Battle in a Forgotten War

The fighting in South Viet Nam ceased for 24 hours last week, to mark a Christmas truce. Meanwhile a crucial but often forgotten war continues in Cambodia--and, with the advent of the dry season, is gaining in intensity. There the Communist forces, composed primarily of North Vietnamese regulars, plus some Viet Cong and Cambodian Khmer Rouge, are as determined as ever to isolate the capital of Phnom-Penh from the rest of the country and thus discredit or even oust the "salvation government" of Premier Lon Nol.

In the capital itself, the Communists have been responsible for a wave of terrorist bombings. In the countryside, they seized the offensive after their setback last fall at Taing Kauk (TIME. Oct. 19). A month ago, they cut Route Four, the main road between Phnom-Penh and the deepwater port of Kompong Som, and the Cambodian army has not yet been able to reopen it. The result is a serious fuel shortage in Phnom-Penh. So far there has been no such scarcity of food, although the flow of refugees has increased the capital's population from 500.000 to almost 2.000,000 since last March. Throughout the country, the Cambodians have lost approximately ten battalions in as many weeks.

Despite such setbacks, U.S. military observers in Southeast Asia are not pessimistic about the situation. They point out that the I on Nol government has shown a surprising degree of staying power, and that Cambodia's once ridiculed army has been fighting bravely. The army is being increased by about one battalion a week--enough to offset the losses--and its position is reinforced by the presence in Cambodia of more than 12.000 South Vietnamese troops.

Niqht Strike. Given continued U.S. and South Vietnamese air support, observers believe, the Cambodian army should be able to hold its own. An illustration of both the Cambodians' newfound staving power and the effectiveness of allied air support, reports TIME Correspondent Stanley Cloud, was the victory at the town of Prey Totung (pop. 6,000), which lies midway between Kompong Cham and Skoun on Route Seven.

On the night of Dec. 11, a force of as many as 3,000 Communist soldiers struck at Prey Totung. They quickly seized the center of town and drove the 400 Cambodian soldiers there into the schoolyard, where they remained, surrounded and cut off, for five days. "Most of the time we could not even lift our heads," says Lieut. Colonel Srey Yar, the competent young local commander.

As the days passed, the enemy hit the schoolyard with .50-cal. machine-gun bullets, mortars, and a giant 122-mm. rocket that toppled a 60-ft. tree. At the height of the battle, Srey Yar sent a radio message to Lon Nol promising that he and his men would not surrender. Even though they ran short of ammunition and food, and were outnumbered by about 5 to 1, they kept their word, but the cost was fearfully high. Of the 400 Cambodians, 50 were killed and 300 wounded, including 114 critically. Estimates of enemy soldiers killed ranged from 500 to 2,000. After the battle, a French journalist reported that he saw the bodies of North Vietnamese who had been chained to their machine guns and had died there.

Total Damage. The Cambodian achievement was in holding out. The siege was broken by repeated U.S.-South Vietnamese air strikes that sent at least half a dozen 500-lb. bombs into the center of the town and splattered the area with scores of antipersonnel bombs and huge quantities of napalm. Hardly a building in the town's center was spared major damage.

Four days after the battle ended, Cambodian and South Vietnamese columns finally succeeded in reopening Route Seven between Kompong Cham and Skoun, which had been cut by enemy activity for six weeks. But the Cambodians expected the fighting to continue in the area for the duration of the dry season. In the case of Prey Totung itself, however, there was not much left to fight for. "The Cambodians once again had demonstrated great courage," sadly concludes Correspondent Cloud, "but the town had been destroyed. One wondered: Who wins in the long run?"

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