OUTLINE: Patients receive radiation to the tumor and nodal area 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Patients receive chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin (CDDP) via rapid intravenous infusion on day 1 followed by fluorouracil (5-FU) via 96-hour continuous infusion (CI) on days 1 through 4; this is repeated on the last 4 days of radiation therapy (days 29-31), with an additional dose of CDDP on day 29 and a 96-hour CI of 5-FU on days 29-31. Patients also receive paclitaxel (TAX) as a weekly 3 hour infusion on days 1, 8, 15, and 29, with 3 patients treated at each dose level and subsequent patients treated according to the toxicity observed in previous cohorts. TAX will be given prior to the CDDP and 5-FU on the weeks when it is given concurrently. The MTD of TAX is defined as the dose at which no more than 1 of 6 patients experiences dose-limiting toxicity. Surgical resection takes place 2-8 weeks following completion of chemoradiotherapy in all patients except those with disease progression and those who are surgically unresectable or medically unfit (includes those with metastatic disease) to tolerate surgery. An additional course of TAX/CDDP/5-FU is given 28-35 days after surgery.