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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06693 to 363-06709.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06693 to 363-06709
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Title
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Second article about the Battle of Huế
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Description
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Original title: "palace", Keever's title: "South Vietnamese Assault Ends With a Whimper", Article draft about the end of the fighting surrounding Huế's Imperial City and Citadel during 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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palace 1 (normass/deepe)
(This is the last of a series describing the last two days
of fighting for the ancient imperial palace in Hue (pop. 113,000), Vietnam's
The historic battle of Hue, which began in the
third largest city.
pre-dawn hours of January 31,
constitutes
the longest, sustained
face-to-face contact between Allied and Communist forces in the eight-year
history of the war. This article describes the final day's assault
into the Palace).
IMPERIAL PALACE, THEX CITADEL, HUE,
SOUTH VIETNAM, February
27-The 450-man Vietnamese Army forces began their drive to the former
controlled by the North Vietnamese forces for twenty four
imperial palace,
days, at 2 m. p.m.
ended-ith a whimper,
Two hours and seventeen minutes later,
the assault
not with a bang.
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palace 2 (normass/deepe).
The dramatic, hectic charge through the main Place gate
if any, resistance by the
by the Vietnamese army forces met little,
rea the
North Vietnamese forces, which had pe presumably exited the
previous night by following a small opening in the citadel grounds to the
west. 置 Two Vietnam se government rroo trol troopers were wounded b
by fragments f of their own grenades. No Communist troopers were killed
or captured withing the Palace grounds,
authoritative sources baid,
Although senior Vietnam Vietnamese officials claimed more than 140
Communists were killed within the Palace," this figure is considered by
on-the-scene observers as more of a fairtyt fairytale than fact.
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palace 3 (normass/deepe)
The Vietnamese army forces, which had been besieged
by gh the Communist forces inside the citadel, had, with the help
of American Marines, flipped the fam campaign into a siege around the
Palace itself where an unknown number of North Vietnamese troopers were
holed up,
in individual foxholes along the fifteen-foot-high walls
surrounding the former Imperial Palace.
124,
Shortly before 2 p.m.,/ the Vietnamese forces started to
assomble amidst the rubble in h the far southeastern corner of the
citadel which the American Marines had captured several days before.
Their objective-the finale of the pivotal battle of Hue-was to
assault the Imperial Palace and to to drive out any of the North Vietnamese
forces still inhabita inhabiting the once-royal acreage.
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palace 4 (norms ss/deepe)
In a champagne-colored villa, still standing intact although
somewhat looted, in the su southe southeastern section of the citadel,
Major Pham Van Dinh made the last adjustments in his battle plan.
table of the living
officers fiddled with the radio set on a coffee t
room of the villa; Major Dinh conferred with his American xx XDZOMS
and Australian advisors.
Staff
Major Dinh was commander of a specially-grouped task force
for the assault on the c Palace.
Little did he know at the time this would
provide for him hiw o hiw o his own private victory.
He commanded not only
his own battalion -Second Battalion, Third Regiment of the First Vietnamese
MCompany o
Division--but also the elite Black Panther Ranger battalion, which had
once served ast the strategic reserve force for the five northernmos
provinces
Comprising the First Military Corps.
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palace 5 (normass/deepe)
to break the
Major Dinh wore a drab olive turtle neck sweater,
damp drizzle and mist, under his green fatigues and shoulder holster.
Only twenty-nine years old, he also wore a confident air,
task force was
although his
understrength. His own battalion was only 300 men strong
and had suffered heavy casualties for the during the battles along the
long battle,
oid citadel walls surrounding the Imperial Palace. During the be three-week
thirty men were once sent ba up to capture a turreted tower
with curlesque roois doublet double-tiered curlesque roofs--twenty six of
In another instance, a ten-man patrol
the thirty were killed or wounded.
had been dispatched to counter a Communist bunker outside a villa-six
of the ten were killed or wounded.
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palace 7 (normass/deepe)
provinces in the northern half of South Vietnam,
On the Communist side, the battle of Hue, as well as
were commanded directly
rather than by Sejt Southern-born Viet Cong
by North Vietnamese generals,
commanders.
Then, almost mysteriouslym mysteriously, from the rubble of
the troops of the tw
the houses and the ruins of the citadel-fortress,
task
marched through the drizzling rain into the street in front of the
Major Dinh's villa.
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palace 8 (normass/deepe)
It was probably one of the motliest ar motley most motly motley
units ever to assault such an august fortress. Some of the troopers had
dredged up their old French woolen overblouses to shield themselves from the
chilling rain. Others wore women's scarves, in red, yellow and orange,
around thier their necks for protection against the winds.
