Word: cambodians
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...curtain of silence that has concealed Cambodia from Western eyes ever since the Khmer Rouge capture of Phnom-Penh on April 17 opened briefly last week, revealing a shocking portrait of a nation in torturous upheaval. Eyewitness reports by the few Western journalists who stayed on in the Cambodian capital after the closing down of the American embassy indicated that the country's new Communist masters have proved to be far more ruthless, if not more cruel and sadistic in their exercise of power than most Western experts had expected...
...early hours of the rebel take-over were a time of wild unreality. Westerners and Cambodian civilians gathered at the Hotel Le Phnom cheered as the first Khmer Rouge soldiers arrived. They were smiling and friendly, and the euphoria lasted for several hours. Only later did foreigners and city dwellers alike realize that these first soldiers were actually members of a 200-man private band led by a daredevil freelance general, Hem Keth Dara, 29, and not really part of the Khmer Rouge at all. They were quickly replaced by tough, disciplined soldiers, heavily laden with arms, who swept through...
...arrived safely in Thailand last week. Apparently because they did not want to accept foreign help, the Khmer Rouge refused an offer by France to provide an evacuation plane. They insisted that all the foreigners, including the aged and sick, endure a 250-mile truck ride to the Cambodian border. Instead of using a direct route, the evacuees rode along winding dirt roads that had served as the guerrillas' supply routes during years of fighting. To Correspondent Schanberg, it appeared that "these areas had been developed and organized over a long period and had remained untouched sanctuaries throughout...
...many as 130 South Vietnamese planes and helicopters, including F-5 fighter-bombers, transports and attack planes, were reported meanwhile to have reached the U.S.-run Utapao air-base in Thailand with about 2,000 soldiers and civilians; already some 1,000 Cambodian refugees were crowded into tents there. Alarmed, the Thai government announced that the refugees had to leave within 30 days and that it would return the planes to "the next government in South Viet Nam." Defense Secretary James Schlesinger firmly advised Bangkok that it should do no such thing; under aid agreements, the equipment cannot be transferred...
...news out of the Los Angeles Times." William Wild, another AID official who is in charge of the Pendleton operation, considered himself in business once he was able to lease a small data-processing machine for 90 days. "I'm operating on $40 million left over from the Cambodian foreign assistance funds," he groaned. "We could be in trouble if Congress doesn't quickly approve the appropriation for the refugees...