Word: cambodia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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LAST month's talks between Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia and Chester Bowles, Johnson's special envoy, produced enough noise to conceal their lack of substance. Bowles and Sihanouk agreed to ask the Southeast Asian International Control Commission to save Cambodia from drowning in the overflow of the Vietnam war. As a diplomatic exercise, the joint appeal may have been something of a success. But as a means of protecting Cambodia, the ICC would prove hopelessly inadequate...
...Control Commission's task -- sealing up Cambodia's border with Vietnam--is mammoth by any standards. The Americans have been complaining for four years that Viet Cong and North Vietnamese use Cambodia as a sanctuary, darting out to strike and then skipping back across the border to safety...
...Commission was designed not to keep tabs on a guerrilla war but to supervise the implementation of the Geneva accords in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This it did with reasonable success in the first two years after its creation, mainly monitoring the withdrawal of regular French and Viet Minh troops. In the years since, however, it has proved disastrously limited in size, mobility and deployment...
...might avoid part of this mess, but to the chagrin of the Americans, the Indians, as ICC chairmen, have applied the unanimity provisions to the hilt. Until last week there was some doubt that the ICC would agree to the Cambodian and American plan entrusting it with surveillance of Cambodia's border. The Indians felt approval had to be unanimous and to secure Polish support, engineered a compromise which drastically limits the ICC role to investigating "specific complaints" after the fact...
...reluctance of big powers to resort to their biggest weapons gives smaller states an opportunity for mischief and arrogance. The difficulty of reacting without overreacting sets a definite limit on power. Thus Castro feels free to talk tough with Russia; the Rhodesians thumb their noses at the British; little Cambodia dares the wrath of Red China. And North Korea boldly hijacks a ship of the U.S. Navy...