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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06631 to 363-06643.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06631 to 363-06643
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Title
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Article about American G.I.s' reaction to the Tet Offensive
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Description
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Original title: "cholon", Keever's title: "G.I.'s Liken Communist's Saigon Blitz to Watching 'Combat on TV'", Article draft about the reaction of American troops to the start of the Tet Offensive, 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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zozo sag
yy 1jp
cholon 1 (normass/deepe)
Military
(In the past three weeks, Communist strategy has
flipflopped from bavetes in the countryside to rampages in Vietnamese
cities and towns.
American troops were hurled from their jungle and
rice paddy babe battlefields into the streets and alleys of
some e urban centers. This is a report of the reaction of the
American C. I.)
SAIGON, February 15-The battle of Saigon, now in
its third week but slackening markedly in intensity, was a
bewildering experience for the American privates and captains who
fought it.
Three
Relaxing in the pivotal rat racetrack area of Saigon
this week, American G. I'.s reflected upon their city fighting.
the rose-colored rae track racetrack of Saigon was a
headquarters for at least a Viet Cong company, but American troops
regained control of it after one day's fighting.
weeks ago,
The racetrack was of
strategic military importance to the Americans because it was the only
area big enough in the city, except for the airport which was under fire,
HD Supp
where American troops qould be heli-lifted into action.
Without control
of the racetrack, American troops would have had to be trucked into the
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2020 sag
vy 1jp
cholon 2 (normass/deepe)
"During the city fighting here,
I felt I was watching
*Combat' on television or an hul old movie,
but never thought
I'd be involved in," expl explained SP/4 William A. Johnson of
Sylvia, Tennessee.
Captain Aruther Aur Arthur Morse of Brookline, Mass.,
chimed in: "Yes, it was just like watching 'Combat'
on tv, where
they're always fighting in these little towns in France, weaving
in and out of doors and windows.
There's always a Geman Gee German
in the steeple of a church and always with one shot he comes flying out
of the steeple. Of course, ever even our real-life shar- sharp-shooters
couldn't quite kill the Viet Cong so easily here."
==more reuter
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cholon 3 (normass/deepe)
One young specialist solemnly reminded the captain:
In television, the people in 'com 'Combat could always tell the
difference between the Americans and the Germans. The only way we could
yx tell the Viet Cong in Saigon was be the red or white armbands they
And maybe that's the only way they could each
wore on their left arms.
Too
other two. Some of the Viet Con w Cong were in oivilian clothes.
"This has always been the big problem of the war here.
2
Are the people civilians or are they Viet Cong. Sometimes when I was
sitting in the rice paddies, I'd think to myself 'now is this guy a
civilian or does he shoot at me at night. In the villages and in saigon,
we check the people's I. 1. cards I. D.'s (identity cards issued by the
Vietnamese government), but I'm sure many Viet ? Cong have II.D.'s too."
==more reuter
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Jy 1jp
cholon 4 (normass/deepe)
can not
The gang 21-year-old specialist so succinctly expressed
the heart of the problem that even now the American officialdom
accurate forcest-foreasse forecast the future or pinpoint the present
situatione One official says the Viet Cong are fragmenting and
exfiltrating from the city-and then an intelligence report comes in
saying a company of guerrillas are massing in a graveyard. One official
mentions an estimated two hundred Viet Cong still operating within
the city limits and another source mentions two battalions in the city.
One source believes the Communists have suffered a significant military
a senior one in the U. S. command
defeat in the Saigon vicinity-and the next one believes a "second wave"
of attacks into the capital is immonent.
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ᎩᎩ ljp
cholon 5 (normass/deepe)
For the past three weeks,
Saigon was not only a strange
Here
battlefield, but, ironically, many of the troops fighting in the tsempuan
A
capital were stragers to the city.
forces the Communists,
American 0. I.'s.
This included all three combattant
the Vietnamese government f troops and the
"The Vietnamese government reaction forces came from all
over the country and they were just as much strangers in Saigon as the
U. S. troops," one American commanding general explained.
"For
some of the Vietnamese Rangers and airborne, it was the first time they
had ever seen Saigon, the capital of the country they're fighting for."
He added that about half of the Communist forces fighting in the city
were or North Vietnamese origin-and had never set foot into Saigon bellona1
One Vietnamese housewife told of a North Vietnamese soldier
asking her what city he was in; other urbanites told of Northern
troops asking the Saigonese to spot their locations on their maps of
the city.
before.
==more reuter
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cholon 6 (normass/deepe)
The American combat units were also strangers to the city.
The first U. S. infantry unit into the capital was A Company, 3 Battalion,
7 Infantry Regiment of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (Separate).
PX run,
One sergeant reported he had indeed been to Saigon once before for the
"but once I went there I didn't want to go again--I saw all
those Americans in civilian clothes with wonderful jobs in the city and
it made me sick to think I was plugging it out in the rice paddies.
They even had a hamburger snack bar in Saigon, but I never sent back."
Most of A. Company, however, had passed in eenvoy through
Saigon and pass past the racetrack area-when they returned to their
basecamp outside the city. "I used to get a kick mig when our
convoy sent by the fishmarket in Cy Cholon," one youngster recalled,
"because it had such an offensive odor and when we baalsed by the
racetrack because it reminded me of home in California."
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2020 386
vy 1jp
cholon 7 (normass/deepe)
In the ar early morning hours of January 31st, AAA company
was ordered on alert in thexk rice paddy area southwest of the capital,
at approximately the same time the American Embassy was being attacked.
"We thought it was a big joke," one soldier recalled.
