Word: sihanouk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...acceptable alternative to what is at best the lesser of two evils in Cambodia. Chi na has quietly prodded the Khmer Rouge to link up with anti-Communist resistance forces led by Son Sann, a 70-year-old for mer Prime Minister. Simultaneously, in a stunning reversal, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, 58, who has lived in exile in China and North Korea since he was initially overthrown in 1970, agreed to make peace with the Khmer Rouge and lead a united front against the Vietnamese...
...backstage maneuvering is now beginning to pay off for the Chinese. Last week, in an interview with TIME in Peking, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Wenjin disclosed that China was prepared to back a Sihanouk-led movement against the Vietnamese on the condition that the Khmer Rouge would be included. Moreover, he said China was willing to provide both political and military support to non-Communist resistance, which has been Sihanouk's main concern. "China's attitude is nonfaction-al," said Zhang. "We are willing to aid all the anti-Vietnamese forces of Kampuchea, and this includes providing...
There are major obstacles that will almost certainly dissuade the U.S. from taking China's advice. First of all, there is a serious question whether the Cambodian guerrillas, even if truly united under Sihanouk and even if aided on a large scale from the outside, could dislodge the Vietnamese. In addition, even if an alliance of convenience were eventually to triumph over the Vietnamese forces in the country, which are estimated at 200,000, there is the danger that Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge might then turn its guns against Son Sann and Sihanouk. Moreover, not even...
...that the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who Sihanouk says indocrinated innocent youngsters into committing one of the most heinous crimes of the century, were insanely fanatical is perhaps an understatement. Khieu Samphan (who claims to have repented for his past sins and to have come to tolerate capitalism) has explained how it was necessary to incite fanatical hatred against the North Vietnamese in order "to unite our compatriots through the party, to bring our workers up to their highest level of productivity, and to make the yotheas (young soldiers) ardor and valor in combat even greater...
...actions. Nowhere have the Khmer Rouge gone on record explaining their actions as a necessary result of U.S. bombings and other military actions, and Shawcross has not demonstrated that Khmer Rouge words or actions changed after the United States entered the fray. Perhaps Shawcross should listen to Sihanouk, who upon a stay in a liberated zone in 1973, observed that U.S. bombings were "violent and profuse, but fortunately not particularly effective...