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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06715 to 363-06723.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06715 to 363-06723
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Title
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Article about damage to the city of Huế
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Description
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Original title: "damage", Keever's title: "Battle Ruins in Hue Evoke Medieval Dark Ages", Article draft about damage to the city of Huế following fighting there, 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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HUS, VIETNAM, March 2-Some compared the battle ruins
of Hue to the photographs of Stalingrad, Warsaw and Berlin in World
War II. Some described sections of this once-imperial capital as
Some said the spotty demtsam
"a Hollywood version of the Alamo."
damage to the turrets, ramparts, moat-bridges-t of the once palatial
citadel fortress evoked an image of medevial warfare not witness by the
world since the Dark Ages. And some American Marine veterans said
Hue was the worst city destruction they had seen in three major wars
spanning a quarter of a century.
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damage 2 (normass/deepe)
"The damage to Seoul in the Korean War was less than and
different from that of Hue," one veteran sergeant explained. "In
Seoul, armies of both sides retreated or ex advanced through the city, but
didn't fight within it i like in Hue❤
"Even the destruction to the cities of K Okinawa during
the
World War II were different--because they were smaller and more scattered,"
he said. "But, if you put all the cities of Okinawa together,
damage in World War II would look something like Hue today."
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The war ravage of Hue (pronounced whey), where the
National Liberation Front flag flew akom in front of the citadel
for twenty five days, represents the most concentrated pocket of
urban destruction to date in the Vietnam war, making even the
damage in Mekong Delta and central highland cities moderate by
comparison.
The fury of the Hue battle and its resulting destruction-
yet to be officially or statistically assessed-was staggering to
behold. The local populace either fled the city or else holed up
in refug makeshift refugee camps in schools, the unvierst university
complex, ohurohes or the lo hop hospital. With people-less streets,
the city took on an er eerie day-time appearance of one vast cemetery.
At night, when illumination f flares were popped for defensive
lighting, the city took on an even more macabre, shadowy semblance
of some weird science fiction world of charred homes, hit-and-run
graves grave mou graves near cabbage patches, and bombed-out citadel
turrets.
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The fight for Hue, lasting nearly a month, appeared
to be a battle in which all the participants lost. In the short term,
the city and people of Hue oba probably lost the most. The
pivotal question in the future is which of the combattant power blocs-
the Communists of the Allies-lost the most.
But, for the population, perhaps the key question was not
who was right, but who was left.
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Preliminary, of official "guessimates" indicate
a maximum of one thousand civilians lost their lives in the Hue battle--
but mass graves of important personalities and pro-government supporters
assassinated by Communist squads are still being sought. Some of the
Hue civilian wounded and refugees are now being trans-shipped to
Danang for temporary relief and aid. Virtually every home, office,
shop in the city, if not devastated by heavy Communist and Allied
weaponry was subsequently ravaged by plundering/and looting, and vandalism.
At the peak of the battle, the whole population of 113,000 was
at one time or another classified as refugees and sought dole-outs of
food from the Vietnamese army.
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UADED
Perhaps more significant, the urbanites of Hue, who
for years had sus
the war in the villages around them, now lost the
illusion they wo escape without pa pain and bloodshed any longer.
The bitterly-fought battle within their midst became a great olass
equilizer.
The bourgoi sie, government civil servants and Vietnamese
army staff officers, who before had not only escaped the yer but also
made immense cort corruption profits from it, had now become one if
of its victims.
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Somehow, Vietnam the nation also lost.
Hue was the
sentimental inner sanotum of Vietnamese nationalism to many intellectuals,
who remembered the cultural, historical and social role of the former
imperial al capital-not unlike the role of Boston in the
colonial days of America. Other Vietnamese may have held it with
less regard.
"I'm sure if you asked the average Vien Vietnamese
the old oi tadel was important to them, they'd say yes," one American
explained. "But, I'm not sure they have any more feeling for it e
than I would if the Washington monument was destroyed."
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FAST
near
The Communists also lost-dy the human bloodshed
of nearly five thousand officially claimed as dead and material
loss of more than 950 weapons. Along the walls of the citadel,
the former imperial palace, a half dozen graves covered simply with p
palm leaves in the midst of a lettuce garden rather simply typified
the Communist Toss of their ow sacrifice of their own soldiery. And,
along the muddy streets of Hue, an unadorned mound of dirt here and
there also signified their losses. Some of the Communist dead pes
remained un-buried after three weeks of fighting-and were seen
to be grotesquely nibbled on by chickens and pigs.
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More significant, the Communists' Robin Hood idealism
preaching home-grown wars of liberation lost some of its meaning. The
military spearhead of the Hue battle was carried by predominantly, if not
totally, North Vietnamese units, who made no pretense to the population
they had not invaded from across the de demilitarized zone.
