Word: cambodia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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WHAT will happen when the U.S. withdraws its ground forces from Viet Nam? The first trial run came at Ben Het, the embattled South Vietnamese outpost near Cambodia that was the well-publicized object of enemy pressure for 55 successive days. For the first time since the massive U.S. military buildup in 1965, South Vietnamese forces (ARVN) bore the brunt of a major ground action in the difficult border terrain. Though the siege last week was lifted and Ben Het remained in allied hands, the results were far from reassuring. "You can see it happening...
...days after Lien's press conference, the siege of Ben Het abruptly ceased, and the enemy faded away into Cambodia. A relief force of 1,500 South Vietnamese troopers last week encountered no resistance on their way to Ben Het. Why did the enemy withdraw? During the height of the attacks, North Vietnamese propagandists boasted that Ben Het represented "a humiliating failure for the U.S. in its plot to de-Americanize the war and use Vietnamese to kill Vietnamese." Having already lost 1,800 men in the battle, the North Vietnamese may have felt that they needed to waste...
...push the talks off dead center. "We have reached a stage in these negotiations where the issues have become clear, and we can now get down to serious discussion of them in specific detail," he declared. Lodge thereupon named five specific issues-ranging from agreements on Laos and Cambodia to release of prisoners-where "sufficient common ground" exists to begin negotiating. After warming up on these peripheral subjects, he then broached the more basic issues of troop withdrawals and political settlement...
...Communists agree to respect the territorial integrity of Laos and Cambodia. They are willing to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Both say that the entire political spectrum of South Viet Nam must be eligible for representation in its government. The U.S. insisted for years that the National Liberation Front be excluded, but Washington has since surrendered that position. Use of an international supervisory group to help carry out peace terms is recommended by both sides, for different purposes. Hanoi still proposes the reunification of North and South, less adamantly than it used to, and the U.S. now accepts the possibility-although...
...benefits have been felt across the board. Government revenues are up 10% over last year, thanks entirely to the new operation. Cambodia's local industries have benefited: all the pieces of casino equipment-including dice, roulette wheels, cards and chemin de fer "shoes"-are made at home. Several pawnshops have sprung into existence to help out unlucky bettors...