Indochina: Forging an Alliance

Forsaking the prescribed genteel toast, Indonesia's President Suharto rose at a White House state dinner last week to deliver a strong admonition. "Cambodia is now being engulfed in the fires of war. Instead of the peace we hoped for, the threat of a new war is spreading," said Suharto. "All efforts should be taken to prevent the war from widening and to ensure the preservation of Cambodia's right to sovereignty and neutrality." One way to do this, Indonesia's leader went on, is "by effecting the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Cambodian territory."

The White House and some Indonesian officials took Suharto's warning to refer to Communist troops. But with the approach of "D-day"--the June 30 deadline for departure of the remaining 14,000 U.S. troops from the Cambodian border sanctuaries long used by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese --it was entirely possible to interpret his words differently. With a flotilla of South Vietnamese warships at Phnom-Penh's docks and 40,000 troops of the newly aggressive South Vietnamese army ranging 50 or more miles into Cambodia, the sanctuary-scouring was increasingly turning into Saigon's show. And the South Vietnamese seemed delighted (see following story).

Uneasy Alliance. Sporadic fighting continued, especially along the Mekong River, and a few middling rice and arms caches were uncovered. But the focus last week was on diplomacy. In the space of two days, the pro-Western regime of Premier Lon Nol agreed to restore relations--broken years ago over border disputes--with South Viet Nam and Thailand. There were reports, too, that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cambodia would be upgraded to full ambassadorial level.

Top priority for Lon Nol's eleven-week-old regime remains arms assistance for his beleaguered soldiers. The Nixon Administration last week revealed that up to $7,900,000 worth of hardware, mainly small arms, would go to Cambodia. A delegation headed by General Praphas Charusathien, Thailand's Vice Premier and Defense Minister, was in Phnom-Penh to discuss aid from Bangkok. According to Praphas, the Cambodians want a Thai division to help garrison Phnom-Penh in case things "get out of hand." If Thailand does commit troops, however, Cambodia may prefer to employ them along the Thai border near the Cambodian northwest, where retreating Communist troops have been trying to regroup in recent weeks. Presumably, the Thais would have the right to cross the border in hot pursuit, under the same sort of arrangement that Thailand and Malaysia have along their guerrilla-plagued frontier.

Carte Blanche. Whatever Thailand's role, Saigon's will be the leading one. During three days of talks in the South Vietnamese capital, Cambodian Foreign Minister Yem Sambour gave Saigon what amounted to carte blanche for continued operations. When would Saigon's troops withdraw? "I have no fixed date in my mind," President Nguyen Van Thieu said after the talks. There is speculation in Washington that the bulk of the South Vietnamese force will leave Cambodia soon after the U.S. withdrawal (see THE NATION), and that Saigon will limit itself to periodic forays into Cambodia thereafter to keep the Communists off balance.

The Bangkok--Phnom-Penh--Saigon alliance promises to be uneasy at best. Cambodians fear that their new allies may be motivated by more than altruism. "After 20 years of making war in their own country," said a Cambodian high school teacher last week, "the Vietnamese want to make war in ours. They want to draw their border at the Mekong. So do the Thais. The only difference between them is that the Thais would have us as a protectorate and the Vietnamese would make us a province." Though that is a considerable exaggeration, "territorial integrity" has become an often-quoted phrase in Phnom-Penh.

If the non-Communist alliance has its strains, the Communist camp is positively fractured. The Russians last week delivered to the Lon Nol regime a stern warning against Cambodian ties with Washington and Saigon, and the Soviet ambassador quietly departed Phnom-Penh. Still, the Soviets are unwilling to appear to be following Peking's lead by formally recognizing Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Chinese-backed Cambodian government in exile. For the moment, Moscow is not only maintaining its relations with Phnom-Penh but is also continuing a modest, strictly nonmilitary aid program to the country. Says a Western diplomat: "When you consider their options, it's really the only game they have left to play in Southeast Asia. The Indonesians are very cool to them and the Thais keep them under very tight wraps, so they really have to stay."

The Chinese, for their part, made a belated exit last week, three weeks after breaking with the Lon Nol government. Dozens of Chinese diplomats filed out of their massive embassy, wearing blue and gray Mao tunics and snapping to attention as a record player struck up The East Is Red while Peking's flag came down for the last time.

If Peking and Hanoi are really pinning their Cambodian hopes on Sihanouk, their efforts to return him to power seem to be based on a long-term program. Last week, after ten weeks in China "the pink Prince" arrived in Hanoi where he was greeted by top-level officials, including President Ton Duc Thang and Premier Pham Van Dong, and children cheering "Uncle Sihanouk." Reportedly, Sihanouk will soon begin a tour of North Africa, the Middle East and possibly France to preach his cause. Within Cambodia, Vietnamese Communist cadres are using the native Khmer Rouge to organize villages as part of a Viet Nam-type guerrilla effort. Whether Sihanouk's once potent name will be of much use in that effort is beginning to look doubtful. As a Communist East European diplomat in Phnom-Penh readily conceded last week, "he has discredited himself by his association with the Vietnamese." Moreover, the reluctance of the Soviets to line up behind Peking's puppet can hardly improve Sihanouk's chances of resuming a decisive role in Cambodian politics.

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