A some of the Northern troops reportedly brought news * of
relatives from Hanoi and Haiphong to small groups of Vietnamese who fled
the North, and their families, in 1954
part when the country
was partitioned.
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And, the Communists' utopian, pie-in-the-sky promises
dissipated during the
of revoltion revolution were also di
the battle. Even when the Communists ruled sections of the city for
days, many people fled them--and finally, their preseen presence armed
presence bou brought not utopia, but the self-destruction of the city.
and may
The Vietnamese government and army lost also,
well become the chief Hot victim's of the campaign in the long run, In
bloodshed, the Vietnamese armed forces strength in the city of some
4,500 soldiers, Rangers, and Marines suffered "moderate" casuleties
casualties by official claims.
Repsi
PIS.
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0
More important, perhaps perhaps, the Vietnamese army,
despite individual acts of heroism, lost what it had sought to be
for the past fifteen years-simply an army. Militarily, it had not
secured the city-and in a few places, North Vietnamese units marched
four abreast in company formation into the city, reliable sources
report and the stammbonmim government forces barely succeeded in
securing its own division headquarters in the citadel.
Politically, the Vietnamese farmed forces in Hue
manifested te the most glaring, continuous contradiction of the war-
it helped re-conquer the city and then proceeded to damage it further by
lootn looting and plundering. Their armed forces had in effept nullified
its prime political mission--to re-establish law and order-by simply
adding to the anarchy and destruction.
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T
And, the American Marines lost too. First, in bloodshed-
129 killed and 1011 wounded, by official reports. But, behind the
stat stark statistics ly lay the grim realization, that nearly half
a Marine battalion 1000-man battalion was killed or wounded in the
citadela battlefield of less than three square miles--were the
heaviest fighting ensued. Like the North Vietnamese, the Marines,
used to rice paddy fighting-had never set foot in Hue before-and were
They were surprised at the beauty of the city and the wealth of some
upper and middle-class homes.
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One Marine, as Communist mortars exploded seventy five
or meters from him, surveyed the battle damage and said:
"That a
pity. It's such a pretty city I didn't think such rich people
lived in Vietnam,"
Somehow, also, part of the great American dream for
Vietnam was washed away in Hue. The American answer to fox North
Vietnamese foxholes dug into churohes, pagodas and the l palace wall,
was conventionalized power-the 106 mm. "mules", the six-tube 106 mm.
Ontos, a few well-placed airstrikes when cloud covers permitted, and
bombardments on the Palace wall with eight-inch howitzer proje
projectiles. The not impact was not imply to destroy one enemy
their enemy militarily, but also to destroy the social-economic fabric
cementing the political institutions leading to democracy.
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And, while the Marines exemplified treati traditional
ASSA
milat military discipline of In Thoking withering carpets of
Communist gunfire, and military restraint in using their heavy firepower,
theyk they, like the Vien Vietnamese armed forces, suffered from the lack
of political discipline in in and indoctrination which was unveiled
by some or their looting and vandalism.
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The mood was perhaps best typified by one Marine enlisted
man, who in the last days of the battle,
A
view the Marines, rather than the Vietnamese,
former imperial palace.
Mr expressed the
should assault the
"The Marines were the first to get to the south wall of
the citadel," he argued. "They should get the credit by assaulting the
old palace too."
fom blame."
He thought a moment and added: "Or maybe we'll get the
With a note of melancholy, he concluded: Oh, well, there's
no glory in this war for n anybody."
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(Hank: weather prevented my getting to Khe Sanh Friday,
so I'll attempt to get there Saturday. In case I can not file Monday or
Tuesday, perhaps this piece will tide you over.
Zag Regards Beg Bev).
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DANANG,
SOUTH VIETNAM, MARCH 11-The crucial pacification
program in the five embattled no thernmost provinces has suffered a
"disasterous defeat" during the Communist Tet offensive, reliable
sources report.
"I Corps,
The assessment, made in the five provinces known as
in the wake of the Communist general offensive beginning
"At the
mendous
indicates "the program has taken a helluva shellacking"
the sources . said.
January 30,
The I Corps region, where the heaviest
semi-conventional
fighting of the war is soon expected by the American command, includes
the province of Quang Tri, where a reinforced four regiment Marine
Third Marine Division is stretched out holding the 26-mile long Demilitarized
Further south lies Thua Thien province and its chief oity of Hue,
which the North Vietmae Vietnamese p forces held for more than three weeks
during the offensive. The other three provinces are Quang Nam and its
Aring
Zone.
to autonomous city of Danang, the corps headquarters for the American
Marines and Vietnamese forces; Quang Tin and Quang Ngai provinces.
==more reuter
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Date
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1968, Mar. 2
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Hue, Battle of, Huế, Vietnam, 1968; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Destruction and pillage; Kinh thành Huế (Huế, Vietnam)
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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, F26
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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
