Word: lons
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...invasion provoked their campaign or whether the Communists would have begun swallowing big chunks of Cambodia anyway in the confusion that followed the ouster of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. What is abundantly clear is that the Communists pose a lethal challenge to the wobbly anti-Communist government of Premier Lon Nol. Unless Cambodia receives a quick transfusion of aid, South Viet Nam could well find itself flanked by another Communist government...
Hollow Victory. What does Cambodia need to survive? Says one U.S. diplomat: "Time, more than anything else." The current monsoon season gives an added advantage to the Communists, who live off the land and move on foot through the oceans of mud that bog down army vehicles. If Lon Nol can hang on until the rains end in September without losing much more territory, he will have achieved a significant victory...
Ruling Authority. Politically, the government has profited from a wave of Khmer nationalism that swept Cambodia after the overthrow of Sihanouk, who was put on trial in absentia last week on charges of "endangering the security of the Cambodian nation." But Lon Nol, whose regime came to power with the support of the urban middle class and intellectuals, has yet to win widespread loyalty in the countryside. Already the peasants in some contested areas reportedly have given food to the Communist guerrillas. Critics in the National Assembly charge that the government has been too slow in re-establishing its presence...
Last week, partially in response to such criticism, Lon Nol shuffled his Cabinet, adding eight new men and ending the unpopular practice of allowing major members of the government to head several ministries. Ruling authority in Cambodia continues to reside with him and Deputy Premier Sirik Matak...
Without cooperation from its neighbors, Cambodia is "just like Laos," said a longtime SEATO observer. "Lon Nol will survive if the Communists let him." With help, the odds could change drastically. As a White House official noted last week, there are 30 million Thais, 17 million South Vietnamese and 7,000,000 Cambodians; that collective force faces 20 million North Vietnamese who already are fighting in two other places and who are at the end of a 600-mile supply line. So far, however, those figures have not added up to much help for Cambodia in its struggle for survival...