Word: lons
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...friendliness of the U.S. government toward the junta was not particularly difficult to probe. Simply speaking, its leader-Lieut. Gen. Lon Nol-had long been uncompromisingly opposed to the "neutralism" of the Sihanouk regime, While in power. Sihanouk's government was characterized by its refusal to allow any American influence in the country, by its avowed antagonism to the U.S. presence in South Asia. To this end, Sihanouk had permitted North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces to use eastern Cambodia as a staging ground for operations against Allied troops in South Vietnam. In the Administration's view, the anti...
...Vietnamese forces in Cambodia were only a part of the domestic opposition which Lon Nol faced. It is interesting that Vietnamese may now actually be in the minority of the insurgent forces. When the junta decided to cut off the sale of foodstuffs to the Vietnamese, it became necessary for the military to engage in wholesale massacres of entire villages to enforce their decision. Further, the group which formed the clite corps of Lon Nol's army-the ??called "young Khmers"-were sponsored by the C.I.A when they operated against Sihanouk from bases in Vietnam and Thailand before they joined...
...recent American involvement in Laos and the resumption of bombing north of the DMZ have indicated, the activity of U.S. troops in Cambodia is part of a larger effort to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia. Whether Nixon's gambit wil succeed in protecting Lon Nol's regime from further wearing away is still an open question. But it would be a bad mistake for the anti-war forces in this country to focus on the Cambodian intrusion as an independent phenomenon without extending their new awareness to a more thorough-going critique of American activity in Indochina...
...Lon Nol government put out an SOS for massive arms assistance, which South Viet Nam, with U.S. approval, answered in part by shipping in some 5,000 captured, Soviet-designed AK-47 rifles. The chances of equipping and training Cambodia's largely volunteer army in time for it to beat off a coordinated Communist attack, however, were next to nil. Meanwhile the South Vietnamese, in a number of exploratory probes, had proved that the Communists were vulnerable to attack on their sanctuaries from the west...
...touchiest parts of the plan involved Cambodia's neutral status. The Lon Nol government, though plainly pro-Western, is determined to preserve at least the facade of neutrality. Moreover, it hopes to win diplomatic support?and arms aid?later this month at a conference of Asian nations called to discuss Cambodia by Indonesia. To avoid weakening the shaky regime, the U.S. decided to forgo the legality of wangling an invitation from Phnom-Penh to attack the Communist bases in Cambodia. The omission meant that Washington was openly violating the Geneva accord of 1954 (which it did not sign...