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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04399 to 363-04406.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04399 to 363-04406
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Title
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Article about Vietnamese nationalist's optimism
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Description
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Original title: "confidence", Keever's title: "Vietnamese Nationalists' see[?] Optimism from [?]." Article draft about the growing sense of optimism in non-Communist Vietnamese circles. Written 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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zC2c sag
yy nam
confidence 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, AUGUST 26-Within the past week,
an air of profound relief,
if not optimistic exuberance, has penetrated the ranks of Vietnamese
nationalists in and out of governmental circles.
The new feeling of confidence is based on"
REE
these two factors:
First,
a sensing that the Allied military commands have successfully,
although only temporarily, thwarted the Communist objectives during the
past eight days of accelerated and escala te escalated ground fighting
in the South.
Over this past week-end,
the Communists had been expected
the twenty-third anniversary
to make a bold new military move to celebrate
of their August 25th insurrection in Saigon--but nothing spectacular happened.
Also, news that the remote Special Forces camp of Duc Lap had held in
the face of a North Vietnamese regiment near the Cambodian border sp
spiralled the optimism of Vietnamese senior officers.
==more reuter
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- Page 2
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ZOZO: sag
Jy nnm
confidence 2 (normass/deepe)
The second factor is that Vietnamese nationalists and
newspaper editorialists have been predicting for weeks that President
Lyndon Johnson would stop the bombing of North Vietnam as a means to
out, Aneu
the
Influence the non-doves at the Democratic Convention, rather than holding
out for firm concessions of de-escalation from Hanoi. Now,
Democratic nomination convention is at hand--and the bombing of the
North continues.
The third factor is the Czeck crisis.
The non-Communist
Vietnamese in and out of the government believe the invasion of the
small country by Soviet-and-gatel satellite troops-has been an
enormous setback to the Communists, has peeked the conflict and
contradications within the Communist bloc--and might potentially
mean an indirect gain for the anti-Communists here. Internally, even
the Vietnamese pro-neutralist and "fence-sitting" politicians,
such as
the militant Buddhist monks and lay leaders,
condemn the invasion of the little East European nation--and thus they
HERE
some
are known to
are now on the political defensive! at the same time they have been
mapping out
m peace plans unacceptable to the Vietnamese government.
==more reuter
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- Page 3
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2020 sag
yy nnm
confidence 3 (normass/deepe)
For years,
the
Vietnam's foreign ministers have consistently used the
case of Czeckoslovakia to point out why South Vietnam would never accept
a coalition with the Communists-even a minority of Communists in a
government means meant they would eventually seize control of the whole
p administration by "liquidation" of the non-Communists. Now,
Vietnamese government officials use the current Czeck crisis to prove
an even larger point that they have also beenarguing for years.
Vietnamese nationalists here have adophor 3 deplored the e
invasion of Czeckoslovakia, but President Nguyen Van Thieu, in a television
summed up the mood in the most a black-and-white terms:
address,
events in Czeckoslovakia
repressed in a Communist society,
Various
"show that freedom is always ruthlessly
because even the timid expressions of
freedom represent already a serious threat to Communist tyranny.... Another
d. lesson...is that national independence in the Communist world
is only a myth, especially when a small Communist country lives next to a
big Communist eh neighbor. These events reveal the emptiness and the
tragic irony of the Communist claims to fight for the liberation of the
Republic of Vietnam, by attempting to impose by force a regime obedient
to international Communism..."
==more reuter
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- Page 4
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zozo sag.
yy nnm
confidence 4 (normass/deepe)
Developments in Czeckoslovakia and Chicago would not produce much
optim plus the
here,
however, if the more immediate problems of the battlefield
had not been successfully countered by the Allied commands.
Senior
Vietnamese officers here believe that the Communists sull have the
capability and the intention of launching spectacular drives into major
they believe that the Communists are now forced
urban centers. However,
These sources,
to postpone these drives for at least another week or two.
not known for any official optimism in the past, believe that the
Communists wanted to push their big-unit formations into the major
cities--but thus far they have only been able to achieve small-scale
raiding, commando and terrorist activities in the some of cities.
Thus far,
their big-unit formations have not emerged in a
spectacular, coordinated offensive, these sources say, and this
view as a temporary sign of weakness on the Communist part.
