The General v.'The System

ABE ABRAMS has often summarized his tactical aims in the war as "targeting the enemy's system." He means that U.S. forces should not only seek out and fight Communist troops, but also destroy the elaborate apparatus that supports them--rest camps, ammunition caches, underground communication centers and especially supply lines. Abrams believes that killing one man with maps and plans is worth killing ten with rifles--because without the maps and plans the ten will not know what to do. In massing troops near the Ho Chi Minh Trail last week, the U.S. commander was obeying his long-felt instinct to strike at the very heart of "the system."

sb

In the nearly three years since he was named top officer in Viet Nam, succeeding General William C. Westmoreland (now the Army's Chief of Staff), Abrams has presided over and shaped fundamental changes in the day-to-day tactics used to fight the Communists. Where Westmoreland was a search-and-destroy and count-the-bodies man, Abrams proved to be an interdict-andweigh-the-rice man. Where Westmoreland insisted on outnumbering the enemy three or four to one with massive, multibrigade maneuvers, Abrams matched battalion against battalion and brigade against brigade. If a unit made contact with the enemy, he hustled in reinforcements aboard helicopters--a technique that came to be known as "eagle flight" tactics. He laced the countryside with small, defensible fire bases. Heavy fighting areas were provided with overlapping artillery support, enabling units in trouble to radio for firepower instantly.

Abrams ordered commanders to study enemy habits meticulously, then imitate them. As a result, small units began cutting paths through the jungle in the hope of finding a hidden base, hospital or supply trail. Says a commander who supports Abrams' ideas fully: "Just focusing on knocking out men is illusory --they will just send more men down. But if you can get the system screwed up, the enemy can be champing at the bit to fight but unable to do anything." That combination has proved effective. Along with ARVN's growing capabilities and the spread of the war into Cambodia, Abrams' quick-strike tactics are responsible for making South Viet Nam much more secure from Communist attack than in 1968.

Abrams works in the huge headquarters building of MACV (Military Assistance Command, Viet Nam), next to Saigon's airport. He is at work at 7:30 a.m. seven days a week. In his map-lined office he dips regularly into one of the cigar humidors that, surround him. He confers three or four times a week with U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, three times with General Cao Van Vien, the South Vietnamese chief of staff, and even more often with his intelligence officer. Whenever he can, he choppers to the field and once a month flies to Bangkok to visit his wife.

After leaving the office, Abrams often plays a game of badminton with an aide and then retires to his modular housing unit 100 yards from the head quarters compound. He seldom attends parties, and one of his aides claims he has never seen the rumpled general in his dress greens. After dinner, he sometimes reads, usually history; his last books were two volumes of James T. Flexner's biography of George Washington and Catherine Drinker Bowen's history of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Miracle at Philadelphia. More often, he switches on his stereo, frequently so loud that visitors have to ask their host to turn down the volume in order to hear him.

sb

His taste in music runs from Wagner to Welk, but he is especially fond of the classics, which may help explain why the Armed Forces Radio Network doubled its classical programming soon after his promotion. Abrams often uses musical terms and once managed to outline his whole battle plan for Viet Nam with a musical analogy. "A great conductor will rehearse his orchestra until all the members are skilled enough to do a perfect job. That's the way a military operation should be regarded. An air strike or a round of artillery must come at an exact moment, just as in a symphony one stroke of a drum must come at an exact millisecond of time."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.