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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04251 to 363-04257.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04251 to 363-04257
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Title
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Article about a Communist offensive
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Description
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Original title: "attack", Keever's title: "Bloody Days of May Parallels U.S.-Hanoi Talks." Article draft about an offensive launched by Communist forces in May of 1968 during peace talks between Hanoi and America. Written 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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zcze sag
Jy 1jp
attack 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, MAY 6-The predicted A DEA
have begun here. The was in South Vietnam has
decisive stage to date.
bloody days of May"
entered its most
The low-key Communist military thrusts into Saigon and other
cities, expected to worsen considerably in the coming days, have
inaugurated the beginning of a crucial, and perhaps final, empate
coordinated campaign to topple the American-backed constitutional
government of President Nguyen Van Thieu,
Soured Sand.
Reliable viETNAMose
more reuter
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- Page 2
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zcze sag
yy 1jp
attack 2 (normass/deepe)
Informed Views sources got believe that the current
is orchestrated with, and
Communist politico-military offensive,
running parallel to, the upcoming Washington-Hanoi peace talks #
scheduled to begin in Paris on May 10 or shortly thereafter.
The
Communist's
terrorist and s small-unit fighting within
Saigon, which began with Friday's unsuccessful attempt to blow up the
Vietnamese and American television studios in the heart of the city,
Qurrently marked by
is of on
muut less concentration of troop stronth and or strength
prise
and military de tur than the surprise Tet offensive
which began in late January.
In fact, reliable Vietnamese sources indicate that the current
Actvite S
thrust is much more characteristic of armed propaganda Terays in the city
rather than military battles in the streets. But, like the Tet offensive,
the current Communist activity is coordinated countrywide and the
main thrust at this time is me considered to be magnitized in the urban
cities and towns.
Vietnamese sources consider this to be the Communists
"third wave
of activity. " The first wave was the Tet offensive which Een began
in late January with dramatic military bs battles in the cities and
towns; the second wave began for several weeks later with pinpoint
mortar and rocket attacks on key installations and
curent
artillery,
urban centers. Now, the third wave is/considered to be earmarked
by smal small-on sm
small-unit ground attacks and some mortar, artillery
and rocket fire in the urban centers.
expected to continue, if not to worsen,
mac
the ground troop activities are
Paris peace talk
But,
before the
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- Page 3
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zczc sag
yy 1jp
attack 3 (normass/deepe)
Vietnamese official source sources characterize the units in Saigon,
which are maintaining pockets of sustained fighting, as i belonging to
autonomous battalions of Gia Dinh province and the special sappier and
reconnaissance units no assigned to Saigon city. But, outside the
THROUGHOUT Monday
city, on the outskirts, the 272 Regiment
racetrack area
fought in the Phu Tho
Tan Son Nhut airbase-the scene of
vicious fighting during the Tet offensive. And, also like Tet, Vietnamese
nosedived to bomb the Communist forces
there
an old unit of Southern
who fought
Two battalions of the Dong Ngai Regiment,
cadre,
officers and men, have held out
against government troops in the Thi Nghe section of Saigon & along the
bridges leading towards Bien Hoa.
blown up by Communist terroristis,
One of the larger
bridges was partially
but traffic is still passable.
more reuter
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- Page 4
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zczc sag
yy 1jp
attack 4 (normass/deepe)
be moving
away.
Intelligence sources report other Communist units are thought to
towards the city from the Cambodian border areas y 50 miles
While the military impact of this Communist thrust has been
decidedly less sensational thus far compared to the Tet offensive,
political impact has effected (to
r their confidence
political effectivenss of the
the prestige of the
demoralize the Saigonese, shake
her in the military and
the
Thieu government, and to build up
alleged a pro-Communist Alliance
Vietnamese sources view as dif
of National, Democratic and Peace Forces.
significant that the armed Communists in the city is identify themselves
as
"Revolutionary Troops" rather than "Liberation Forces,"
commonly called the Viet Cong. These sources say that the current Communist
military thrust is aimed at promoting the pro-Communist Alliance,
rather than the National Liberation Front itself. Reliable sources here believe
that if the Thieu government is toppled in the future, the Alliance,
those closely identified with it, will seize power and then form
or
a coalition government with the National Liberation Front. If the Communists
actually succeed in this political plan, Washington would have very little
of substance to negotiate with Hanoi in any
say.
