#VietnameseSkyraiders rent the air with ferocious whines as they dive-bombed sections of the city, notably the #Chinese quarter of #Cholon, which was honeycombed with #VietCong. The planes sent #refugees scattering in all directions and plumes of smoke shooting into sunny skies that mocked the city's agony. In six of #Saigon's nine districts, 24-hour curfews were still in effect, meaning that those districts harbored at least small bands of #guerrillas still operating as units.
Except for #Hué, the most serious city fighting was in #Saigon. Once a gracious, languid island in the midst of war, Saigon last week was a city rimmed by fear. Every half-hour the radio grimly warned: "The Saigon #Cholon area is not considered secure. #Firefights and #sniperFire are expected to continue. Do not travel on foot. All vehicles must have an armed escort."
Flak-jacketed [#AmericanMPs, weapons at the ready, roared along the tree-shaded boulevards. #TriggerHappy#police fired frantically in the air to halt vehicles approaching #checkpoints and #barricades strung about the city. Tough #ARVN#marines and #paratroopers blasted their way through narrow alleys in running gun battles with the #VietCong, 700 to 1,000 of whom were believed still mingling with the city's population.]
Although #GeneralWestmoreland had at first acceded to #SouthVietnameseArmy wishes to clear the city with #ARVN troops, by week's end U.S. help was clearly needed; soldiers of the U.S. #199thInfantryBrigade were helilifted onto the racetrack turf to join the battle.
#TaskForceGibler and #33rdRangers moved north through #Cholon and as they approached the Racetrack they began to take fire from #VietCong in windows and on rooftops of the 2-3 storey row houses lining the road. The #USA#ARVN infantry fanned out into alleys and side-streets to engage VC, while #M113s continued down the road firing on the VC with their machine guns, with the command vehicle being knocked out by an #RPG.
#USA#ARVN forces now supported by #helicopter#gunships began blasting #VietCong in the Racetrack's concrete stadium building with 106-mm recoilless rifle fire while also engaging them with machine gun and rifle fire. By late afternoon the VC abandoned the Racetrack, exfiltrating in three-man groups into the residential neighbourhood to the west, pursued by the Rangers and Republic of Vietnam National Police.
On 4 February the residents of #Cholon were ordered to #evacuate the area and it was declared a Free-fire zone allowing the full weight of #USA & #SVA air and artillery support to be directed against the #VietCong still holding out there.
#VietCong were #entrenched in the pagoda and in #bunkers and #tunnels in the adjacent cemetery. In a day of hard fighting #TaskForceGibler supported by fire from #M42Dusters overran the position killing 49 VC and capturing four together with maps, radios and other equipment for the loss of six U.S. soldiers killed.
The Real News reports from Soseong-ri, South Korea, where village residents have fought since 2016 against the US military and their own government to stop THAAD.