Word: lon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...would the fall of Lon Nol affect South Viet...
...battlefield. State Department officials recently disclosed that the U.S. made six attempts in the past year (variously using Peking, Hanoi and Moscow as intermediaries) to open a dialogue with the rebels. "All our efforts have been rebuffed," complained President Ford. The Khmer insurgents' leaders refuse to negotiate while Lon Nol continues to head the Phnom-Penh government. Moreover, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger apparently made no attempt during any of his seven visits to Peking to meet with Prince Sihanouk...
...insurgents have burnt entire villages that they have captured; there are reliable reports that Khmer Rouge troops have killed and strung up scores of civilians in areas they have "liberated." (Both sides have treated prisoners brutally.) On the other hand, the rebels' clandestine radio promises that only Lon Nol and six of his top colleagues ("the seven traitorous chieftains") would be executed; all others who cooperate with the new government have been assured of pardons. If the capital falls, the U.S. is prepared to evacuate the regime's top leaders...
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...
John Gunther Dean, 49, has lost 21 lbs. in the past year. He is the battle-fatigued, frustrated U.S. ambassador in Phnom-Penh who during that period has tried to shore up the Lon Nol government in the hope of eventually achieving what he helped bring about as U.S. chargé in Laos 18 months ago: a coalition between the opposing parties that would end the fighting. While he claims not to be emotionally involved in the situation, he clearly is. In an interview last week with TIME Correspondent Roy Rowan, he pleaded his increasingly forlorn case for continued...