==more reuter
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- Page 5
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zcze sag
Jy nnm
confidence 5 (normass/deepe)
Not
While the Communists have seized the initiative in escalating the
ground fighting, the Allied forces have reacted quickly and with success-nd
siml simply the American and Vietnamese regulars, but also the Vietnamese
under-paid and poorly armed regional forces. In Quang Ngai, four companies
of regional forces thwarted a Communist drive to seize the provincial
headquarters And power station; 39 Communists were killed in the unsuccessful
In T the Tay Ninh province attacks,
attempt and no regional force casualties.
where the escal acceleration of the ground war began on August 18, the
regional forces also were instrumental in slowing down the Communist advance,
And the civilian irregular
American senior American for sources said.
forces at the Duc Lap district headquarters and Special Forces sem, uccessed
in holding out even when the Communist regulars at one time seized half of
the defense camp's defense perimeter.
==more reuter
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- Page 6
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zcze sag
yy nnm
confidence 6 (normass/deepe).
These Vietnamese military sources believe the current medium-level
pattern of the ground war war will continue at least this week--the week
of the Democratic convention--and possibly another week, informatiam and
world.
MORE VORAble
Comment if successful-then the Communists might be in a better
SENSAtional
A
battlefield position to launch
into the major cities.
sensational offensive big-unit offensive
eable
These officers define the current pattern of the ground war this way:
rocket and mortar attacks on
1.
Widespread, low-level,
Vietnamese cities, mxnmxmthan provincial and district towns
the full wait width and breadth of the country. These are considered
the pyroteh pyrotechnics of political psychology, rather than demonstrations
of military power,
with the purpose of wearing down the anti-Communist
After
mora le of the civilian popula tion. During the eta Communist intrusion
HOWEVER
into Tay Ninh city, for examp
ample, the pro-government religious leaders of
the Cao Dai Church still remain confident in this and believe
the Communists failed in their attempts to bold seize and hold for several
days portions of the provincial capital.
==more reuter
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- Page 7
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zcze sag
Jy nnm
confidence 7 (normass/deepe)
2. A continued effort on the part of the Communists to consolidate
their military position in the rural areas before al launching an all-out
They are expected to continue to perfect their
attack on the cities.
the coordination of their rocket attacks and smaller unit ground forces
before sending their big-units into an en inter-meshed drive through
the thick Allied defense belts around the major urban areas. These
sources note that the Communist coordination has improved considerably
in scope and quality and detail since their Tet offensives in January
THE COMMUNISTS
MORE
and May but it must be improved more.
3. Contued Continued emphasis within the next two weeks on
"movement warfare" and "lines of communications warfare" by the
Communists. During the past eight days of intensified action, the
Communists thus far seem to be concentrating on annhiliation of
small Vietnamese outposts, training centers, continued harrassment
AND
ARE T
of some Special Forces camps, cutting major and sabotaging major roads)
blowing up key bridges, harrassing the shipping channel into Saigon port,
AND Smal
liberally peppering huge Allied airbases with indirect mortar androcket
fired and specific plans to ambush and attack Allied reinforcements
and troop movements.
==more reuter
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- Page 8
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2020 sag
yy nnm
confidence 8 (normass/deepe)
In short,
the Communists seem to be attempting to push the
Allied forces into geesph geographic pockets or enclaves so that they
have freer movement through and more cotov control over the
Vietnamese countryside. If they succeed in this endea plan, they
are then in a better position to morted:
catapult their big-unit
formations into the urban centers and attempt to hold them for some time.
If they fail, however, the Allies may have
drive before it actually gets rolling.
4.
stopped their offensive
Continued attempts to toss commandoes and raiding units into
the urban centers to cause psychological havoc among the civilian poo
population and considerable property damage. But, thus far, their
GET
ED
main-force units have not succeeding in moving close to many of the major
cities. More terrorism, disruption, rocketing and mortaring are es
RBAN
B
predicted for these (centers but at this time,
senior Vietnamese
Stop
officers believe even if the Allied forces can not
prediet the Communist third offensive into the cities, they will successfully
smash it once it begins to unroll.
==end reuter
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Date
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1968, Aug. 26
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Subject
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Vietnam (Republic); Public opinion; Nationalism; Anti-communist movements--Vietnam (Republic)
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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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B10, F38
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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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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
