Page 481 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

that the rnorale o{ VC troops had actually collapsed' Following are
sorne typical exarnPle s :
- Colonel Tarn Ha alias Tran Van Dac, 50, of Binh
'Ihuan province, a high ranking officer in the cornrrrand staff of the
VC 9th Division, rallied the governrnent side a'fter the {irst wave of
enerly attacks against Saigon' He said after the Tet o{fensive' he was
ordered by VC General Tran Van Tra to replenish at all cost6 hi5
decirnated unit in view of a new o{{ensive. He said he found such a-r
order extrernely err-rbarrassing and disappointing and this was one
of the reasons that pr:ompted hin-) to quit the VC ranks'
- Captain Phan Van Xuong, 44, of. Gia Dinh, Deputy
Cornrnander of the Qu),et Thang Regirnent, said sj'nce he left South
Vietnarn to go North aJter the Geneva Agreernent of 1954' he had
alwaysthoughtthattherewouldbetwowaysforhirntoseehisfar:'rily
again in the South : a cornplete C ornrnunist take over in the South or
a defection to the RVN ranks' After years of fighting' he said, he
had corne to the conclusion that the Reds could never win this vrar
as rtit is an aggression war that goes againet the aspirations of the
South Vietnarnese peoplerr. The only alternative that rernained for
hirn then was to defect. And irnrnediately after his defection, he was
able to reunite alter 14 years of separation with his wife, Nguyen Thi
Ba, a school teacher at Hoc Mon, and his only son, Phan Van Thach'

- Senior Captain Nguyen Cong Tan, deputy VC security
chief at Binh Thuan, said a Viet Cong rule stiPulated that I'three
returnees are worth seven Arnericans or RVN soldiersrr' This indica-
ted that the Viet Cong tried hard to prevent their rnen frorn defecting'

- Senior Captain Nguyen Van Giau, 44, a rnedical
doctor, chief of the VC n-redical service in the Saigon - Cholon -
Gia Dinh special area, who was born in Khanh Hoi, Saigon and had
been a C ornrriunist Party rnernber for six years' had an active role
in the Cornrnunist general of{ensive. He said because of his petit-

lglggeois origin - his father was a rnernber of the Dernocratic Party -
fr. nadif*.ys been itl treated by the C ornrnunist Party despite his
23 years in service of the C or:rrnuni st cause. Giau added that he quit
the Comrounist ranks without any regret as he had always felt he
would be purged by the Party in the end.

- Captain Vo Thai Thanh alias Ut, 3?, of Can Tho'
deputy cornrnander and chie{ of staJf o{ the Tay Do Z Regirnent'
de{ected to the governrnent side at Chuong Thien in July 1968' Captain

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