women fought as front line troops for the Vietcong throughout the war.
The diary of one of these women, Duong Thi Xuan Quy, records her three-month journey to the South with a heavy rucksack on her back:
The boils on my back hurt me the whole of the last night. Could neither sleep nor think clearly. Impossible to lie on my back and it was torture to lie on my side. Had to rock the hammock frequently to ease the pain. Haven't had a bath since Post 1. Will stay here till tomorrow morning and will cross the river at four... Have lost my appetite for several days now. Never thought it could take so much effort to eat... I must not break down, not even with colic. I'd be left behind. Up at two in the morning. The moon is hidden by clouds. We crossed the pontoon bridges across the Sepon River. These pontoons will be dismantled before daybreak.
Pontoon bridges were used to cross rivers, so they could be dismantled quickly to prevent them being targets for American air strikes. In other places, her party had to build makeshift bamboo bridges across razor-backed ridges and where the trail had been washed out by the monsoon rains. They would see young NVA men heavily laden with weapons and ammunition passing them at night. After three months, Quy had to make the dangerous crossing of Highway 9 which ran from Laos into Quang Tri province. After snatching a brief nap in the early morning chill and eating a little of the cooked rice balls they carried, she set off to cross it:
It's a scorcher and there are no trees along the road. My skin is peeling and I'm tired out... I limped along and it was not even six o'clock when I crossed Highway 9... The road was not wide, but we had to sprint across it to evade the attention of enemy aircraft... It appeared before me suddenly, a curve blanched by summer sun and strewn with boulders. It looked harmless enough though. Thus I set foot on Highway 9, a road which would long be remembered in the history of our heroic people.
Towards the end of 1965, General Giap began to test the Americans by putting large NVA units into the field. The US brass relished the idea that they would now be facing a conventional army, rather than guerrilla bands, believing that no regular army could resist American might. The NVA suffered huge losses, but still managed to kill Americans. However, the fact that the NVA could take the losses and continue fighting gave them a huge psychological advantage. They, too, were fighting a war of attrition.
In November 1965 the British tried to make peace once again. Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart flew to Moscow in an effort to persuade the Soviets to reopen the Geneva conference. The Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko said that the talks could not begin again until the US had pulled all its troops out of South Vietnam and stopped bombing the North. Meanwhile, on a flying visit to Saigon, Senator Richard Nixon pledged Republican support for the administration's policy, saying, 'There is only one basis for negotiations... a Communist withdrawal'.
The Vietcong seemed more amenable though. In December, they proposed a Christmas truce. The US and South Vietnamese forces accepted and suspended the bombing of the North in the hope that the ceasefire might lead to talks. They proposed extending it, but Vietcong attacks forced the US and ARVN back into action and the bombing of the North resumed on 31 January after a thirty-seven-day bombing pause. By then, Senator Strom Thurmond was calling for the use of nuclear weapons.
Westmoreland also considered using tactical nuclear weapons until he was banned from doing so by the administration. Westmoreland later condemned the ban, arguing that two atomic bombs had 'spoken convincingly' to the Japanese during World War II. As it was, he had 200,000 US troops in Vietnam by the end of 1965, but he had already sent a memo asking for 443,000 by the end of 1966, upping his demand to 460,000 in January 1966. Despite his pessimistic view,
The diary of one of these women, Duong Thi Xuan Quy, records her three-month journey to the South with a heavy rucksack on her back:
The boils on my back hurt me the whole of the last night. Could neither sleep nor think clearly. Impossible to lie on my back and it was torture to lie on my side. Had to rock the hammock frequently to ease the pain. Haven't had a bath since Post 1. Will stay here till tomorrow morning and will cross the river at four... Have lost my appetite for several days now. Never thought it could take so much effort to eat... I must not break down, not even with colic. I'd be left behind. Up at two in the morning. The moon is hidden by clouds. We crossed the pontoon bridges across the Sepon River. These pontoons will be dismantled before daybreak.
Pontoon bridges were used to cross rivers, so they could be dismantled quickly to prevent them being targets for American air strikes. In other places, her party had to build makeshift bamboo bridges across razor-backed ridges and where the trail had been washed out by the monsoon rains. They would see young NVA men heavily laden with weapons and ammunition passing them at night. After three months, Quy had to make the dangerous crossing of Highway 9 which ran from Laos into Quang Tri province. After snatching a brief nap in the early morning chill and eating a little of the cooked rice balls they carried, she set off to cross it:
It's a scorcher and there are no trees along the road. My skin is peeling and I'm tired out... I limped along and it was not even six o'clock when I crossed Highway 9... The road was not wide, but we had to sprint across it to evade the attention of enemy aircraft... It appeared before me suddenly, a curve blanched by summer sun and strewn with boulders. It looked harmless enough though. Thus I set foot on Highway 9, a road which would long be remembered in the history of our heroic people.
Towards the end of 1965, General Giap began to test the Americans by putting large NVA units into the field. The US brass relished the idea that they would now be facing a conventional army, rather than guerrilla bands, believing that no regular army could resist American might. The NVA suffered huge losses, but still managed to kill Americans. However, the fact that the NVA could take the losses and continue fighting gave them a huge psychological advantage. They, too, were fighting a war of attrition.
In November 1965 the British tried to make peace once again. Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart flew to Moscow in an effort to persuade the Soviets to reopen the Geneva conference. The Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko said that the talks could not begin again until the US had pulled all its troops out of South Vietnam and stopped bombing the North. Meanwhile, on a flying visit to Saigon, Senator Richard Nixon pledged Republican support for the administration's policy, saying, 'There is only one basis for negotiations... a Communist withdrawal'.
The Vietcong seemed more amenable though. In December, they proposed a Christmas truce. The US and South Vietnamese forces accepted and suspended the bombing of the North in the hope that the ceasefire might lead to talks. They proposed extending it, but Vietcong attacks forced the US and ARVN back into action and the bombing of the North resumed on 31 January after a thirty-seven-day bombing pause. By then, Senator Strom Thurmond was calling for the use of nuclear weapons.
Westmoreland also considered using tactical nuclear weapons until he was banned from doing so by the administration. Westmoreland later condemned the ban, arguing that two atomic bombs had 'spoken convincingly' to the Japanese during World War II. As it was, he had 200,000 US troops in Vietnam by the end of 1965, but he had already sent a memo asking for 443,000 by the end of 1966, upping his demand to 460,000 in January 1966. Despite his pessimistic view,
Similar Books
