The Encircled City

Saigon, 11 p.m. The bars are closed, the cinemas out, the curfew on, and the TV set dark--but it's too early to go to bed. What to do? For the thousands of Americans in the city's apartment buildings and hotels, the problem is easily resolved. They can always go up to the roof and watch the war.

The show can be spectacular. Every night, more than 1,000 rounds of heavy artillery thump into the paddies and jungles surrounding Saigon to discourage Viet Cong activity. Their explosions light up the sky and shake the city. Five miles from the downtown Caravelle Hotel, the air buzzes with "lightning bugs" --helicopters fitted out with powerful spotlights to pick out Charlie--and the soft sizzle of parachute flares. Rocket-bearing choppers and DC-3s bristling with rapid-fire miniguns patrol the perimeter, waiting to pounce.

There is no shortage of targets, for Charlie is all around Saigon. The 165-A Viet Cong "Capital Liberation" Regiment, comprising six full battalions, has encircled the city since 1954, mining roads, mounting raids and ambushing stray military vehicles. Keeping the V.C. out of the city is the assignment of the government's Regional Forces and Popular Forces--known to Americans as the "Riff and Piff."

Election Disruption. The 13,000 irregulars of the Riff and Piff are an uncertain defense force. "You can't take a peasant out of a paddy, give him three weeks of training and expect him to be a red-hot soldier," says one U.S. officer. Nevertheless, supported by Vietnamese army, marine and ranger units, they stage an average of twelve major operations a month against V.C. elements on the outskirts of the city.

The V.C. does not pose a real military threat to Saigon; there are too many American and government troops in the area for the Communists to dare an out right attack. But Charlie is never far away, and he is now turning his efforts toward the disruption of the Sept. 11 nationwide election.

Purpose of the election is to seat a 108-man Constituent Assembly to write a constitution on which a future democratic government would be based. There are more than 540 candidates --all certified anti-Communists--and last week Premier Nguyen Cao Ky officially opened the campaign with a speech urging his countrymen to "get out and vote." While Ky was promoting the elections, however, the V.C. installed a loudspeaker across a canal from Saigon's warehouse district, began to blare out attacks against them. Another Viet Cong detachment invaded a village ten miles from Saigon, spent the night replacing the government's neatly printed election slogans with their own: "Welcome the Ho Chi Minh Regime."

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