Word: khmers
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...fifth year in a row, Khmer Rouge insurgents have mounted a dry-season offensive against the Cambodian capital of Phnom-Penh, strangling the city and blocking its vital Mekong River supply line. Once again there are widespread predictions that Phnom-Penh is on the verge of collapse-and with it, the U.S.-backed government of ailing President Lon Nol. Whether or not it falls, there is no question that the situation is more desperate than ever before. The Cambodian forces have already exhausted the $275 million in U.S. military aid they were granted this year and have scant hope...
...suffered heavy casualties. Some battalions were wiped out completely. Others returned with as few as a dozen men in good condition; the rest were killed, wounded or captured. Reports filtered into the capital of remnants of three battalions, totaling 400 or 500 men, who surrendered en masse to the Khmer Rouge. Their action raises the suggestion that if things get much worse, large numbers of government troops might be tempted to surrender, vanish or defect to the other side...
...staving off imminent collapse and not a means by which Lon Nol might win the war. With the fighting going so badly for his government, the question is inevitably raised in Phnom-Penh these days as to what kind of government Cambodia might have if the ragged peasant Khmer Rouge soldiers should come marching some time soon into a capital city that most have never seen before. Would there be a bloodbath? The evidence to date is inconclusive. Recently, the insurgents slaughtered civilians in two remote provincial towns, possibly because they were thought to be government strongholds. But in other...
What is clear, though, is that the Khmer are fairly independent. They have a long-standing feud with the Vietnamese and they are apparently angry with the Soviets for maintaining an embassy in Phnom Pehn after the coup and they include as members both nationalists and communists. One other thing is certain: they would crush Lon Nol in a matter of weeks if the airlift is stopped...
...avoid execution, and we would have gained nothing. Even with the aid, as Defense Secretary Schlesinger admitted, we can only hope to preserve the status quo. The administration indicates it is hoping to get just enough money to last until the rainy season starts in June, hoping the Khmer will then agree to a compromise peace before the rains stop. The policy is doomed. The Khmer have no reason to negotiate. They have all the strategy advantages, and nothing but contempt...