Page 372 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

dered were NVA soldiers who had gotten lost in the cityrs labyrinth of
1anes, alleys and back alleys. N4any disguised thernselves as civilians'
The sunburn traces that their autotire sandals had left on their
feet betrayed thern to the security rnen at check points. Nha Trang
citizens played a rnajor role as intelligence agents in helping govern-
rnent troops capture rnany of the enerny survivors. Six of these survi-
vors, hiding in the house of a bread vendor were captured because of
the inforrnation given the governrnent t::oops by the vendor' Enerny
bodies were le{t scattered around alt the places which had corne under
enerny assaul.t, Most of the bodies still carried a srnal1 Plastic-covered
si.gn rrDeterrnined To Winrr around necks, The signs were written in
long hand with blue ball pens. They looked very young and were between
16 and Z0 years old. They wore assorted plain civilian clothes and
uniforrns. They also wore the farnil'iar rubber sandals carved out o{ o1d
autotires, called Ho Chi Minh sandals. This was the first tirne in the
war that the people o{ Nha Trang had the oPportunity to have a close
look at a large nurnber of enerny bodies. N{any were shocked, saying
the Cornrnunists ernployed children to fight the war. It was the first
tirne also that they aaw so rnany ene(ry captured in action' There were
77 of thern, including 1Z officers. Many o{ these enerny soldiers and
agents had been captured thanks to the inforrnation provided by local
civilians. Arnong the captured were Huynh Tuong, chief of the under-
ground adrninistration o{ Khanh Hoa province and concurrently deputy
secretary to the YC chief of Nha Trang; Junior Captain Duong Tan Dat,
Nha Trang city cornrnander; Junior Captain Huynh Ngo, deputy chie{ of
Khanh Hoa Military proselyting section; Lt Le Trong Cach, Khanh-Hoa
guerrilla Training sectionrs deputy chief; and Huynh Chieu, Khanh Hoa
guerrilla force cornrnander. Most of the other prisoners had been rnern-
bers of the enerny cornpanies t/z/Bs ana z/l /Bn and Sapper Corn-
pany K90, Confessions by the rnajor prisoners 1ed to the elirnination
o{ ,.r"rry city-based enerny secret cel1s between Jan 30 and Feb Z0' Fi'fty
three such secret agents were arrested. Arnong those arrested were
Cao Van Bi alias Phong in charge of in-town sapper operations; Nguyen
Van To alias Quyet in charge of forrning underground cel1s; and Dang
Oanh in charge of supervising subversive actions- All three held the
rank of Nha Trang city council rnernbers. Many of the others had
charge of supplies logistics, intelligence, espionage, terrorisrn and
on. Th.". were also four students who were in charge of spreading
"o
propaganda.
The city-based enerny infrastructure v/as thus virtually
eli.rninated. It would take hirn a long tirne to build up another underground

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