Word: cambodia
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Clearly the opponents of aid to Cambodia were more aggressive. Generally they insisted that Lon Nol's forces were doomed with or without U.S. aid, that further help would merely prolong the killing without affecting the outcome and that the U.S. had neither a vital interest nor a commitment to either side in Cambodia's internal fighting. Defenders of aid echoed Ford's claim that the funds were needed to sustain the government troops until the rainy season, when a negotiated settlement could be sought, thus avoiding a "bloodbath" that might be inflicted by rampaging rebels...
Ford had been forewarned that his aid requests faced an uphill struggle. A Gallup poll released last week reinforced that feeling; it showed that 78% of those polled opposed more aid for either Cambodia or South Viet Nam. Nevertheless, Ford received two pleasant surprises as the Congress began processing his Cambodia proposal. By identical squeak-through margins of 4 to 3, a subcommittee in each chamber kept the notion of some kind of aid to Cambodia alive...
...liberal Javits who unexpectedly supplied the pivotal vote-startling even Ford-as a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to provide $125 million in emergency aid and $90 million for humanitarian help (such as food and medical supplies). Democrat Hubert Humphrey, who chaired the subcommittee, argued that Cambodia's military situation was "hopeless," the Lon Nol government was too weak to negotiate and the Administration wanted the aid merely to show that the U.S. had not "copped out." Javits contended that one final injection of help could make negotiations more likely by "continuing some level of resistance...
Despite those two slim victories, Ford's aid fight rapidly skidded downhill. In both the Senate and the House, the controlling Democrats held party caucuses and voted strongly against further aid to either Cambodia or South Viet Nam. The Democratic Senators argued the matter for more than two hours as South Dakota's James Abourezk led opposition to aid. He complained that the political maneuvering over Cambodia seemed to center more on "whom to blame" when Cambodia falls than on "ending the slaughter...
...bill reaches the floor. Unless some aid measure also emerges from the House, however, any Senate approval will be in vain. In practical terms, the Administration's best bet seems to lie in getting approval to shift existing Pentagon funds to keep ammunition flowing to Cambodia rather than in seeking new money...