Meanwhile, in Viet Nam

Fighting while talking has always been a North Vietnamese Communist canon, and the movement toward peace continued last week to be balanced by an increase in combat in South Viet Nam. In a macabre version of musical chairs played an average of 25 times a day, the same scene was enacted: Communist forces move into a small town or hamlet early in the morning and announce their presence. The lightly armed regional government forces flee, usually without a fight, sending a plea for help to the nearest ARVN main force. The Communists lecture the villagers on Red doctrine, then recruit, enlist or impress young men into their army and perhaps levy some instant taxes. Soon the ARVN come to the rescue and, after an intense battle that may last several days and involve heavy air and artillery strikes that virtually level the village, drive the Communist forces out.

The Communists apparently never expect to hold the towns for long. One of their objectives is to keep Saigon's forces off balance and tied down while other North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units increase the pressure on Saigon itself and other key areas. A second aim is to undermine the villagers' confidence in their government and Vietnamization. But the tactics will also pay spot dividends on any given day that a ceasefire is declared, since the Washington-Hanoi agreement says that whoever holds a piece of land on the day the cease-fire commences gets to keep it.

The impending settlement has touched off a scramble by both sides to funnel as much equipment as possible to their forces In South Viet Nam before peace breaks out. The U.S. estimates that large amounts of war materiel were moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in September and that the flow has increased noticeably in recent weeks. The U.S., too, is taking the utmost advantage of the delay in Paris, rushing to South Viet Nam equipment already authorized and funded by Congress for next year. Explains one Pentagon official: "The agreement allows for one replacement [for each piece of present equipment or armament].

Figure it out. They have. And they are rushing their stuff in just as hard as we are." The U.S. is doing its best to interdict Communist supplies. While maintaining its halt to air and naval attacks above the 20th parallel, American bombers are hitting the supply routes below the 20th at a near-record pace. Oct. 31, the Hanoi had hoped the agreement would be signed, 13 B-52 missions bombed the coastal routes south of Vinh.

The fresh outburst of action has had clear effects. Not since 1968 have so many Communist troops been dug in so close to Saigon. Small-unit attacks are now coming from a 270DEG arc around the capital, and they draw closer every day. Reports TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand: "Watching the action on Highway 13 to the north of Saigon is like watching mortar rounds being walked in on a position. Each day, when one drives up the highway through the flat open rice fields, progress is stopped closer to Saigon." The going on Route 1 is just as tough. The elite 81st Special Airborne Ranger Brigade, which helped save An Loc and recapture Quang Tri, is being tied down clearing areas only 16 miles from Saigon.

Hillenbrand accompanied the 81st into the village of Tan Phu Trung and describes the scene: "For two days they had been fighting their way into the hamlet across a thick growth of bamboo behind which the NVA had set up machine-gun positions in deep bunkers. Now the bunkers were empty except for the bodies of two NVA defenders. We walked down a red dirt path following a thin black wire, which the lieutenant explained was the line for the NVA field telephones. Most of the houses in the village remain standing, because elements of the 81st had chosen the rare option of retaking it by hand rather than aided by air power. An old man wearing brown shorts was digging in the crater holes, removing the heavy red clay with his hands. Bit by bit, he uncovered a body -- first the limp brown hand, then the face and shoulders.

"We followed the soldiers into another section of the village. Here the NVA had made a stand and were wiped out. Eight enemy bodies lay scattered about the compound of a large house. The front wall had been blown away, and the walls were pitted by fusillades. A pair of legs stuck out of a bunker hole. They had Ho Chi Minh sandals on the feet."

Heading back to the main highway, Hillenbrand encountered an airborne soldier celebrating his recent victory with wine. Had he heard about the ceasefire? Oh yes, he said. "I've heard something about that, but that's not our job. That's for the important people to worry about. I'm merely a soldier and I fight until they tell me to stop fighting. Then I don't know what I'll do."

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