertainties on the
"This political climate is not necesary necessarily noutralion
as the Commmists wanted six months ago," one reliable Western military source
explained. "They do not nood that now. They're now strong enough to expect
absolute accommodation to whatever the Hat Cons wish to dictate."
(More)
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- Page 10
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Deepe
War-2
A mysterious, momentary period of relative inactivity by the
Viet Cong has given the Vietnamese government forces a brief breathing time
fork progress in military operations and a the sister program of
pacifying with social-economio-political means the civilian population. However,
these tactics of th
government for ces forces are bracing themselves for the time when this
"ominous lull" are abandoned by the pro-Communists for reignon regimental-
controlled operations against district towns and provincial oepitels.
"The Viet Cong will try to use regimental sized units," one
high-ranking Vietnamese officer (informatively on only-General Nguyen Khanh,
prime minister) concedel. "They are quite capable of doing this and are
willing to do so. But they will never have to force to hold. We (the government
forces) can go anywhere we like to."
Military sources say that the Viet Cong have already in the past
three months conducted well-coordinated operations of three-battalion stronght.
Bucket In one of these last month, two battalions simultaneously attacked
five outposts, but the third was positioned to ambush reinforcements. The
ambush snimity inflicted serious casualties on an elite Ranger company.
(More)
[Pickup
24
on other Staticle]
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Date
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1967-1968, approximate
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Strategy
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B11, F10
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
