Cambodia: Communists on the Rampage

ONLY six weeks ago, Washington cautiously listed Cambodia as a possible plus in its Indochina ledger. No one had much faith in Premier Lon Nol's vows to clear 40,000 Communist troops from their sanctuaries near the Viet Nam border; still, it was thought that the new regime could be counted upon to make life difficult for the enemy, if nothing else. But the Cambodian army has proved weaker than anyone expected, and the new regime, far from giving the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong trouble, has mainly been giving them ground.

Surging out of the border jungles that had served them as sanctuaries for years while Prince Norodom Sihanouk was in power, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese bands seemed to be all over a broad swath of southern and eastern Cambodia, and heading for the national capital of Phnom-Penh. In Takeo province, 50 miles south of the capital, they battled Cambodian soldiers at Ang Tasom and Takeo, the provincial capital, closing two key highways linking Phnom-Penh with southern ports. Roughly 100 miles northeast of Phnom-Penh, Communist troops blew up a bridge and occupied a town in Kratie province. Another force, attacking by boat, raided the upper-crust Cambodian resort of Kep on the Gulf of Siam, where they set fire to municipal buildings and killed several civilians before escaping to sea.

Everywhere the Communists seemed to be able to move with impunity. The attack that really lent urgency to Lon Nol's requests for outside military aid (see THE NATION) was a show of Communist power and Cambodian impotence at Saang, a handsome French provincial town only 15 miles south of Phnom-Penh on the west bank of the Bassac River. For five days, a Viet Cong and North Vietnamese force of undetermined size--perhaps only 100 men--held the town against a force of 4,000 Cambodian troops, who arrived in a fleet of commandeered buses and trucks. Only after the Cambodians had plastered Saang with artillery, mortar fire and air attacks for four days did they dare enter the half-destroyed town. It was empty.

The siege of Saang was a sharp reminder of the Cambodian army's inexperience; 50% of the troops there had been in uniform for less than a month. It also illustrated that the new government's hate campaign against Vietnamese nationals has not abated. At one point, the Cambodians marched a column of 100 Vietnamese Catholics into Saang in order to expose Communist positions; several were cut down in the expected hail of enemy fire. As similar atrocities continued last week, the Saigon government dispatched officials to Phnom-Penh to negotiate possible repatriation of the 500,000 Vietnamese living in Cambodia.

Unreality. Saang is only a fast 20-minute drive from Phnom-Penh, but a curious air of unreality prevailed in the Cambodian capital. Even as Lon Nol was desperately dickering for arms, his brother Lon Non, a member of the government, was telling newsmen, "We are not worried. The Vietnamese attacks amuse us. We can hold out for years."

That is open to debate. As has happened so often in the drawn-out Indochina war, the Communists have the initiative, and at this point Lon Nol's future depends on what they choose to do with it. Their aims, especially in view of their westward thrust, are a mystery. In Saigon, U.S. military men are convinced that the Communists are interested not in seizing Phnom-Penh but in pressuring the new government to reopen the severed supply links with southern Cambodian ports, such as Sihanoukville.

Other observers do not foresee a direct assault on the capital because they doubt that the Communists could bring it off. Enemy strength may not be all that it seems to be. Recent assaults have been carried out by bands of 100 or 200 men, who move quickly from town to town attempting to organize local support. At Saang, the invaders identified themselves as "Sihanouk's army," then passed out guns and propaganda.

If the Communists want to topple Lon Nol, as seems likely, their instrument could well be Norodom Sihanouk. In Canton last week, the exiled prince met Laotian Prince Souphanouvong, leader of the Communist Pathet Lao, North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong and Viet Cong leaders; reportedly, they talked about setting up an Indochina Liberation Front. No one in Phnom-Penh would be surprised if Sihanouk were spirited back to Cambodia soon and set up in a resistance headquarters somewhere to lend credence to "Sihanouk's army," otherwise known as the Force de 1'Union National Cambodge (FUNC, for short).

The mere presence of the still popular ex-head of state on Cambodian soil would have an electrifying effect. The minimum result could be peasant uprisings, aided and abetted by the Viet Cong and the local Communist Khmer Rouge. Eventually, as a knowledgeable European ambassador in Phnom-Penh speculated, Hanoi could take over without even trying: "As their military successes continue, Phnom-Penh will be slowly choked. Prices will start going up. Economic life will be paralyzed. When the fruit is ripe, they will pick it easily."

More Than Rifles. At week's end, White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler characterized the fighting as "a foreign invasion of a neutral country." Though that assessment seemed to foreshadow some form of U.S. aid, the Administration was still pondering Lon Nol's plea for arms. U.S. officials were also in touch with the Soviets about the possibility of a peace conference on all of Indochina.

Some hardware, meanwhile, was reaching Lon Nol's embattled regime. With U.S. "knowledge and approval," South Viet Nam is sending some 5,000 captured Communist AK-47 rifles to its struggling neighbor. The first batch of 1,500 rifles arrived in Phnom-Penh last week.

Saigon was sending more than rifles into Cambodia. A 5,000-man South Vietnamese force drove 15 miles beyond the border into Svay Rieng province, a major Communist sanctuary for years. During their four-day sweep, conducted with help from U.S. advisers, the South Vietnamese lost 28 men while claiming 245 Communist deaths and capturing more than 60 tons of arms. The prospect is for more and even deeper sweeps in the weeks to come.

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