South Viet Nam: D-Day in the Delta

The heartland of South Viet Nam is not the barren highlands and bamboo valleys north of Saigon, where U.S. forces have fought the war's fiercest battles, but the swampy southern tip that is sluiced by the Mekong River. The Delta is the dwelling place of more than a third of the country's population, the rice basket for half of its food—and the Viet Cong's prime source of men, money and supplies. The Communists very nearly seized it all in the grim months of late 1964 and early 1965 before the U.S. buildup. District towns were overrun, scores of outposts captured...

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