Regarding from
peace talks these sources
==more reuter
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- Page 5
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zczc sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
attack 5 (normass/deepe)
Recently
Captured Communist documents,
discussing the necessity for
another crack at "the general offensive and uprising",
call
11this an
"this is to notify you
than an on
offensive
"epoch-making stage," and states
and uprising will take place in the very near fe future and we will moun
AHACKS
thrown
mount stronger heels on towns and cities, in coordination with the
widespread uprising movement in the rural areas. The enemy will be
into utmost confusion. No matter how violently the enemy may react, he
This is not only a golden opportunity to liberate
can not avoid collapse.
hamlets
seats,
and villages but also an opportunity to liberate district
province
act and act fant."
capitals and South Vietnam as a whole....We must
==more reuter
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- Page 6
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zC2c seg
yy 1jp
attack 6 (normass/deepe)
First-hand Vietnamese sources report that pro-Communist teenagers,
He well-armed,
have begun to call
at the
homes of
em middle-echelon government officials, urging them to
join the pro-Communist Alliance.
Some
their families out of their homes,
Vietnamese officials have moved
seeking refuge with freins friends;
LINED
some officials have as many as twenty different houses of friends
up where they can sleep in a different house each night during most
of the month.
In the Thi Nghe section of Saigon proper, near the bridges and highway
leading to Bien Hoa, one Vietnamese evacuee explained: "The Communists
eame out with loudspeakers and urged people who sympathized with them to
stay in the
area; those that didn't sympathize with them should
leave. They helped the children tie up their bundles of belongings as
they left the area. They used loudspeakers, especially calling on the
Vietnamese Marines in the area to come over to their side. The Vietnamese
Marines answered back with bullets. Or they threw grenades over
the roof of my house--and the Viet Cong answered back with a B-40
rocket
leave."
round through the front of the house above the I decided to
உ
=more reute5 reuter
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- Page 7
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2c2c sag
ᎩᎩ ljp
attack 7 (normass/deepe)
"Each of the Communists send seemed to have about five different sets
of clothes sometimes they wore black pajamas,
and shirts,
sometimes civilian trousers
sometimes green fatigues like the government troops, sometimes
shorts. I guess they wanted the people to think there were alot more of
them than there actually A were."
Beneath the political-psychological reaction which the Communists
COMMUNISTS
have already effected from the Saigonese, the seem to be attempting to
continue their policy of economic strangulation--to cut Saigon off from
the countryside.
in the countrysidey
But, instead of cutting roads and blowing up bridges
their past policy they have made deliberate attempts,
not too successful, to blow up bridges on the very fringes of
Saigon.
They only partially succeeded in rendering tho one of the bridges between
Saigon and Bong Hoa, useless. Another bridge on the out outskirts
was left standing, as Vietnamese government soldiers mowed down nearly
20 Communists before they could plant their mines and demolitions under the
bridge. But, inside the C city, some shops failed to open;
are known to fear keeping large stocks of goods for fr
SARES
Shop will be, damaged; costs of necessities,
such as milk and
HAVE
vegetables,
doubled or tripled in the past two days. And,
shopkeepers
fear s
Vietnamese
all
government checkpoints on the fringes of the city are stopping 11 persons
and produce from entering.
"Like at Tet, Saigon in a more slow-motion manner is again becoming
and island-battlegrouch,"
one Vietnamese source explained.
I
(Hank: I suggest John Hughes watch the situation and plan on
coming coming in, if it worsens as we think it will.
Regards Bev).
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Date
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1968, May 6
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace; Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States; Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam; Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Vietnam (Republic)
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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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B10, F25
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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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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
