Word: lon
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REPORTS FROM CAMBODIA last week merely confirmed what has been long suspected: The United States is still heavily involved in illegal military support of the foundering Lon Nol regime--a blatant violation of Congressional action which bars military advisers and the direct involvement of any American troops in Southeast Asia...
...adviser was sent to Kampot when American officials in Cambodia decided that the situation there was becoming critical for the Lon Nol troops. In the past month, insurgent Khmer Rouge troops have moved within one mile of the city and captured its water supply and Cambodia's only cement factory. The population of the city has dropped from 50,000 to less than 20,000 in that time and almost all private shops and businesses have closed...
...Lon Nol's forces outnumber the rebels by a ratio of at least 4 to 1, but the government troops are poorly paid and their commanders are often corrupt. Says one American expert: "There is no leadership. The army has no idea what to do." Moreover, the quality of the government's equipment leaves a bit to be desired. As one Pentagon official puts it: "The Cambodians are fighting with the biggest museum of junk you ever saw." Their air force, for instance, consists of 20 or so pre-Korean-War-vintage T-28 fighter-bombers...
Despite the shattering impact of the Insurgents' rocket and artillery assaults on Phnom-Penh, the fighting around the capital is basically deadlocked. Although Lon Nol has no realistic hope of driving the attackers away from his capital's doors, the Insurgents seem incapable of capturing the city before August, when the monsoon will force the suspension of most military activity...
...Lon Nol and the U.S. hope that the Insurgents will eventually tire of fighting and agree to negotiate a truce. Western diplomats in Phnom-Penh, however, note no evidence that any of the guerrilla military leaders are inclined to talk. Instead, the rebels may simply pull back with the rains and resume their attack on the capital with the next dry season...