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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06602 to 363-06614.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06602 to 363-06614
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Title
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Article about American officials' optimism after the Tet Offensive
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Description
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Original title: "optimism", Keever's title: "So many Communist Dead 'You Could Walk Across the Battlefield On the Bodies'", Article draft about American optimism following the launch of the Tet Offensive by Communist forces, 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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ZOZO 986
yy 1jp
optimism 1 (normass/deepe)
BIEN HOA, SOUTH VIETNAM, February 13-While Saigon
simmers in its own spamm private pocket of pessimism, American
officials in the provinces immediately surrounding the capital
are much more cheerful about the Communists general offensive.
==more reuter
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- Page 2
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zozo sag
vy 1jp
optimism 2 (normass/deepe)
Much of this official optimism immmm on the American
side is based on the heavy losses the Communist forces received on the
during the first day of their January 31st offensive.
An estimated
two thousand png Communist dead were found in the greater
twenty mileS NORDEST
Bien Hoa metropolitan area during the first 48 hours of fighting, one
On-the-sport observers, such as villagers and Catholic priests, as
well as American and Vietnamese officials told this correspondent
of they heavy losses they had personally seen.
However, official sources are quick to point out that only
a maximum of ten per cent of the Communist strength in the
11-province corps area surrounding Saigon have been eliminated during the
initial phases of the battle. They estimated the better part of four
Viet Cong provincial battalions have been decimated, but other Communist
main force elements remain in the area to launch a "second wave" attack
if they chose.
more reuter
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- Page 3
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
optimisn 3 (normass/deepe)
One American officer living the giantic Long Binh U. S. Army
post explained:
"This was the worst battlefield I have ever seen-and this
is my second war. I was one of the first officers to leave this head
headquarters at daylight by helicopter. One area of the battlefield
between a rubber plantation and the government's prisoner of war camp
was covered with enemy dead.
"There were so many dead you could have walked across the
battlefield on the bodies, without every touching ground. I've seen
the Chinese Communist Communists mass human wave assaults in the Korean
War--and still I've never seen so many enemy dead in one place."
He said the heavily littered battlefield mmmmm covered
an LLL-shaped area around the Bien Hoa airbase, "three map squares in
size." Bach map square equalled one klomm square kilometer.
more reuter
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- Page 4
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2020 sag
yy 1jp
optimism 4 (normass/deepe)
A Canadian Catholic priest, who spoke fluent French and
Vietnamese after serving in Vietnam fourteen years explained:
"After the big battle anm in the early morning
hours of January 30th 31st, I climbed to the top of my high watertower
and looked at the battlefield near our church. I counted 125 Communist
bodies.
"One of our Vietnamese priests walked out that direction
and he counted 185 bod Communist bodies on the ground. At that time
During that morning, the American Army bodycount was only 155, and
in the afternoon the Army officers were telling me we don't know
how many more (than 155) bodies there are. There's just too may many
to count."
more reuter
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- Page 5
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zozo Bag
yy 1jp
optimism 5 (normass/deepe)
An American officer serving as a military advisor to
the chief of the district in which the Bien Hoa complex is situated
explained:
"I didn't eyeball all 2000 bodies reported as Communist
dead. It might have been more than 2000. I didn't count the bodies and
no one mimem single other person did either. But, from all the reports
in this district I read, x200mmxxxxxxxxxffion
the bodycount is in the vicinity of 2000.
I did count 70 bodies right
outside the district headquarters and they were buried near there in
unmarked graves."
==more reuter
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- Page 6
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2020 sag
Jy 1jp
optimism 6 (normass/deepe)
Several villagers this correspondent ine interviewed
reported finding clumps of five to 15 Viet Cong in the area of their
homes and gardens.
The Bien Hoa complex is of strategio military importance.
It includes the giant jet-lenth length runway and airbase facilities,
the U. S. Army Long Binh Post, where more than 30,000 Americans
handle administration, logistics and supply, the headquarters for
the Vietnamese 11-province Third Corps, and the American Army
Vietnam's only four-lane
command headquarters for the same area.
superhighway connects the area with Six Saigon. The northwestern flank
flankmeftxmimimizmomm
of the Bien Hoa complex is arced by the sox Honai area, 22 hamlets
settled by x Roman Catholic refugees who left North Vietnam in 1954.
They are one of the most compact, anti-Communist regions in Vietnam.
==more reuter
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- Page 7
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2020 sag
Jy 1jp
optimi am 7 (normass/deepe)
In at least one of these Catholic villages, the local
priest and population fought the Communist un troopers with knives
and machetes. While details of the fight are sketchy, the incident
has been confirmed by America official in in official American reports.
In this same hamlet of Bui Thieng, five miles north of the Bien Hoa
the 1200 v111agers and the Catholic priest also wXx organized
airbase,
ht the 12 1200 villagers first into aself-defense platoon,
then into
a company and finally into three companies.
