A novel by Ngo The Vinh
EXTRACTS FROM "THE GREEN BELT" - 1 2 3 4 5 NEXT CHAPTER I
CHAPTER XX
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Six months were long enough a time for a conjuncture of events to affect and change the whole complexion of the country. Echo of the turmoil in the highlands seemed to have sunk deeply into oblivion, and it became a thing of the past. It looked like all the opposing sides in the conflict had finally come to realize that it would give them not an iota of benefit to continue with that game, so filled with blood and tears. In addition, the dawn of real revolution, more than once promised by General Thuyet, was far more removed from actualization when the "internal correction affair" of another military faction took place, resulting in exile from the country of three generals, including General Thuyet himself. |
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, there was a sharp divide in political viewpoints. The American people had lost their patience with the Vietnam War, and they began to split into contending factions. The Americans, while successful in predicting the day when they would set foot on the moon, got bogged down in the earthy Far East. One way or another, sooner or later, the Vietnam War, itself, would have to wither. That thought was no more than a momentary consolation in face of mounting agitation among the American public. The hope of ending the war was far from becoming a reality when everyday the U.S. still added fuel to the conflict in the form of billions of dollars and of thousands of tons of weapons, and when divisions of North Vietnamese soldiers, in defiance of American B-52 bombers, day and night poured down along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to continue their infiltration into the South.
From another angle, when the conflict had gone past the guerrilla warfare stage, when Hanoi had switched to confronting the Americans openly right in cities and towns, secret schemes to exploit the bloody racial separation in the highlands were no longer of sufficient strategic value to deserve continued support. That was, perhaps, the reason for the ready and smooth transfer of American Special Forces bases along the borders to the command of the local authorities. The transfer was part of the American plan for an honorable withdrawal, which went by the designation of Vietnamization of the war. NEXT
