Word: phnom-penh
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1970
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...regime sought to consolidate its hold on Cambodia last week, portraits of Prince Norodom Sihanouk were hurriedly removed in government offices and shops throughout the capital of Phnom-Penh. While the deposed chief of state was gone, however, it was clear that he was not forgotten. In a Phnom-Penh hotel, a visitor asked for one of the Sihanouk portraits as a souvenir. "Oh no," replied a clerk. "We are saving it. Nothing is sure. We may have to put it back...
...mood of uneasiness and uncertainty prevailed in Cambodia and in neighboring Laos as well. In Peking, Sihanouk called for a war of liberation against the "traitors and renegades" who had seized power in Phnom-Penh. From Hanoi came pledges of "total support" for Sihanouk, and North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong hurried to Peking to confer with the deposed prince. In Phnom-Penh, both the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong closed their embassies, a move short of outright diplomatic rupture but suggestive of trouble to come...
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...