Word: phnom-penh
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...death watch in Cambodia has begun. With signs of its vitality fast fading, the Phnom-Penh regime last week resembled a terminal patient approaching the end. As many as 12,000 Khmer insurgent troops had massed within a 20-mile radius of the capital. Some crept so close that they were within two-mile mortar range, from where they shelled the city, killing 20 civilians and wounding 75. TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand was in Phnom-Penh to measure the life expectancy of the regime. His report...
...situation in Cambodia is so grave that it is hard to find an optimistic military assessment around Phnom-Penh. The army of President Lon Nol is not performing well. Even with the intense U.S. bombing, the insurgents merely take their losses and keep on coming. A well-informed Western intelligence officer observes that "while the government's forces have been going downhill, the insurgents have been improving." Even usually optimistic Premier In Tam candidly allowed that the military situation was going "from bad to worse." Villagers flee devastated hamlets as American warplanes drone overhead. Roads leading to Phnom-Penh...
...insurgents are only two miles from Takhmau, a suburb of Phnom-Penh so critical to the capital's defenses that one Western diplomat vows that "if the insurgents take Takhmau. I'm heading for the airport." One might expect that the approach to Takhmau would be studded with government gun emplacements and fallback defensive positions. Not so. It is poorly defended. To the soldiers along Route 2, which cuts through Takhmau to Phnom-Penh, the situation looks bleak. They feel that the government has done little for them. They complain about the corruption of the Lon Nol regime...
...situation appears so hopeless that the Australian embassy has evacuated all dependents and has sent hand-delivered letters to all its other nationals living in Phnom-Penh, firmly suggesting that unless urgent business keeps them there, they had better leave as soon as possible. The British have done the same. The incessant bombing by American planes is now so close that the explosions not only rattle the windows of Phnom-Penh's buildings but also shake some interior walls. On the broad park lawns of the capital, military instructors attempt to train new troops...
...insurgent offensive slowed, but in June the attacks began again, this time concentrating on the area to the south and southwest of the capital. Village after village was held briefly, then abandoned after air strikes and artillery duels. For the government forces, disaster follows disaster. When Kompong Kantuot near Phnom-Penh was abandoned, the government troops were forced to swim the Thnot River because insurgents had blown the bridges. Some of the soldiers-boys aged twelve to 15-drowned. Those who escaped heard others, left behind and afraid to swim, weeping in fear and despair...