Word: nam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cold water on Hanoi's offer of a nonaggression pact. The pact was apparently designed to allay ASEAN fears that have been raised by the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, but Hanoi's prospective partners in the treaty would have none of it. Malaysia, which is probably Viet Nam's closest friend in ASEAN, pointedly noted that if Hanoi wanted to prove its sincerity, "deeds should speak louder than words...
...Viet Nam's tilt toward Moscow became conspicuous in 1978. Hanoi first joined COMECON, the Soviet-bloc economic organization, then signed a 25-year treaty of friendship and cooperation with Moscow in November. The dramatic new Soviet military role in Indochina surfaced in February, when China invaded Viet Nam. Once proud of its self-reliant mobility, Hanoi has become virtually dependent on the Soviets for logistics and aerial reconnaissance...
Soviet "volunteer" technicians assist not only in the operation of Viet Nam's major airfields, but also in keeping open its ports. To move Hanoi's troops between its forward bases in Cambodia and the China border and the rest of Viet Nam, Soviet pilots fly them in mammoth Antonov-22 transports. Tan Son Nhut airport near Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is kept busy handling incoming flights of Ilyushin-76s, carrying pallets of artillery ammunition for use, presumably, in Cambodia. Danang airport, almost a ghost field after 1975, now serves as a refueling base for long...
Even the old Air America routes in Laos have been partly taken over by Soviet pilots in Antonov-12s. There have been reports that some of the pilots supplement their income by smuggling Laotian gold into Viet Nam. Observed a cynical military attaché: "Without the Russians it would be almost impossible to move around the greater Vietnamese Empire, er, excuse me, the Greater Indochina Co-Prosperity Sphere...
...Viet Nam, which once touted itself as a model of socialist development, has become a troubled pariah. It is only now recovering slowly from the bloody but inconclusive border war with China. Although the repressive regime of Cambodia's Premier, Pol Pot, has been driven out of Phnom Penh, Vietnamese forces are bogged down in what appears to be a protracted guerrilla war in Cambodia...