Word: arvn
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...Cambodia's broad flatlands, ARVN commanders could wage a conventional, European-style war of maneuver, using textbook tactics that the Communists chose not to test in determined combat. Only four days after Nine Dragons began, ARVN General Ngo Dzu's armored columns had effortlessly swept light Viet Cong forces from the towns of Takeo and Kompong Trach and the key ports of Kep and Kampot. Equally facile was ARVN Task Force 318's high-speed dash 75 miles down Highway 1 toward Phnom-Penh. TIME Correspondent John Mulliken joined General Tri as he directed the drive alternately...
Confident and even cocky, ARVN officers have begun to sound like Americans discussing the vicissitudes of the Vietnamization program. One senior South Vietnamese officer told TIME Correspondent James Willwerth: "The Cambodians wanted us to do their fighting for them. I said to one general, 'Sir, if you are not willing to fight for yourselves, we will not do your fighting for you.' Then I realized that this is what the Americans had been saying to us−and suddenly I am very ashamed. We, too, must fight our own battles...
Naive Suggestions. More and more, it seems clear that many of those battles will be fought on Cambodian soil. Speaking in Saigon last week, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky openly jeered at the idea that ARVN 'has to withdraw" when the Americans do. Said Ky: "These are naive suggestions coming from naive people. Our armed forces are strong enough to carry on independent operations on Cambodian as well as Vietnamese territory...
Suggested Scenario. Actually, there is plenty of reason to believe that the last thing the U.S. wants is to pull ARVN back from Cambodia. The country would probably fall to the Communists in short order if it were left to fight the Communists on its own. One scenario suggested by observers: The U.S. formally asks South Viet Nam to withdraw its troops by June 30. Thieu refuses, thereby guaranteeing continued ARVN support for the Lon Nol regime, while dissociating the U.S. from any further violation of Cambodian "neutrality." The U.S. throws up its hands, noting that it cannot order...
...Celebration. In some quarters, including the U.S. State Department, there is deep concern that prolonged ARVN involvement in Cambodia could eventually upset Vietnamization. The Communists, meanwhile, have yet to substantiate a related criticism−that the Cambodian operation will directly imperil South Viet Nam. Across South Viet Nam last week, the enemy did try to mount a special one-day "high point" with rocket and mortar attacks on 64 towns and outposts. But even with nearly 60,000 U.S. and ARVN troops off in Cambodia, the sputtering high added up to a very low-key celebration of Ho Chi Minn...