Word: phnom
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...week's end the Cambodian government was reported ready to cut down the trees lining Phnom-Penh's Democracy Boulevard so that the wide roadway can be turned into an emergency landing strip for DC-3s in case the airport is closed down by Khmer Rouge rocket attacks. Such a desperate ploy might extend the war for a few days, or even a week or two, but not for long. This week the city braced itself for the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk, a date the insurgents have previously celebrated with heavy attacks...
...March 1970, a coalition of military officers, students, urban intellectuals and businessmen mounted a successful coup against Cambodia's neutralist chief of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Until then, the U.S. had limited (and sometimes severed) ties with Cambodia. A month after the coup, Phnom-Penh's new regime appealed to the U.S. for help in fighting the Khmer Rouge, which was then a ragtag Communist-led insurgency movement. Washington refused. On April 29,1970, U.S. forces invaded Cambodia to destroy "sanctuaries" used by North Vietnamese troops. The move, said Washington, was partly designed to help Phnom-Penh...
...leader of the 1970 coup. Cambodia has a one-party Senate, National Assembly and Cabinet; the Premier is Long Boret. Although partially paralyzed from a 1971 stroke, Lon Nol wields nearly absolute power as head of the government. The 80,000 combat and 145,000 support troops under Phnom-Penh's command control approximately 25% of the country's land, about 60% of its 7.6 million inhabitants and all but two of its major cities and towns...
...opposes the Phnom-Penh regime...
...trying to buy time. The supplemental aid might allow the Phnom-Penh government to withstand the insurgents" siege until July, when the Mekong River, swollen by heavy rains, will overflow, making it difficult for fighting to continue at its current level. Washington believes that the Khmer insurgents, who have suffered heavy losses in the long assault on the capital, might recognize that it would be better to negotiate than to gird up for yet another bloody dry-season offensive in the autumn...