Wednesday, June 7, 1972
Reds Grind Ahead In Que Son Valley
By Peter Arnett
QUE SON, Vietnam (AP) --The North Vietnamese offensive has been slowed at An Loc, Kontum and Hue. But in the Que Son valley south of Da Nang it moves relentlessly forward, and the South Vietnamese are still losing fire bases and villages."We are balanced on the knife's blade," said the Que Son District chief, Maj. Nguyen Cong Chinh, as he described the methodical 56-day Communist push that has captured one neighboring district, threatens another, and has Que Son in a stranglehold.Chinh and his four American advisers are spending increasingly more of their time in a deep command bunker hopefully safe from the rockets and mortars that often rain in from the nearby hills.Two regiments from the South Vietnamese 2nd Inf. Div. are deployed around them. But there is nervousness in the air, and a sense of impending doom."The big enemy push has not come yet," one of the American advisers said. "They are just biting small chunks out of us day by day. Much more of this and we'll fall apart."The Que Son valley is 40 miles south of Da Nang. It runs from the mountains inland across Highway 1 almost to the South China Sea. Because it is a natural infiltration route into the highly populated coast, the Communist have made a major military push through this valley ever year since 1964.This year is the biggest push with three infantry regiments totaling around 2,500 men, and they have made the greatest gains.Hundreds of American Marines and infantrymen from the American Div. died wresting the Hiep Duc valley west of Que Son from the Communist and establishing a district and military strongpoints. Now Hiep Duc district is gone, overrun by the North Vietnamese late in April and destroyed by American bombers.Fire Base West was the first strongpoint to yield. Then came Fire Base O'Connor and a string of other positions defending Hiep Duc and Que Son. Four days ago the last government position in that area, Landing Zone Center, was given up."Now they are right here," said the district chief, stabbing his finger at a map of his region. Red squares marked North Vietnamese positions at the mouth of the Que Son valley."They came right around behind us," Chinh said. "Now at least 800 Communist troops have cut our only road to the coast. They are in bunkers 15 feet deep. Nothing of ours has moved along the road in two weeks."An American adviser explained that the North Vietnamese were initially thought to be aiming at Route 1, which links Da Nang with the populous provinces south of it. But the North Vietnamese surprised everyone by suddenly cutting off Que Son at the valley entrance."There is a swath of North Vietnamese four miles deep and eight miles long across the valley mouth," the adviser said. "They are shooting at everything that flies below 3,000 feet. They seem here to stay."Allied with the push through Hiep Duc to Que Son has been a parallel Communist thrust into Thanh Binh District adjoining Que Son to the south.The fighting has not been one-sided. Chinh's militia forces in Que Son have been giving a superb account, according to American advisers, and have killed many North Vietnamese."Reds Grind Ahead In Que Son Valley", by Peter Arnett, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Wednesday, June 7, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.