The Citadel Recaptured

Quang Tri city, the only provincial capital in South Viet Nam to fall to the North Vietnamese, has stood as a humiliating symbol of defeat to Saigon since it was captured last May. On June 19, President Nguyen Van Thieu promised that Saigon's troops would devote the next three months to "kicking the Communists out of South Viet Nam forever." Ten days later, Saigon launched a 20,000-man counteroffensive. Its main object: Quang Tri city.

The battle for Quang Tri turned into one of the longest and bloodiest of the war. Last week, after two battalions of South Vietnamese marines scrambled over the nearly demolished battlements of the citadel, the Saigon government announced that Quang Tri had at last been retaken.

It was a costly victory. The number of Communist losses is not known, but it is high. By conservative estimates, the South Vietnamese suffered 1,000 casualties a week in the Quang Tri fighting alone. The city, moreover, is still an easy target for NVA guns hidden in the nearby mountains, and it was not certain whether Saigon's forces could hold the citadel--or will even try.

The capture of Quang Tri will give Saigon a much-needed psychological boost. But it by no means accomplishes Thieu's announced aim. U.S. General Frederick Weyand was reported to have estimated last week that the Communists hold roughly half of South Viet Nam. Beyond that, the battle for Quang Tri raises grave questions once again about the basic strategy of Thieu's counteroffensive, which has committed South Vietnamese troops to costly set-piece battles for cities of marginal military importance. As for Quang Tri, it is now nothing but rubble.

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