Friday, May 5, 1972
Viet General Vows To Defend An Loc
SAIGON (UPI) --The top South Vietnamese officer inside the battered provincial capital of An Loc, 60 miles north of Saigon, said Wednesday he will stay in the city "until there are no more North Vietnamese."Brig. Gen. Le Van Hung said it was his belief that the South Vietnamese have been trapped into defending the small city and predicted Communist forces would keep it surrounded while pushing southward toward Saigon with other troops.Hung told a reporter that the Communists retained their three-week hold on most of An Loc, and were surviving by holding up with about 10,000 civilians still in the city and living on food misdropped from American transport planes.Ammunition and food has been dropped by U.S. C130 Hercules, but many of the supplies have gone astray and fallen into Communist hands.Government forces at the south edge of town and the North Vietnamese "have barely enough food," Hung told newsmen in his deep bunker in the military compound on An Loc's outskirts.Hung said he would obey President Nguyen Van Thieu's order to hold the city "at all costs" despite his own feelings that defense of An Loc was a trap."We will remain in An Loc until there are no more North Vietnamese," he said. "If we can, we will bring prosperity back to An Loc."The NVA is trying to hold us at An Loc," the general said. "Then they will try to infiltrate to the south."Heavy Communist resistance and a lack of available manpower has prevented government forces from enlarging their tiny perimeter at the southern edge of the town."When our troops go out, we automatically meet the NVA," Hung said.At least three American advisers remain in An Loc, directing U.S. air strikes from deep in the general's bunker. Military sources said the three men refused evacuation when the siege of An Loc began April 6.A few helicopters have managed to land two miles south of An Loc during the past three days and have lifted out some of the critically wounded. For all intents, however, the town remains totally besieged."Viet General Vows to Defend An Loc", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, May 5, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.