The bountiful stockpiles of PX goodies and military equipment have disappeared in South Viet Nam, along with U.S. troops. This has left corrupt South Vietnamese officers without their usual black-market revenues. But the continuing war offers other opportunities for the unscrupulous, as TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand learned last week. His report from Saigon on the latest twists of turpitude:
Q. Why would a hundred Saigon soldiers, outnumbered 5 to 1 and facing two T-54 tanks, fight ferociously to hold the strategically unimportant town of Phuoc Tan?
A. Money. As one of the many hubs of illicit trade between Communist and government zones,...
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