Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...They're losing on the ground, but it's a question of whether they care. They're keeping the Mekong Valley. Suppose the Pathet Lao took over Vientiane. It's fairly clear what would happen- the city would just be wiped out. Nothing they can do about it- if not by American bombardment, then by Thai artillery across the river...
...organizing there. I don't have any facts, but they'd be crazy if they're not, and if something happens in the areas of Thailand bordering Laos, then it's a different story. But short of that, I don't see how they could move into the Mekong valley. They'd be wiped...
...large supplies of rice, fish and cattle, and last week's attacks on Kompong Thom and Skoun, two strategic cities north of Phnom-Penh, showed that they are intent on securing continued control of these new havens. They also now command a riverine supply route on the Mekong that stretches all the way through Laos and Cambodia to the South Vietnamese border...
...ordered all North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops to give up their Cambodian sanctuaries and leave the country. Moving westward so as to put pressure on Lon Nol not to interfere with their refuges and their supply lines, the Communists started seizing territory on the way to the Mekong River. In effect, they turned their backs on South Viet Nam; as Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird has acknowledged privately, the Communists' thinned-out ranks suddenly lowered the risk of American casualties in border raids. His clear implication was that the U.S. was not moving against any major new enemy...
Will the raids hasten or slow up Vietnamization? The clearing of the sanctuaries should provide, for six months at least, a valuable measure of relief for the southern half of South Viet Nam, especially in the Mekong Delta, where 60% of the rural population lives. On the other hand, the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam has shown itself only too eager to conduct the war outside its own country; its operations in Cambodia have greatly raised its morale. But if Saigon commits large numbers of men to fighting in Cambodia, the job of bringing security to South Viet...