Word: cambodias
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Even as he spoke, U.S. air cavalrymen thrust into Cambodia's Kompong Cham province, located inside a Communist-infested zone called "the Fishhook." Their mission: a strike at the Communist high command hidden in groups of heavy concrete bunkers at several points beyond the border. Farther south, troops of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN), aided by U.S. advisers, helicopters and medical teams, swept into another Communist stronghold known as "the Parrot's Beak," located only 35 miles from Saigon. U.S. planes, meanwhile, began bombing the three other sanctuaries. By week's end the two ground forces reported a combined enemy...
Nixon and his aides carefully argued that this was not an invasion of Cambodia, partly because the areas involved had long been held by the Communists, not the Cambodians. The President insisted that the U.S. move was merely a tactical extension of the Viet Nam conflict. He promised to keep U.S. combat forces to a minimum and indicated that the entire operation would be concluded in six to eight weeks. Said Nixon: "Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw...
Even though the President emphasized the sanctuaries, some parts of his speech?two references to the need to protect all of Cambodia's 7,000,000 people, the description of the whole country as a potential staging area for the Communists?raised the question of whether the U.S. really would or could confine itself to the border areas. There seemed to be a suggestion, not heard in Washington for some time, of what one Administration critic called "open-endedness" about the conflict. The U.S. "foray" presents the North Vietnamese with a significant military challenge. They must either take it lying...
There was another suggestion of "open-endedness" in the President's argument that if he did not take this action in Cambodia, the U.S. position not only in South Viet Nam, but in the Pacific and, indeed, the world would be endangered. The move was tactically sound and represented an acceptable military risk. The disturbing element was the rhetoric suggesting that it was also much more than that: a short-cut to peace and so crucial that if it failed, the U.S. alternatives were either "defeat" or continued, wider...
...answer goes back to a shift in Southeast Asia's balance of power in March: the unexpected overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia's ruler for nearly 30 years. Sihanouk tolerated the presence of some 40,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in border provinces?but he managed to keep them in check by adroit political maneuvering. The new regime, headed by General Lon Nol, was determined to end Sihanouk's policy of playing along with the Communists. But Lon Nol's army, long used largely for roadbuilding and ceremonial functions, was, as one foreign diplomat observed, "more like...