Word: penh
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...recognition of battlefield realities in Cambodia and political realities on Capitol Hill. Over the past six months, the Khmer Rouge forces, an estimated 30,000 strong, have been pursuing a rural-based strategy similar to the one that enabled them to encircle and take the capital city of Phnom Penh in 1975. While the Khmer Rouge are stronger militarily than at any other time since they were chased from power by Vietnam 11 years ago, some well-informed analysts do not believe the gains made during this rainy season represent a dramatic shift of strength on the ground...
...Bush Administration believes it is taking a political and diplomatic risk by reaching out to Hanoi at all. But the President knew he was running out of ways to prevent the Khmer Rouge from gunning their way back into power in Phnom Penh, and he no longer needs to treat Vietnam as an extension of the cold...
...Cambodia. A well- informed intelligence source in Indochina acknowledges that several hundred Vietnamese military advisers are still attached to Hun Sen's army, as are two understrength Vietnamese regiments of about 1,000 troops each. Two Vietnamese- speaking soldiers in Cambodian uniforms were aboard a recent flight from Phnom Penh to the provincial capital of Siem Reap, and interviews with residents there confirmed that many Vietnamese-speaking troops are assigned to government units in the area...
...Phnom Penh, once the loveliest capital in Southeast Asia, looks dusty and exhausted after years of war and atrocities, but it is beginning to regain some of its old spirit. Rice and other foodstuffs are fairly plentiful again in the large central market, as are Heineken beer, gold jewelry and Casio calculators. Prices tend to fluctuate with rumors of peace. But, says Le Hor, a proprietor at one of the market's stalls, "here we are relatively safe and don't think the Khmer Rouge are dangerous." Then he adds, "I'm not sure they feel so confident...
...just to the north is more prosperous, but government troops at checkpoints along Route 7 often demand money or cigarettes from travelers for permission to continue on a road that is in such disrepair as to be all but impassible anyway. To the south, west and northwest of Phnom Penh, reminders of the never ending war are abundant. Not long ago, a handful of adventuresome American tourists at the fabled Angkor Wat ruins in the northwest were startled to see an army truck speed by, carrying wounded from the front in Oddar Meanchey province, a Khmer Rouge stronghold only about...