"Reeves, James R & Taylor, James Carl - Vietnam 02 - Covert Actions" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reeves James R)

for your fellow man and start thinking of him as an
animal. Like that time in Bac Lieu Province.

It was one of those villages you encountered some-
times that was really neutral. They had their own armed
guards there to protect them, and some of them were
mean as hell. A real rough bunch. They were probably
smugglers and pirates, but that was their village and
they didn't want the Saigon government or the Viet
Cong coming in there telling them what to do. They
weren't from me Delta originally; they had been moved
down from I CorpsЧQuang Tri ProvinceЧby the Ma-
rines as part of a resettlement program. The village
they'd been in before had occupied a key position, and
they'd been caught in crossfire pretty often. They didn't
like the Delta much, but I guess me land was good for
rice, and there wasn't the constant fighting there had
been up north. They werc short of housing. There were
only four or five buildings in the village, and each was

COVERT ACTIONS 11

occupied by three or four families, with five or six peo-
ple to the family.

There were a bunch of elderly people there, and
some very young ones, but not many young adults.
Most of them had either taken up with one side or the
other and left the village to fight, or had been killed
by the Viet Cong or arrested by the government.

We went in on a mercy mission, carrying food and
medicine, and made friends with them, after a fash-
ion. We couldn't talk to them, because they didn't
know English, but we treated their sores and injuries,
and fed their kids. And we'd check in on them every
once in a while to make sure they were all right. We'd
help them with their boats and things.

Then an NVA regiment slipped into the area and
started building up. A patrol ran into them and took
four or five casualties. Then a Vietnamese Marine
patrol went into this village for a couple of weeks and
muddled around the paddies, but came back reporting
no contact. We were sent in to see if we could locate
the NVA so the Army could bring an air cav outfit in
and drive them out.

Bac Lieu Province was flat and mostly covered by
rice paddies, with lots of little villages scattered here