Word: phnom-penh
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...Richard Nixon, Cambodia posed the most difficult problem of prognosis (see THE WORLD). Since the overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk three weeks ago, the capital of Phnom-Penh has lived in fear that 40,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops in Cambodia might exploit confusion in the countryside to march on the capital and upset Premier General Lon Nol's government. From his exile in Peking, Sihanouk has promised to return at the head of an army of liberation. For Washington, the dilemma is: what to do if the situation gets so bad that...
...Phnom-Penh, troops were everywhere last week. Tanks and armored cars guarded the Defense Ministry and the main post office. Sandbags were piled around entrances to military installations. In the capital's streets, student volunteers performed military drills. In the countryside, tension remained high. In Takeo, site of a large pro-Sihanouk demonstration, the assistant governor told TIME Correspondent David Greenway how the Viet Cong stir up support for the deposed prince, who is now reported to be in Hanoi conferring with North Vietnamese leaders. "At night the Viet Cong come to the villages and play tape recordings...
...regime, the building of new loyalties was clearly the core of the problem. Underscoring that point, the new leaders released 486 of Sihanouk's political prisoners from the Phnom Penitentiary. Later in the week it became even more apparent that the new government would need all the support it could muster. Reports reached Phnom-Penh that Cambodian troops were battling large Communist forces in Snoul and in Svay Rieng province. In Svay Rieng, 200 to 300 Vietnamese Communists launched a brief night attack against the district headquarters town of Chi Phou, but were held off by Cambodian troops...
Late in the week it came. Pro-Sihanouk riots erupted north of Phnom-Penh, and two National Assembly deputies who had voted to depose Sihanouk were reportedly slashed to death. To keep the demonstrations from spreading to the capital, the government sent tanks to seal off roads leading to Phnom-Penh, closed Pochentong Airport and imposed a 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew. More ominously, Acting Head of State Cheng Heng charged that Viet Cong forces on Cambodian soil "have begun actions against the Cambodian people and our soldiers" near the border, and Prince Sirik Matak warned that an attack...
...Army Affair. An equally serious difficulty was the Communist Vietnamese military presence. Before Sihanouk's fall, Lon Nol called on the Communists to evacuate their Cambodian sanctuaries immediately. That demand was not emphasized publicly after the takeover. Nonetheless, Sirik Matak told TIME Correspondent Burton Pines in Phnom-Penh that getting rid of the Communist forces remained a primary goal. "We demand that they immediately leave our territory," the prince said. "Sihanouk violated his own-and our-proclaimed policy of neutralism by permitting the Vietnamese foreigners to stay inside Cambodia. We cannot tolerate it. We have every expectation that this...