Some wore
a double layer of shirts. The Black Panthers wore camouflaged helmets of
xxx fern green and treebark brown. Their backpacks were chock chock-ful,
not only with ammunition and military necessities,
but also with the booty
plundered from st shops and houses during their march towards the Palace.
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palace 9 (Normass/deepe)
Many of the Vietnamese wore Ammmmann helmets taken from the
"charnel house" of supplies oix equipment left behind by dead Marines.
helmet, worn by a Vietnamese trooper, had sorawled upon it:
"Connecticut Yankee in the Navy."
One
#
One trooper carried his rifle in his right hand and his
A second carried
plastic-covered Sony short-wave radio with his left.
three woolen blankets-in pastel yeloo yellow, orange and rose and tangerine-
above his webbed ammunition belt.
Another carried a plastic shopping
bag-ful of canned milk and fruit ino battle. A third laboriously tried
to pack a plastic doll into his field pack. But, when the toy would
the soldier carefully wrapped a towel
not fit the buil bulging space,
around it and left it one the muddy ground of a park half way to the
Palace. ft At first glance,
the blonde-haired doll looke like another
a child-corpse amidst the debris of the city.
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palace 10 (normass/deepe)
At 2 nomes on the dot, Major Dinh strode from his temporary
Two American
headquarters and joined his task force 450-man task force in front of his
house. The troops stomped about impatiently in the mud.
advisors chitchatted about when they immmm how often they would
inform division headquarters of developments. Then,
the mass of troops,
One American advisor, a cp captain
rather aime aimlessly, surged forward.
with the Black Panthers, pulled bicycles out of the maren-path.
troops marched along the south wall of the Citadel,
Marines had secured t several days before.
The
which the American
Jeeps, tanks, busses, demolished
from Communist rockets two three weeks before,
lay strewn along the wayside.
As the troops moved forward, other Vietnamese soldiers guarding the
high towers moved in the opposite direction orrying trays of ricebowls,
or bags of of vegetables o one carried the linoleum off of some housetves
housemive housewife's floor.
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less rifle, loaded with a dozen
shells of ammunition. Two of the "mules"
were toxmxxnxnmxhxonam
support the Vietnamese, but one of them was out of action with a flat
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Jy 1jp
An
palace 11 (normass/deepe)
Roughly 150 meters from the palace wall, the Black Panther
company split off and proceeded to attack the east wall,ximx where
had also
84 rounds of U. S. Marine 8-inch proje artillery had hit the day before.
Marine tanks and Ontos, carrying six 106 mm. recoilless rifles,
peppered the wall earlier in the day, creating cavernous holes in the wall.
The task force command element aixm stopped momentario
momentarily in front of a villa marigold colored villa where a number
of Marines on "mules"
chaissea
waited.
Each of the "mules-a flatbed of a jeep
Led single 106 mm. recoilless rifle, loaded with a dozen
shells of ammunition.
support the Vietnamese,
Two of the "mules" were toxmanyxxxminem
but one of them was out of action with a flat
tired.
An
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palace 12 (normass/deepe)
show."
Earlier, an advisor had mentioned "this is an all-Vietnamese
Vietnamesear artillery--but not American could be used upon
command of the Vietnamese division commander.
American tanks could advance
with the Vietnamese troops up to the Palace gates, but not into the
PETICE.
Presumably, the bridge of over the moat leading to the in
front of the Palace would not have carried held such an enormous vehicle
anyway. The cloud covers prevented any air or helicopter strikes. Only
the two Marine "mules" were allowed to enter the gates with the Vietname se
troopers but one had a flat tire and the second never did cross the moat.
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palaco 13 (normass/deeped y
"I don't like the looks of this," one of the adt military
"The Vietnamese are gambling on a prisoner repo
advisors explained.
interrogation made last night that only a thirty-man platoon of
NVA are left in there. But, for all we know there could be a full
battalion there."
Anto
Another advisor said he was worried that even if only
thirty North Vietnamese Army troopers were in the Palace grounds,
they
would be oriz organized into suicide squads which could still cause
heavy casualties to the Black task force.
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palace 14 \normass/deepe)
raced
At 2:20, the unit stopped by a pava pavillo pavillion of old
French cannons, on display for years, and the American Marine,m "mule"
across in front of the main gate of the Palace.
