The title to this book is borrowed in part from the article "The
Battle That Saved Saigon"by Philip C. Clarke ("Reader's Digest,
"March 1973). Its introduction reads: "Three days before Easter
last spring, the North Vietnamese struck South Vietnam with a fury
unknown to the Vietnam war since the Tet offensive four years
earlier. They poured south across the DMZ, smashed into the central
highland from Laos, crossed the border from Cambodia and, with an
army of 36,000 men and 100 Russian-made tanks, raced toward Saigon,
boasting that they'd be in the city by May 19, Ho Chi Minh's
birthday. From one end of the country to the other, bases and
villages fell before the savagery of their onslaught. By April 5,
all that blocked them from Saigon was a ragtag band of 6,800 South
Vietnamese regulars and militiamen and a handful of American
advisors holed up in An Loc, a once-prosperous rubber-plantation
town of 15,000 astride Highway 13, which led to the capital, 60
miles to the south."
An Loc, indeed, had become the symbol of the determination of
the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) and its people to stand at all
costs in face of the enemy. A depleted army, outnumbered and
outgunned, stood its ground and fought to the end and succeeded.
Against all expectations, the ARVN beat back furious assaults from
three NVA divisions, supported by artillery and armored regiments,
during three months of savage fighting. Yet this victory in 1972
was largely unreported in the U.S. media, which had effectively
lost interest in the war after the disengagement of U.S. forces
following the Vietnamization of the conflict.
In Thi's opinion, reporting the victory of An Loc would
contradict the U.S. media's basic premise that the war could not be
won because ARVN was a corrupt and ineffective force. Subsequent
published studies of the conflict provide a wealth of details about
the use of U.S. airpower and the role of the U.S. advisors, but
they fail to provide equal coverage to the activities and
performance of ARVN units participating in the siege.
Thi believes that it is time to set the record straight. Without
denying the tremendous contribution of the U.S. advisors and pilots
to the success of An Loc, this book is written primarily to tell
the South Vietnamese side of the story and, more importantly, to
render justice to the South Vietnamese soldier who withstood
ninety-four days of horror and prevailed.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!