Word: khmers
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Hanoi's frustrations sometimes flare into violence. Late last month, Vietnamese troops began their annual offensive in Kampuchea to flush out the estimated 45,000 armed rebels opposed to the Hanoi-backed government of President Heng Samrin. Vietnamese soldiers destroyed Phnom Chat, a border village sympathetic to the Khmer Rouge, the largest of the guerrilla groups, then pulverized O Samach, a settlement 70 miles to the northeast that served as an outpost for the 30,000 followers of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. During the blitz, however, the Vietnamese aimed their fire not only at the insurgents but at unarmed civilians...
...Vietnamese apparently plan to obliterate the main camps of each of the three resistance groups in turn. Two weeks ago they demolished Phnom Chat, a border settlement loyal to the Khmer Rouge, the largest of the insurgent groups. Three days later, and 70 miles to the northeast, they leveled O Samach, which is also known as Sihanoukville for its 30,000 followers of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who was deposed in 1970. The next Vietnamese target will probably be the camps of Ban Sangae and Nong Samet, which house 96,000 civilians and serve as a center for the Khmer People...
Though it is surrounded by hostile anti-Vietnamese Khmer guerrillas and is within range of Vietnamese artillery inside Cambodia, NW 82 is not guarded by the Thai army. That task falls to the local militia, a sparsely equipped organization composed of former peasants, who are ill-disposed toward their Vietnamese charges. Several refugee women claim to have been raped, and men say that beatings are common. What is certain is that refugees who "misbehave" wind up spending the night in a red bamboo "tiger cage" 3 yds. long, 2 yds. wide and 1 yd. high...
...wrong, a fact which they, and Mr. Barrett, continue to obfuscate. America is responsible for much of the suffering in Indochina. Neither the hawks nor doves are entirely innocent both should now honestly assess their responsibility for the plight of the Indochinese. May the Lao, the Vicinamese and the Khmer people forgive us all for our mistakes. Mark A. Sauter...
...then, a U.S. Congress that was increasingly challenging the authority of the President had voted to forbid all American military action in Indochina. With this prohibition, Kissinger notes, "our principal bargaining leverage was lost." As a result, an American proposal for a cease-fire in Cambodia was aborted-the Khmer Rouge had no need to negotiate for something that had already been handed to them by Congress-and Chou Enlai, who had agreed to lend China's weight to the proposal, was seriously embarrassed. The Chinese, says Kissinger, were "no longer sure of how steady or reliable a partner...