They requested arms to
be used against the Communist forces, but the district chief was not
authorized in to issue weapons to the population.
more reuter
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- Page 8
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zoso seg
ᎩᎩ ljp
optimism 8 (normass/deepe)
"We call x this the Bui Thieng battalion," one American
Seventeen Communists were turned into the district headquart
by the Catholic priests and population in the Honai area, sources report.
In other hamlets of the Honai area following the massive
officer joked.
January 31st attack,
defense measures.
villagers as also stepped up their own self-defn
One Catholic priest reported, "The villagers are
really serious about their own defense hex now.
They're putting up little
lamps along all the back streets so they can see better at night. They
are taking turns staying up at night to keep watch. And they're uc cutting
the grass, weeds and jungle around the village so they have better views
of the approaches to the village."
more reuter
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- Page 9
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2020 886
Jy 1jp
optimism 9 (normass/deepe)
American officers believe the Allied side benefitted
as the
from a stroke of guixfam gorm decisive good fortune
Communist offensive began in the Bien Hoa area at 2:45 am a.m. on
coordinated
January 31. The first salvo of Communist rockets hit the airbase complex
and simultaneously the Long Bien Binh post. But, one company of the
U. S. Army 199th infantry brigade was aggressively patrolling nearby
and "either from good intelligence of good luck, or both"
The Communists
out that Communist rocket position within three minutes.
"were never able to get off the second salvo which would have tied up
the airbase, the helicopters and aircraft."
#more reuter
they knocked
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- Page 10
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zcze sag
yy 1jp
optimism 10 (normass/deepe)
Duri
Directly across the highway, facing the Long Binh post,
two Communi at battalions had moved into an area called "D "Widow's
Village," where in small huts and shanties the wives and children of
dead Vietnamese soldiers lived and worked as maids and alun laundrywomen
for the American army f troops across the road. American officers
92
believe the two-battalion Communist atteck was to be timed x with the
rocket attack on the base, but was upset m became mis-timed when the
second rocket salvo did not materialize.
more reuter
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- Page 11
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zozo 986
yy 1jp
optimism 11 (normass/deepe)
"Then some American military policement ran across the
highway and found themselves right in the middle of the two Communist
battalions," one officer recalled. "But, the MP's created m just enough
of a spoiling attack to hold them off tile o until our helicopter fire
fire teams str rocketed them along a one-mile strip in front of the
Long Bình poste If it hadn't been for these two lucky breaks, I
think the Communists would have gotten across the wire into Long Binh-
and maybe they could have captured it for a short time."
Later in the morning, at dam, Communist forces also
moved into a housing area directly across the narrow street from the
Vietnamese Third Corps Headquarters, and for two days American an
tanks, helicopters and Vietnamese troops attempted to dislodge, with
the result of considerable destruction in a four-block area in the heart
of the city.
more reuter
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- Page 12
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8020 888
ᎩᎩ ljp
optimism 12 (normass/deepe)
During the first eleven days of the Communist offensive
in the Third Corps area, official statistics reveal nine thousand two
hundred two Communists killed. American forces reported killing 5,037
killed
repeat 5,037 of these; Vietnamese forces 4,165 Communists. American
casualties for the same period were released as 122 killed and 1298
repeat 1,298 wounded. American forces also officially reported as
capturing 230 Communist prisoners, 765 individual weapons and 261
Vietnamese forces reported capturing 327
crew-served weapons.
Communist prisoners.
released.
Vietnamese government casul casualties were not
end reuter
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- Page 13
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ZCZC sag
yy 1jp
corps 15 (normass/deepe)
(Hank:
We're just now receiving Bas cables you allz sent axxx
ten days ago.
Either John or I will remain in Saigon on a permanent
basis to keep it covered til the crisis blows over. One of us
probably Johns--will go to Khe Sanh, but one of you will notify you
of our movements. I think both John and I will be filing setires
stories for the next coupla days-and after that, we'll inform you.
For myself, I'd like to schedule a zeepager about odyssey of a North
Vietnamese rallier who participated in Bien Hoa attac. I'll reuter it soon.
Please cable anyxuggestion mad misemommym or write a critique of
our first week of coverage, with suggestions and advise for future since
this conceivably could happen again. For Beb:
sourceaux on this story is
guy you spend four hours on bus to see, so I think rather reliable. Please
order books you x wrote me about and I'll airmail you check.
Also,
I've sat airmailed a three part series on U. S. Navy, as well have airmailed
phots photos, carbons and sent with parson s your specially requested project
piece. Many thanks. Bev).
-edn end reuter
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Date
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1968, Feb. 13
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Tet Offensive, 1968; United States--Armed Forces
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Location
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Biên Hòa, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.9574; 106.8427
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B9, F17
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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
