(01/19/2012 02:11 AM) (Xem: 23)
Vietnamese-Cambodian-Laotian Cross Border Operation
At dawn, the sky still veiled by fogs hanging over the mountain tops,
Pleiku Province-II Corps was stirred up by the rattling sounds of
helicopters landing on the airfield of II Corps headquarters. The high
ranking officers involved in the operation all gathered in the operation
center, G3/II Corps to receive the operational orders. They also
listened to military instructions reserved to officers of all levels
assigned to various tasks in the operation. They all willingly assumed
the responsibility and honor the country laid onto them... The decision
taken by the field commander was the ultimate authority granted by the
country. And thus he must possess the military leadership competence and
battlefield experience, in order to assess and to make tactical
decisions that would protect the lives of his troops along with their
family members. The consequence for a wrong decision would be the death
sentence of the entire troops under his command in the clique of the
second hand clock... And instantaneous death … without any respite !...
Because “Bullets are innocent …but man must be humanitarian …” General
Hieu stopped talking, everyone hastened back to his position. For his
part, he walked swiftly and majestically to the airfield where the
C&C helicopter was roaring in the ready to take off. He jumped on
board with a well executed training move, which was to lay his hands
onto the helicopter bed and jerked his body onto the seat next to the
gunner. He was rather small in height, but extremely quick, gaining
admiration and respect from the American pilots for and ARVN general
officer. The image of General Hieu always inspires admiration in me and
it etches forever in my military career.
The troops were assembled at Catecka plantation comprised the
47th, 40th Regiments of the 22nd Infantry Division, and two regiments of
the 23rd Infantry Division, reinforced with three Rangers battalion,
and supported by Pleiku artillery set up at Ham Rong firebase – where I
stationed – as the operational center. Because of the location on the
1,680 meter mountain top, it facilitated radio communication that
reached all the way to 125 kilometers deep into the Cambodian
territories between individual PRC 25 for effective troop maneuvering.
And the Duc Co avenue was chosen as staging area for the movement into
the Cambodian territories.
The objective of this operation was to interdict the North
Vietnamese Communist troops to infiltrate to South Vietnam through the
Ho Chi Minh trail to reinforce the embedded Viet Cong of the National
Liberation Front of South Vietnam, located at the boundaries of Tay Ninh
Province, extending into Cambodia and Laos, along the junction of Viet
Nam-Cambodia-Laos. The North Vietnamese Communist force comprise 5
regular infantry divisions, equipped with modern military apparatus
comprising tanks, artillery, rockets and anti-aircraft guns. They went
down southward to supply, equip this materiel to the Viet Cong and Red
Khmer sympathizers of Red China and the Pathet-Laos guerillas … This
battlefront did not benefit the support of US Air Force and Marines as
it was forbidden by the American Congress to expand the war into
Cambodia and Laos. And thus the ARVN was left only without the support
of B-52’s to face an outnumbered North Vietnamese Communist force,
equipped with modern weapons provided by China and Russia.
ARVN tanks were no match to Chinese and Russian T-54 and PT-76
tanks. However, General Hieu had anticipated the demand of the
battlefield and equipped the ARVN combatants with the modern M-72
individual rocket launchers which can knocked out tanks and bunkers.
However, one rocket shoot succeeded only a PT-72 to spin briefly around …
and needed two successive rockets in order to immobilize it and caught
fire … These weapons as main firepower allowed the ARVN to counter the
enemy firepower of heavy artillery, antiaircraft guns.
Our combatants destroyed the enemy artillery tubes and
antiaircraft guns. They encountered dead Viet Cong still chained to
machine guns, dressed in Ho’s uniform, but turned out to be Chinese
Communist in disguise, identified by the Chinese enlisted soldiers from
Cho Lon as their compatriots (obviously corpses could not speak up and
identified themselves). They forced to die and chose not to be captured
and be interrogated as prisoners. In this battle, our troops dismantle
the enemy forces into pieces, destroyed their supply routes in aid for
the Red Khmer, and liberated Lon Nol government from the encirclement of
Red China. War booties included counterfeit Cambodian paper monies
printed in Red China aiming at sapping the Cambodian economy, still in
immaculate condition and contained in cartoon boxes stamped Made in
China that were burst open by our artillery strikes, and they flew all
over the places, on tree tops, spring streams, lakes and rivers. Our
combatants did not want to have them waste, tucked them into their
combat vests and distributed them to the impoverished Khmer ladies and
children along the way of their withdrawal back in country after the
cross border operation.
In this cross border operation, the Republic of Viet Nam had
thwarted the evil intention of the International Chino-Russia Communists
in transforming the Viet Nam-Cambodia-Laos into an Indochina Communist
entity. And its due to the military intervention of General Hieu, a
Vietnamese military genius in the Vietnamese history annals who came to
rescue of an allied. Not only was he competent in military strategy, he
was also astute in the political and economical domain in preventing the
downfall of the Lon Nol government which would lead to the collapse of
Viet Nam by April 1975.
General Nguyen Van Hieu as a military genius was a rare
phenomenon among the ARVN general officers, because of his unique trait
of straightforthwardness and patriotism. But then God did not grant
favor to the Vietnamese nation and wrapped its destiny in the following
painful verses of Nguyen Du:
If doomed to roll in dust, we'll roll in dust;/
we'll sit on high when destined for high seats./. . .
In talent take no overweening pride,/
for talent and disaster form a pair./
Our karma we must carry as our lot--/
let's stop decrying Heaven's whims and quirks./
Huỳnh Mai St.8872
Bh. Dạ lệ Huỳnh
Officer at the Operational Center
15 January 2012
Bản dịch ra Anh Ngữ của Hội Sử Học Lịch Sử Quân Sự Việt Nam,(01/19/2012 02:11 AM)-Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Nguyễn Việt Phúc Lộc.
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