"We were joking about how many of us had piastres in our ponese-peeket
pockets and we thought we would have swinging time in the town. Some
of the company was in trucks, some were in armored personnel carriers and
48
the tracks fa tank ahas oheisse with twin .40 mm. anti-aircraft weapons on it
were ahead of us. As we moved towards Cholon the company was told the
Viet Cong might have gotten some Vietnamese and American military
vehicles so to be ready to fire on them if necessary.
"When we got closer to Saigon, we started to see the
dead in the streets, and some people were running away and alot of
places were burning, and some people were running away carrying all their
belongings."
=-more reuter
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cholon 8 (normass/deepe)
"Then, it was just like the battle scene of a movie
has been stopped; you sq saw dead Americam M American MP's on the street,
and dead civilians toppled over on their Hondas and dead Viet Cong--
I saw a mut two pigs eating up a dead Viet Cong and then I knew
it wasn't a big joke."
A rain of Communist B-40 rockets descended upon the
three blocks from the racetrack areas
tracked vehicles; two of them were knocked out with several Americans
killed and x wounded and then American helicopters and the twin .40
weapons from the "Dusters" levelled an/a two-block area wherethe
Viet Cong were holed up.
"The company commander kept control of his company
with four div different platoons on four different streets and
he couldn's couldn't see them," Capt. Mason explained. "We had a
reconnaissance helicopter above the company radioing to the commander
It's much different than in the delta wor where we
how to maneuver.
have eyeball contact with the different platoons. Some of the streets
were so narrow our armoed armored vehicles couldn't go down them and this
meant they were channelized to the main streets."
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cholon 9 (normass/deepe)
"It was weird," he continued. "On one street you'd have
a war and on the next street their there would be a tea party going on.
At first/ we heard shooting, but thought it was just the holiday firecrackers
Unlike the rice paddy war, the American troopers disliked
They also expressed
yhe the vertical gunfire the vet Viet Cong hurled at them from rooftops
and the highest stories of nearby buildings.
concern about being mixed up with such a large mass of the
local population, and the advantages this gave to the Viet Cong.
They suspected some of the ± Viet Cong came into the city ax dressed
in the uniforms of Vietnamese government soldiers; American troopers
now find bundles of discarded fatigues as they search the area. Other
Viet Cong simply changed into civilian clothes. Some Viet Cong are
S
suspected of driving to their rallying point in automobiles, on Hondas
or pedalling their cyclos, which are now found abandoned
in graveyards.
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cholon 10 (normans/deepe)
explained:
SP/4 Geoffrey Witcher of Huntington Beach, California,
"Everything in the past two weeks is unbelievable. Everyone
thought the cities were secure. I didn't think the Viet Cong would
try to get alot of people killed. But, in fact, the Viet Cong are
now saying to us anytime we want to do this we can in the future or could
have in the past. 18t It's not as secure as you think'.
"I just thought nothing like this would ever happen.
I guess no one else did either-that's why so many people are shocked"
Another young G. I. remakrèd remarked that the city
population treated them cordially. "All the people seemed glad to see
One Viet n Vietnamese girl x asked me in English if we were
us.
going to find the Viet Cong. I just smiled and said yes."
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cholon 11 (normass/deepe)
SP/4 Witoher chimed in: "The people were the most cooperative
I've ever seen. But, if they're not cooperative in the cities, we're
really in trouble. Spomin Sometimes they're cooperative in the vill
villages and sometimes they're not. I remember the captain walked
over to talk to a Buddhist monk and one man told us to move out of the
alleyway and to take cover. The captain said the Vietnamese were smarter
and ordered us to take cover."
than us,
The American troopers, used to fighting the Viet Cong
guerrillas in the provinces,
Saigon were North Vietnamese;
were surprised many of their enemy in
and used to low-level harrassment in the
و
villages were surprised at the sophisticated automatic rifles and
were
rockets the Communists used in the oities.
==more reuter
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cholon 12(normass/deepe)
the
On operations, near the in the city, the American
troopers se were surprised the Communists used graveyards as meeting
places and battle sites; they reported in their area of operation the
Communists gi dug for foxholes next to graves and fought from there.
Vietnamese sources have reported the Communists smuggled their weapons
into the Cholon section of Saigon in coffins and held phony funerals
as a means of hidi caching the weapons.
Vietnamee
In one village of Phu Tho Hoa, where 49 Communists were
killed, the American troopers one American trooper slumped into a
BLAZED
haystack-and the haystack opened ups with a blanket of gunfire, Communist
HAYST
trenches, tunnels and bunkers had honeycombed the area, with the entrances
being hidden below the water level of a wele well. This village, a collection
of half dozen huts in a rural setting, lies within the outer defense
perimit perimeter of Tan Son Nhut airbase, and has been a pro-Communist
area for some time, Vietnamese sources report.
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020 886
Jy 1jp
cholon 13 (normass/deepe)
Both enlisted men and senior officers considered themselves
revelling in "luxury" dam by being based in the racetrack,
sleeping on cement instead of rice paddies,
being drying instead of
up to their chests in mud and by having a roof over their heads.
"All we need now is the horses,"
one mused, "but I'm
afraid they won't be having races here for awhile." American tanks,
trucks and supplies dotted the grey greenway of the racing areas
a command network was set up in the betting window area.
"I'll take this assignment without the horses," another
replied. "As long as it remains this quiet."
Since January 30, the four-company 1ht light brigade
has suffered 20 killed and 88 wounded. They have reported killing
306 Viet Cong by bodycount, detained 20, captured 48 individual and 4 ore say
orew-served wapons weapons in tact, plus many pistols. AAA Coma Company
has suffered 3 Americans killed and 15 wounded.
(Hanks have just received your cable of Feb. 13. Will
do our best to fulfill your requests, I've notified Hughes.
Regards Bev).
end reuter
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Date
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1968, Feb. 15
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Tet Offensive, 1968; United States--Armed Forces; Soldiers
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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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B9, F19
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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
