Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...abandon much of its territory to the Communist forces, sending long lines of forlorn refugees stumbling southward from northern provinces and the Central Highlands. They were joined by demoralized ARVN soldiers, whose rushed retreat was aimed strategically, and perhaps wisely, at reinforcing the defenses of Saigon and the Mekong Delta...
...save the body of South Viet Nam. From now on, as one Pentagon analyst put it, "a truncated map of South Viet Nam" will have to be drawn. It will include most of Military Regions III and IV-the eleven provinces around Saigon and the 15 provinces of the Mekong Delta region farther south-along with various pockets of control dotting the coast as far north as the expected new line of defense at Danang...
...effect on life in the besieged capital. In front of the huge, unfinished Cambodiana Hotel, which now serves as a camp for 5,000 homeless refugees, emaciated children chanted, "O.K., bye-bye," perhaps the only English words they knew, as enemy bombs fell on the opposite bank of the Mekong River. Inside, a line of hollow-eyed mothers clutching half-dead infants waited patiently to enter the World Vision clinic. One baby's head hung limply to the side, eyes closed and mouth agape, its body swaddled in a green-and-white T shirt that bore the words HELLO...
...trying to buy time. The supplemental aid might allow the Phnom-Penh government to withstand the insurgents" siege until July, when the Mekong River, swollen by heavy rains, will overflow, making it difficult for fighting to continue at its current level. Washington believes that the Khmer insurgents, who have suffered heavy losses in the long assault on the capital, might recognize that it would be better to negotiate than to gird up for yet another bloody dry-season offensive in the autumn...
Probably not. There is no reason to expect that the insurgents will be more willing to settle for anything less than total victory this year than they were in 1974, when the Mekong floods also ended their dry-season offensive. By fall, the rebels will have replenished their stockpiles and will be rested and ready for a new campaign against the capital. Thus, opponents of U.S. aid can plausibly argue that sending more supplies will not lead to negotiations but merely prolong Cambodia's agony...