Word: lon
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...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 of getting the additional $222 million President Ford...
Even though Phnom-Penh was subjected to daily rocket attacks last week, the Lon Nol government seemed blindly optimistic about holding out, apparently convinced that the U.S. will somehow pull it through. But there was little reason for confidence. Along the Mekong River, the government's position has steadily deteriorated. Instead of regaining some of the strategic river positions, as they had planned, loyalist troops have lost much of the ground they retook in late January and in the process have suffered heavy casualties. Some battalions were wiped out completely. Others returned with as few as a dozen...
...airlift is plainly a last-ditch emergency operation aimed at 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...
Cadre Shortage. If only because the Khmer Rouge has also suffered in recent fighting, the Lon Nol government could hold out until the rains return in May, thereby gaining several more months of power. On the other hand, the insurgents could decide to hold back in their attack on the capital, preferring to let the government cave in sooner or later from its own weight. In this way the Khmer Rouge could put off assuming the awesome burden of running -and feeding-a capital that is overflowing with thousands of hungry refugees and hundreds of wounded soldiers and civilians...
...latest Newsweek is a revealing reference to "the White House's puzzling failure to marshall witnesses for Congressional testimony or to lobby key congressman for their support." If the president can't be that tough, he must at least appear that way. Ford apparently does not care for Lon Nol or for the Cambodian people as much as he has been claiming lately. Instead, he seems to be using an old presidential ploy: force Congress into an untenable position, and then tell the voters you told them so. Tell them you did all you could, but that Congress just wouldn...