Word: phnom
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...most intense insurgent pressure remains concentrated against besieged Phnom-Penh. With the Mekong River lifeline choked off, the capital is now solely dependent on the U.S. "rice birds"- DC-8s and C-130s whose pilots brave Khmer Rouge rockets to ferry in food, fuel and ammunition. Money for the airlift will be exhausted by the end of April unless the U.S. Congress, when it reconvenes April 7, surprises everybody and approves a $222 million supplemental Cambodian aid appropriation. Last week the strategically important town of Tuol Leap, only six miles to the northwest of Phnom-Penh's Pochentong Airport...
...near the rocket belt; when they hear the whoosh of a missile leaving its tube, the observers push a button that triggers warning sirens at Pochentong Airport and in the capital. Insurgents also broke through a small section of the North Dike Road, the last line of defense before Phnom-Penh's northwestern suburbs and the airport...
Elsewhere in Cambodia, the story is just as grim. Several towns on the Mekong River are still under pressure, while even Battambang city, 160 miles northwest of Phnom-Penh in the heart of what was once Cambodia's rice granary, might soon fall. Each night the Communists overrun another tiny outpost protecting the city. An inspection of Battambang's defenses, says a recent visitor, turned up "empty holes and no soldiers to fill them...
Perhaps only a change of political leadership can spare Phnom-Penh eventual strangulation and all of Cambodia even greater bloodshed than it has suffered so far. At week's end, there was some new hope that such a change may still be possible; U.S. sources in Phnom-Penh reported that Lon Nol and his family would soon depart Cambodia for Indonesia and then proceed to the U.S. - probably Hawaii, where he underwent medical treatment in 1971 for a stroke. This could open the way for a new government and a negotiated peaceful transition of power to the insurgents. Both...
...decides to hang on, it is because he hopes his forces can defend Phnom-Penh for three more months, until the wet season impedes the insurgents' drive. With an improved military situation, the President would expect political pressures to diminish. On the other hand, if he finally makes up his mind to leave, it may in no small measure be due to Cambodia's students. Last week, as rumors swept the capital that time had run out for the President and that a coup was imminent, leaders of the Association of Students of the Khmer Republic, which claims...