Word: phnom
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...week's end Communist forces were only about 40 miles from the capital, although on a different front. About 75 miles southwest of An Loc, North Vietnamese surrounded the Cambodian town of Svay Rieng, astride Highway 1, which links Phnom Penh to the South Vietnamese capital. The move could be a diversion, or an effort to open a new infiltration route into South Viet Nam -or a bid to mousetrap the South Vietnamese into another...
...hardest-hit section of Phnom-Penh was a teeming slum that houses war refugees and soldiers' families. During the barrage, 27 rockets pounded into the area, which is roughly the size of three football fields. At least 47 were killed and 56 injured, either in the blasts or in the fires that leveled every shack and lean-to in the area. By late morning, cabled TIME Correspondent Stanley Cloud, "nothing was left but a smoldering, stinking layer of ashes littered with the charred corpses of chickens, pigs and people. I learned that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish...
Over the next three days, the Communists followed up with sapper attacks that crippled two freighters moored near Phnom-Penh's docks and severely damaged an important bridge. But there was no sign that they wanted to take the city, or even to increase the considerable swath of Cambodian territory under their control. What was the point of it all? According to some speculation, the attacks were a counterpoint to the festivities surrounding the second anniversary of the overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, under whose rule North Vietnamese troops had free use of Cambodia's ports and jungle...
...presidential form of government. The hopes of the country's legislators, however, were summarily dashed last week by Premier Lon Nol, who overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk two years ago. Pronouncing the draft of the constitution unacceptable, he dissolved the Constituent Assembly, posted guards around the Assembly building in Phnom Penh and proclaimed himself chief of state and sole authority...
...power looked like an act of dictatorial strength, but in fact it may have been a sign of weakness. The Premier is still recovering from the effects of a stroke that incapacitated him last year, and his personal prestige appears to be waning. Even before the takeover, students in Phnom Penh had been demonstrating against the government, and the intensity of their protests is now likely to increase. More important, the palace coup by Lon Nol provides the Khmer Rouge and the North Vietnamese with a helpful propaganda tool in their efforts to rally the rural population to their side...