Word: cambodians
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...week's end, three separate operations had unfolded. In the coastal provinces on the Gulf of Siam, ARVN (for Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) troops prepared to slice into new infiltration routes that the Communists had been trying to extend from the Cambodian seaport of Kep into the southern part of South Viet Nam. Northwest of Saigon in Tay Ninh province, 18,000 ARVN armored cavalrymen surged over the border into the Parrot's Beak and the Fishhook. Both sanctuaries were cleared out last spring, but now Communist troops were beginning to drift back...
Since the Cambodian port of Kompong Som (formerly Sihanoukville) was closed to them last spring, the Communists have had to rely solely on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to move men and supplies down to South Viet Nam and Cambodia. With the advent of the dry season, they have made fuller use of the trail than ever before (see box. page 28). American commanders have longed to cut the trail ever since the U.S. entered the war. Contingency plans providing for everything from hit-and-run attacks to a permanent troop barrier across the route were drawn...
...embargo on reporting the fact that an embargo had been imposed. In Washington only a handful of top policymakers knew what was up anyway. This time, there was none of the hour-by-hour agonizing at Camp David that contributed to the tense atmosphere in Washington during the Cambodian foray. Nixon, in fact, left for a long weekend at Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands...
...last months when supplies can leave the north and still reach their destination before rains again make the roads impassable in May. This year the trail's cargo has become more vital than ever to the Communists. Since last March, they have been denied the use of the Cambodian port of Kompong Som, where some 75% of the war material for all of South Viet Nam used to be shipped by sea. Thus, except for what they can forage, the some 400,000 Communist troops in southern Laos, Cambodia and South Viet Nam are almost totally dependent...
...Phnom-Penh last week, a North Vietnamese army defector insisted that Communist strength in Cambodia totaled no fewer than 150,000 men-a seasoned core of 35,000 North Vietnamese regulars plus 115,000 Cambodian peasants recruited in the countryside. Little wonder, then, that after he emerged from a grim meeting with Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Stennis said: "The margin is so thin." By intensifying the pressure against Communist supply routes in Laos, Richard Nixon seemed to be accepting grave risks in hopes of fattening the margin, not just in Cambodia...