Fighting while talking has always been a North Vietnamese Communist canon, and the movement toward peace continued last week to be balanced by an increase in combat in South Viet Nam. In a macabre version of musical chairs played an average of 25 times a day, the same scene was enacted: Communist forces move into a small town or hamlet early in the morning and announce their presence. The lightly armed regional government forces flee, usually without a fight, sending a plea for help to the nearest ARVN main force. The Communists lecture the villagers on Red doctrine, then recruit, enlist or impress young men into their army and perhaps levy some instant taxes. Soon the ARVN come to the rescue and, after an intense battle that may last several days and involve heavy air and artillery strikes that virtually level the village, drive the Communist forces out.
The Communists apparently never expect to hold the towns for long. One of their objectives is to keep Saigon's forces off balance and tied down while other North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units increase the pressure on Saigon itself and other key areas. A second aim is to undermine the villagers' confidence in their government and Vietnamization. But the tactics will also pay spot dividends on any given day that a ceasefire is declared, since the Washington-Hanoi agreement says that whoever holds a piece of land on the day the cease-fire commences gets to keep it.
The impending settlement has touched off a scramble by both sides to funnel as much equipment as possible to their forces In South Viet Nam before peace breaks out. The U.S. estimates that large amounts of war matériel were moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in September and that the flow has increased noticeably in recent weeks. The U.S., too, is taking the utmost advantage of the delay in Paris, rushing to South Viet Nam equipment already authorized and funded by Congress for next year. Explains one Pentagon official: "The agreement allows for one replacement [for each piece of present equipment or armament].
Figure it out. They have. And they are rushing their stuff in just as hard as we are." The U.S. is doing its best to interdict Communist supplies. While maintaining its halt to air and naval attacks above the 20th parallel, American bombers are hitting the supply routes below the 20th at a near-record pace. Oct. 31, the Hanoi had hoped the agreement would be signed, 13 B-52 missions bombed the coastal routes south of Vinh.
The fresh outburst of action has had clear effects. Not since 1968 have so many Communist troops been dug in so close to Saigon. Small-unit attacks are now coming from a 270° arc around the capital, and they draw closer every day. Reports TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand: "Watching the action on Highway 13 to the north of Saigon is like watching mortar rounds being walked in on a position. Each day, when one drives up the highway through the flat open rice fields, progress is stopped closer to Saigon." The going on Route 1 is just as tough. The elite 81st Special Airborne Ranger Brigade, which helped save An Loc and recapture Quang Tri, is being tied down clearing areas only 16 miles from Saigon.