Word: cambodians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...South Vietnamese attack on Communist forces across the Laotian border. The presumed goal: to dislodge the enemy from his sanctuary and interrupt a heavy flow of supplies, as was done in Cambodia last spring (see THE WORLD). An evident further goal: to reduce Communist pressure on the regime of Cambodian Premier Lon Nol. Such a campaign, pitting Saigon's forces against North Vietnamese regulars and other Communist troops on the Ho Chi Minh Trail through southern Laos, would involve high stakes. Among the possibilities would be a serious defeat for the South Vietnamese army or, conversely, an ARVN victory...
...over the methods by which Nixon seeks to leave the field. While convincing the home audience that the U.S. is irreversibly quitting the war, the President must keep Hanoi sufficiently off balance to avert any military disaster until American forces are well clear. Thus the rationale for the Cambodian and Laotian air actions. What disturbs antiwar critics, though, is that the U.S. has increasingly put itself in the position of preserving the Lon Nol government...
...said that "we will use, as necessary, sea and air resources to supplement the efforts and the armed forces of our friends and allies who are determined to resist aggression." That seemed to pledge considerable military might, short of ground forces, to secure Lon Nol or a similarly inclined Cambodian leader. Two days later Rogers said: "The U.S. is not fighting for the defense of Cambodia. The U.S. is fighting to protect American soldiers in Viet...
...main U.S. concern is the increasing flow of rice, fuel, ammunition and other supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which became more important to the Communists than ever when the Cambodian port of Kompong Som (Sihanoukville) was closed to them last year. In December, a U.S. bomber hit a jungle-covered truck depot 700 yards off the trail. Subsequent raids caused 7,000 secondary explosions and ignited fires that sent smoke rising 6,000 ft. That find and others like it have strengthened Washington's belief that the Communists are scrambling to restock the sanctuaries along the South...
...Like the Cambodian incursion, this may be something which is short-lived," Dean May said, "but it indicates a willingness on the part of the administration to take risks that I wish they wouldn't take...