Vietnamese troopers in
foxholes and in the four-tiered flagpole stately flagpole, where the NV
Viet Cong flag had flown for 24 days, opened with a barrage of covering
fireOne theo06, mmlikrediallywood fit belofibde for the he
into the main gate of the Palace, which appeared designed was designed
Concrete
much like the n ancient curve-roofed Buddhist pagodas. Cement, rubbiha
tiles, and the mid-story of the roof staggered to the gr
ground; the front
+2:32 p.m.
heavy front wooden gates, however, were battered open and the lead
company of the task force ran 200 meters forward, across the bridge over
over the moat and entered the gate under a blanket of covering fire.
Ominously, a corpse--and beginnings of a human skeleton-
ဝဝင်
lay directly in the midst of the high archway. None of the soldiers non
noticed it.
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palace 15 (normass/deepe)
bronze dragons,
The troopers raced over a smaller bridge, flanked by
which arched over a mini-moat
and under a blže
blz ble blaze of protecti suppressive gunfire, moved toward the
majestic palace building.
Bullets filled the air, including some from
the eastern wall in the Black Panther area,
and the s1 soldiers took
hasty cover. Whether the bullets had been fired by the other company,
or by a Communist sniper is still unknown, even by persons there. present.
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16
palace (normass/deepe)
cranberry
The soldiers flanked the wine-colored Palace proper,
called
leading to
the Throne Room in tourist brochures, and entered a plaza or two other
was empty.
The second, august with its gold trim on the outside, contained two dozen
civilians who had living meagerly for two weeks w three weeks with the NVA
troopers. One room erge roo spacious room was empty, except for a few
worker's belongings in ac corner
buildings. One of the buld buildings, roofless and discolored,
and a gil huge gilded mirror, axaxing
which had been cracked by a rifle bullet.
A NVA bunker, covered five feet
deep with planks, potted plants, bags of dirt, xxxxx had been dug
off one veranda.
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Other NVA bunkers had been dug in LLL-shape fifty to one hundred
meters apart along the walls of the Palace grounds.
Then, Major Dinh received news of his own private victory.
His older brother, Thi, a sergeant with the division reconnaissance company,
was alive in the Black Panther sector of the sweep. The command element
strolled over to the other sector and he met his brother-weak and emaciated.
D
The brother had beein been in the recon. headquarters the first night of
the NVA attack on January 31 and had escaped the Communists by diving
into a moat area behind the headquarters. For more than three weeks,
under lotus pads and seaweeds,
ha and a friend had hidden in the water in the daytime, while drying out
during the nighttime. They had not eaten for 25 days and could not walk
from their weakness.
"I've had
"This is a great victory," Major Dinh said.
one brother already killed by the Communists several years ago."
His brother hugged one-of the Australian advisors to the
company and openly wept. "I knew the recon would come back," he told
the advisor.
he
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palace 18 (normass/deepe)
Meanwhile, back in he the Throne Room, a had handful of Vietnamese
A "dud" mortar shell lay unexploded in the dofrway.
soldiers saundered through the huge room. It was largely vacant except
for two pieces of furniture--the throne itself wooden throne and wooden
plentiful
matching table, Tso painted f cranberry red with gold-gilded tre trim.
Both were liberally covered with dust, plaster and glass from a shell burst
directly above the throne, but both pieces of furniture were w
otherwise unscratched.
Another mortar round, also a dud, created a
hole five-feet ac in diameter in the front of the tile roof and landed
atop a three-foot tall ceramic vase,
smashing it to bits. Fourteen other
vases кx in the same area escaped damage.
Alan Several of the
vases containing planted pots leading to
the
on the steps of the Palace
were also broken by automatic weapons & fire during the assaults
Sa
called the blue and white figured ceramics of Ming dynasty vintage;
some
others
called them "phony Ming."
Photographers took pictures of the throne;
and
then took pictures of each other sitting on the steps leading to the throne.
Im
Outside,
cameramen for Vietnamese national television briefed the troopers
re-enact a more Hollywood-styled charge for his
of the Palace for Vietnamese viewers.
At 4:17, the Vietnamese troopers searched the Palace grounds,
a square 800 yards on a side, and began to take up their night positions.
Thus, ended the longest and saddest battle in the
166-year history of the Imperial Citadel of Hue.
mone ==end reuter
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Date
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1968, Feb. 27
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Hue, Battle of, Huế, Vietnam, 1968; Kinh thành Huế (Huế, Vietnam); Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam
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Location
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Huế, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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16.4498; 107.5623
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B9, F24
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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
