Word: cambodias
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...time of the cease-fire in Viet Nam, U.S. officials expected a de facto cease-fire in neighboring Cambodia toward the end of March. By last week, however, those hopes were long dead, and U.S. bombers were flying some of the heaviest raids...
Both Thieu and Nixon agreed that the U.S. should continue bombing Communist forces in Cambodia as long as they continue to reject a ceasefire. Worried about advances that they have made there, Nixon dispatched General Alexander Haig Jr., Army Vice Chief of Staff, to Cambodia. Haig will also go to Laos, Thailand and South Viet Nam to make what the White House calls "a general assessment of the situation." Thieu pressed Nixon to assure him that in case of a major Communist attack against South Viet Nam there would be an American reaction. Nixon gave a general assurance that...
Night after night, hundreds of B-52s and fighter-bombers from Guam and Thailand streaked across Cambodia to drop their enormous loads (up to 3,000 tons every 24 hours), sometimes striking to within 14 miles of the capital. The effectiveness of this massive effort could not be judged, since U.S. announcements have been deliberately vague, and Western journalists are unable to venture far enough from the capital these days to inspect the damaged areas...
Aside from the question of the raids' effectiveness, there was also considerable debate as to whether the bombing violated U.S. law. In contrast to Viet Nam, Cambodia is not a member of SEATO and has no defense treaty with the U.S. Lyndon Johnson used to cite the Tonkin Gulf Resolution as his authority to wage war in Indochina, but Congress repealed that resolution in 1971. Indeed, after the "incursion" of 1970, Congress specifically barred the use of U.S. combat forces in Cambodia. The final justification-that U.S. air raids defended American troops in Viet Nam-vanished when the last...
...continuation of existing policy. "If the President had the authority to pursue the cease-fire agreements," Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson declared before a House subcommittee last week, "he has the authority to secure adherence for those agreements." The agreements call for "an end to all military activities in Cambodia and Laos," so if the Communists go on fighting, the U.S. can go on bombing. What it all amounted to, Richardson added, was a "winding up of a residual aspect of the war in which we have been engaged...