Word: khmers
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...underline the threat, a Khmer Rouge 105-mm. rocket last week blasted out windows in the Ministry of Education building where Rowan was conducting an interview. Rowan inspected one jagged shard of shrapnel still hot from the explosion...
...March 18 five years ago, President Lon Nol led the coup in Phnom-Penh that forced neutralist Prince Norodom Sihanouk into exile. Last week rockets fired by the Khmer Rouge insurgents kept raining down on the besieged capital, more embassies closed, students demonstrated and a unit of loyalist troops went on strike, but somehow the government survived for another week despite a growing awareness that the U.S. Congress was not about to authorize any more military aid. Meanwhile, there were speculations that Lon Nol may be quitting as President within the next two weeks...
While there is little information about the Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in Cambodia, they now control almost the entire country, and their support is increasing. Sydney Schanberg's reports in The New York Times of corruption in the Lon Nol government make it clear that the forces opposed to Lon Nol's policies are fighting for the people of Cambodia...
Surely it is. Washington backs the Lon Nol regime but played no known role in helping the Marshal seize power. The conflict there is primarily a civil war; even though Hanoi is aiding the rebels, there are serious doubts that the North Vietnamese would dominate a Khmer Rouge government...
What then should the U.S. do? With regard to Cambodia, the question may already be academic. Obviously Washington would gladly settle for a neutralist regime based on the Laotian model as a replacement for Lon Nol, but there is little reason to believe the Khmer Rouge would now accept anything less than full power. There is a chance, of course, that nationalists will temper the ardor of the Communists in the insurgent movement. Perhaps the clever Sihanouk will play a larger role than is now anticipated. The Khmer Rouge, which lacks a strong cadre of leaders, may be forced...