Word: attacker
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...might be preparing a full-scale "dry season" offense aimed at wiping out Pol Pot's force of 30,000 guerrillas once and for all. If so, it was feared that China might take direct action in defense of Pol Pot, and even perhaps launch another "punitive" attack like its massive invasion of Viet Nam last February. A Chinese military operation on that scale would again raise the risk of direct Soviet intervention...
...idea of going for broke: Perhaps we should combine an attack on the Cambodian sanctuaries with resumption of the bombing of North Viet Nam as well as mining Haiphong? The opposition would be equally hysterical either way. I replied that we had enough on our plate; we would not be able to sustain such a gamble...
...soon as the meeting was over, the President called me over to the family quarters and instructed me to issue a directive authorizing an attack by American forces into the Fishhook area. I had it drafted, and he signed it. Just to be sure, the President first initialed the directive and then, beneath his initials, also signed his full name...
...this point Vice President Spiro Agnew spoke up. He thought the whole debate irrelevant. Either the sanctuaries were a danger or they were not. If it was worth cleaning them out, he did not understand all the pussyfooting about the American role or what we accomplished by attacking only one. Our task was to make Vietnamization succeed. He favored an attack on both Fishhook and Parrot's Beak, including American forces...
...Nixon hated anything more than being presented with a plan he had not considered, it was to be shown up in a group as being less tough than his advisers. I have no doubt that Agnew's intervention accelerated Nixon's ultimate decision to order an attack on all the sanctuaries and use American forces. Agnew was right; we should either neutralize all of the sanctuaries or abandon the project. We were in danger of combining the disadvantages of every course of action. We would be castigated for intervention in Cambodia without accomplishing any strategic purpose...