Page 317 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

everywhere they went, even while fighting still raged in other sections
of the city. They offered drinks and food to the troops and said encou-
raging words to thern. However, solne were just bewildered over the
fact that governrnent arrnor vehicles opened cannon fire on civilian
hornes while fighting the enerny.

Popular support regulted in, arnong other things, the
discovery and elirnination o{ seweral city-based enerny cells and
agenis. Regrettably enough, these included a shapely, pretty girl,
Tuong, owner of the cityrs well patronised Cao Nguyen Restaurant,
her younger sister and her brother, a Konturn policernan. The three
were arreBted, confessing to having spied on governrnent troops and
installations for the enerny.
Most of the enerny captives showed signs of repentance.
A few, especiaLly wounded captlves, did not stop cursing and swear-
ing. One even refused a cigarette offered hirn by his captors. But
rnornenta later, when he {inally realized that all the enerny prisoners
of war were decently treated, he accepted not only the cigarette he
had refused but the whole pack given hirn.
Because of supply difficultie s caused by the fighting
in the city and other provi.nces, prices skyrocketed in Konturn, except
for the locally-grown vegetables. A bottle of local beer cost 80 pias-
tres (over three tirnes the Saigon price), an average dish of rice,
eighty piastres, too (or about four tirnes the Saigon price).

The enerny offensive on Konturn, however, exerted
a good psychological irnpact arnong the local young folke, Many of
these people volunteered for arrny service, sorne of thern having been
onetirne draft dodgers. A11 of the ci.ty's arrny units reached full
strength by the in-flux of new volunteere. All regular arrny units were
equlpped with uptodate fast firing Ml6 autornatic rifles, which helped
boost the troopsr rnorale even further. Another rnajor rnorale boo6ter
was the victory galned during the Tet days.
llowever, the Konturn battle was a costly aJfair {or
both sides, though the kill ratio was nearly ten to one in favor of the
city defenders, The casualty lists were like this :

Friendly side : 54 killed and 135 wounded. Not one
weapon was lost to the enerny. The dead included 17 killed at the sector
cornrnand cornpound and 37 at the Special Zone Cornrnand cornpound.
Those wounded included 46 at the Sector C ornrnand and 89 at theSpecial

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