Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Even if South Viet Nam survives, at best it will be in truncated form, having shrunk to the provinces around Saigon and the Mekong Delta. Even so, it was abundantly clear that Thieu's decision two weeks ago to abandon some outlying hard-to-defend provinces to the Communists had started a rout of his forces...
...believe that a coup would only further lessen public confidence in the government. But the conservative opposition argued that South Viet Nam now needs a strong, broadly representative, anti-Communist movement while reorganizing the army to defend a smaller perimeter around Saigon and part of the rice-rich Mekong Delta. "The present atmosphere of panic is like China in 1949," said one of the country's most respected political leaders. "We can no longer count on the American forces, and we must act quickly to save ourselves...
...most intense insurgent pressure remains concentrated against besieged Phnom-Penh. With the Mekong River lifeline choked off, the capital is now solely dependent on the U.S. "rice birds"- DC-8s and C-130s whose pilots brave Khmer Rouge rockets to ferry in food, fuel and ammunition. Money for the airlift will be exhausted by the end of April unless the U.S. Congress, when it reconvenes April 7, surprises everybody and approves a $222 million supplemental Cambodian aid appropriation. Last week the strategically important town of Tuol Leap, only six miles to the northwest of Phnom-Penh's Pochentong Airport...
Elsewhere in Cambodia, the story is just as grim. Several towns on the Mekong River are still under pressure, while even Battambang city, 160 miles northwest of Phnom-Penh in the heart of what was once Cambodia's rice granary, might soon fall. Each night the Communists overrun another tiny outpost protecting the city. An inspection of Battambang's defenses, says a recent visitor, turned up "empty holes and no soldiers to fill them...
...heaviest fighting of the week took place in Neak luong, 32 miles southeast of the capital on the Mekong River. Pushing forward inexorably, the insurgents lowered the tubes of their artillery pieces and sent shell after shell screaming through the city on flat trajectories. Hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded every day, and many bodies were left to decompose in the streets. The attacks destroyed a naval ammunition dump, a fuel depot and a floating naval base. Helicopters to Phnom-Penh were the only means of escape; they were reserved for wounded soldiers and wealthy Cambodians who could afford...