Urgent Plea for a Losing Cause

John Gunther Dean, 49, has lost 21 lbs. in the past year. He is the battle-fatigued, frustrated U.S. ambassador in Phnom-Penh who during that period has tried to shore up the Lon Nol government in the hope of eventually achieving what he helped bring about as U.S. charge in Laos 18 months ago: a coalition between the opposing parties that would end the fighting. While he claims not to be emotionally involved in the situation, he clearly is. In an interview last week with TIME Correspondent Roy Rowan, he pleaded his increasingly forlorn case for continued U.S. military assistance. Excerpts:

We are not the kind of people to deny somebody who is fighting for his life the means to survive. As Americans I don't think we want to withhold ammunition from Cambodians when the enemy is at their door. If we are to blame for one small nation not being able to shoot back, this decision will haunt us for years. Therefore I believe ways will be found to get the resources needed here --and with the consent of Congress. I have bent over backward to be cognizant of Congress--not just of the laws, but of the spirit of Congress.

Humanitarian aid? Remember, this is a Buddhist society. The people do not cry out for help. But you can't give humanitarian aid unless you provide security. I like to think that by serving here I'm contributing to my Government and to my country. It would be more satisfying if I could also feel that I were contributing to the welfare of the place where I work.

As for a political solution, the ingredients aren't here for arranging it. But conflicts should always end with a political solution. We must still try to give these people their best chance to try to find one. The Cambodian government is willing. But the other side is pressing for a military solution. The Bible says: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Lon Nol is a calm man, a big man. He doesn't get excited. He was probably depicted erroneously when he took the title of marshal. But I'm not linked to any groups or personalities here. I've kept my distance. I'm not emotionally involved.

Our defense attaches go out to the battlefield as the eyes and ears of the embassy. They check casualties and assess the army's front-line reports. You don't read about this in the newspapers, but they see full colonels fighting like hell and getting wounded. The army has done a good job defending Phnom-Penh. But it needs more recruits. Students, who are so vocal, always telling the government what it's doing wrong, are still exempt from the draft. The government has to be more energetic, more dynamic to get people into the army. It also has to clear the rocket belt. Rockets give the feeling of uncertainty. You don't know when they're going to hit, or where. But it is not rockets that will decide if this side is going to stand.

The government is going to have to drive the enemy far enough away to hold the airport. The airlift is essential. Forty or 50 planes a day may be puny compared with the Berlin airlift. Yet it seems to be working. If the airlift continues, Phnom-Penh will stand until the rainy season and the government will have won a respite. It will then get another chance to settle, to come up with a non-military solution.

If Congress votes against the emergency aid, even with a warehouse full of ammunition, the generals will look out the corners of their eyes at the dwindling supplies, knowing that no more is coming. Then things will just have a way of happening. It was bad enough when they got the story out here of Senator Scott calling for Lon Nol to resign. Put yourself in my shoes when that story hit Phnom-Penh.

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