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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06666 to 363-06669.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06666 to 363-06669
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Title
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Article about ARVN mobilization in Saigon
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Description
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Original title: "mobilize", Keever's title: "Saigon Mobilization Plan Helped by Communist Offensive", Article draft about President Nguy?n V?n Thi?u's mobilization plan in response to 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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- Page 1
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zczc sag
yy ldp
mobilize 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, February 20--The spectacular Communist offensive
helped President Nguyen Van Thieu in expediting his partial mobilization
plan, but the sustained tempo of assaults and rocket attacks around the
urban centers is putting a sizeable crimp into the implementation of the
program.
The original Thieu plan for ober
for partial
military mobilization
National Assembly
mauguration.
was signed into decree law before the september Prosi élections in which he
was rated president. After the election, the two-house legislature
questioned the legitimz legitamey legitimacy of the decree law and took
the executive branch to task for its rather stiff program. But, since
the Communist offensive began January 30, the legislature has been
much more amenable to Thieu's pr
original program,
as well as his
expanded
zczc sag
measures.
ᎩᎩ ljp
mobilize 2 (normass/deepe)
post- offensive
The government's current parre
calls for military, civil and political mohmmmm-
mobilization, ince including both human and material resources==
plan
obsolete ones
tin
On the of civil side, MEE one hundred thousand government
civil servants are to be trained for two weeks in the use of weapons and
then be issued the weapons, presumably carbines and
handed down to them from the Vietnamese armed forces which is now to receive
more American M-14's and M-16's.
But, the curfews, imposed until
the Viet Cong are wrinkled out of the Saigon perimeter, have limited the
working hours of the government employees already and the central government
apparatus is already strained simply taking care of the relief and recovery
measures necessitated by the first-stage of the offensive.
==more reuter
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2020 sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
mobilize 3 (normass/deepe)
P
pupils
In addition, 80,000 high school students and university
students unnimm beginning with age 15 are to be trained and also issued
weapons, but the headaches for the government on this step is
that the pupils are not now in mm their classes, since most of
the schools are still closed and many of the school buildings are used
as centers for reg refugg refugees whose homes have been destroyed
in the fighting.
On the political mobilization,
an anti-Communist
amalgamation of various groupings, political parties and religious blocs,
previously factionalized with minor differences, has now taken the first
tenative steps to support the government and to assist the government
in enlisting the support of the Vietnamese population.
zozo sag
Jy lip
more reuter
mobilize 4 (normass/deepe)
This political grouping,
designed to move towards
a
a "Congress for National Salvation", is headed by Tran Van Don,
former army general who lead tht the overthrow of Preisene President Ngo
a former
Dinh Diem in 1963 and currently a senator,; Lawyer Tran yan Tuyen,
deputy prime minister in 1965 and leader of the Vietnam Quoc Dang Dang politica
party, and Tran Quoc Buu, the long-time leader of Vietnam's major labor
union.
Thx Dang Duo Khoi, formerly attacked to the Vietnamese Embassy
in Washington and now a member of the braintrust supporting Vice President
Nguyen Cao Ky, was also one of the organizing members, reliable sources
report.
and to
The political organization, certainly gewer pro-government
if it is not government sponsored,
and anti-Communist in its outlook,
is designed to unify various anti-Communist factions to th
serve as a counterweight to the various fronts and alliances that have
been established by the Viet Cong in the cities since the tet offensive.
more reuter
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zcze sag
ᎩᎩ 1jp
5
mobilize (Normass/deepe)
The first organizational steps for the congress was held
Sunday, February 18, and included a wide array of political personalities,
including candidates who lost to Thieu in the election
,
as elderly Phan Khao Sau and Tran Van Huong.
oppositionist,
Buddhist priest Tri Quang,
as were his vocal lieutenants.
such
perεNNeal
The government's peninneal
was conspicuously absent, however,
The government's military mobilization has been sharply
The original government
This would have
as will As Supp
replacements
hit by the Viet Cong offens offensive.
plan to for all of 1968 was to increase the number of the
Vietnamese armed forces by a total of 65,000 men.
jumped their 670,000-man force to 735,000 men
for desertions, and battlefield csault casualties and those who had been
demobilized f after five years service.
Now, the government farm plans to sh
x expedite the training and recruiting of the 65,000 additional forces
instead of elastiging lenticing
in the first six months of the year,
stretching it out for the full year.
SOURCES
But, the government fears that
a good number of these 65,000 will now have to be utilized as replacements
for government losses during the offensive instead of jumping the
overall
troop strength o#00
to 735,000 men.
==more reuter
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zczo sag
Jy 1jp
mobilize
mobilize 6 (normass/deepe)
suffered
Overall government casualties during the offensive have
yet to be tabulated. In the first twere twelve days of the offensive,
the Vietnamese armed forces casualties were listed as 1755 killed, 5247
wounded and 147 missing or captured. But, these figures have since
jumped with manmam as sketchy reports of events have accelerated;
more difficult, the the government still has not d discovered the whereabout
whereabouts of many soldiers who were not at their battlefield post during
the offensive. Officials fear some of these, especially officers,
in Hue, for
heavy losses at the hands of Viet Cong assassination squads;
example, officials bede-believe more than 30 Army officers were excited
executed by the Viet Cong. Other officials fee feel unless the military
situation is normalized dramatically, new draftees and recruits will be
Thirty pere
85,000 who willsgon
unwilling to report for their call-up.
into training camps this month are expected to be reservists wx between
the ages of 20 and 33 who have served less than five years in the armed
but
forces, which will insure the government a high per cent initially,
draftees are needed for long-term rm additions for the military buildup.
Even if the government does meet their numerical requirements,
one problem now arising is the condition of the training centers and boot
where
For example, thammmmmmmmm Quang
camps were they'll will be trained.
Trung, Vietnam's biggest boot
is currently upum surrounded
by four Viet Cong battalions who liberally sprinkle it with mortars as
Officials
they rocket Tan Son Nhut airbase with rockets on the other side.
report that the Vietnamese contingents at the training center are innarbraum
separated by the Viet Cong units from an American HAWK mieniel s missile
such as at Hue,
site only 500 yards away.
feared to have suffered damage to facilities during the offensive--and many
of the draftees have been launched into the battlefield for a "baptism
Other training centers,
are
of fire" from the Viet Cong before they were honored at graduation ceremonies,
end reuter
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Date
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1968, Feb. 20
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam (Republic)--Armed Forces--Mobilization; Vietnam (Republic). Quân lực; Nguyễn, Văn Thiệu, 1923-2001; Tet Offensive, 1968; 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, F21
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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
