Word: cambodians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With this revelation, even the flimsiest rationale for the American air strikes fades away. The U.S. air strikes are clearly intended to intervene in a Cambodian civil dispute, and constitute an illegal and unwarranted interference in Cambodian internal affairs...
...most dangerous part of the 150-mile run up the Mekong from the China Sea came between An Long, 20 miles south of the Cambodian frontier, and Neak Luong, site of a Cambodian naval base 32 miles southeast of Phnom-Penh. With radios at An Long blaring reports of heavy enemy crossfire ahead. South Vietnamese river pilots refused to guide the ships the last few miles to the frontier while Cambodian pilots declined to cross the frontier into foreign waters. Some captains, deciding to proceed anyway, argued loudly for arms. "Give us some machine guns," demanded one. A South Vietnamese...
There is, in fact, little protection. Patrol boats shadow convoys, but air cover seldom extends south of the frontier. Once in Cambodian waters, the freighters take aboard a Cambodian pilot and a navy radio operator who tunes in on military frequencies for word of fighting around the bends in the snaking river. "I watch the pilot and the radio operator," says Captain Lo. "When I see them put on their helmets and flak jackets, I do the same. That's all we can do−and hope for the best...
...last week's run, the relatively fast (twelve knots) Lucky Star came under cannon fire one night three miles south of the Cambodian border. Two 75-mm. cannon and a B40 rocket scored direct hits on the vessel's superstructure. Two tankers on Lo's stern caught 14 rockets. When Lo looked back, he saw a smaller cargo vessel, the 1,500-ton Ally, burning and beached on the riverbank. In all, ten of the 18 vessels in the original convoy decided to turn back to An Long...
...even Phnom-Penh is safe. Last January, the Lucky Star was attacked in the harbor by North Vietnamese frogmen using plastique explosives. A month earlier, the Lucky Star's sister ship, the Bright Star, was holed by plastique and sank. Cambodian soldiers routinely stand lookout duty against frogmen, occasionally lobbing grenades off the piers or spraying the water with machine-gun fire. For the crew of the embattled Lucky Star, however, the guards are simply a nuisance. "I wish they would go away," gripes one of the deck crew. "All they do is keep us awake, smoke our cigarettes...