cambodia the dry season offensive "Lon Nol's troops have lost the route of the Mekong, which was the principal supply line for Phnom Penh, " said an Agence France-Presse dispatch printed in the February 19 issue of the French Communist party daily l'Humanité. The present FUNK offensive was unleashed at the beginning of January, with the belated arrival of the dry season. It has already proven to be one of the most important offensives of the FUNK during the five years of its existence. Phnom Penh strangled Above all, it is the first time that the Cambodian revolutionaries have seriously tried to take control of the Mekong, which links Saigon to Phnom Penh. And with success. During the 1973-74 dry season only the road network was cut. (See INPRECOR, No. 13, November 28, 1974.) The Cambodian capital remained open to air and river traffic. In fact, 80 percent of the supplies for Phnom Penh arrive via the Mekong. But for several weeks now no convoy has been able to penetrate the blockade, and the FUNK forces are now solidly holding both banks of the river along its entire length, apart from a few small pockets. Extensive operations have been mounted by Saigon and Phnom Penh, combinations of air, water, and land attacks, aimed at breaking the blockade. But in vain. This is also the first time that the fighting has taken on such scope. The main effort is directed along the Mekong. But the FUNK has simultaneously intensified its pressure on the whole periphery of Phnom Penh and has launched attacks on most of the provincial capitals under puppet control: Siem Reap, Svay Rieng, Kompong Speu, Prey Veng,
Takeo, Kompong Chang. The situation of the provincial centers is becoming all the more precarious in that Lon Nol has had to withdraw troops from the provinces in order to strengthen the defense of Phnom Penh. On February 18 the fall of the city of Muong Russei, which had been surrounded for nearly six months, was reported. This center of 10,000 inhabitants is located in the western rice-growing province of Battambang. (The FUNK came into 2,000 tons of rice.) This victory demonstrates the presence of the revolutionary forces in a province that in spite of its traditions of peasant struggles had been less affected by the war than the other provinces. The FUNK had been avoiding offensives near the Thai border so as not to give Bangkok a pretext for intervention. Since then, the erosion of puppet positions in this province has continued. The periphery of the Cambodian capital is now being subjected to strong pressure. The Pochentong airport has been especially threatened since the puppet army's loss of the important position of Tuol Leap. This could permit the FUNK to bring the airport within range of 105 mm. cannon, which are much more accurate than the 107 and 122 mm. rockets now being used. In the north Lon Nol's Seventh Division has suffered heavy losses, and the FUNK's retaking of the former royal capital of Oudong has significantly enlarged its routes of transport. In general, the vise has tightened around the entire periphery of Phnom Penh. According to the March 3, 1975, Newsweek, during the first two months of the year the puppet army lost 10,000 men, that is, one-fifth of its total effective strength.
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CAMBODIA The air bridge The American government has not remained passive in face of the situation, but has run into serious difficulties in assuring Lon Nol and his regime of the necessary aid. They are using new bombs, such as the CBU-55 (Cluster Bomb Unif), which, apart from having greater destructive power, absorbs oxygen in the air within a radius of thirty-two meters and thus instantly kills any human life. A real air bridge has been set up linking the U.S. base of Utapao in Thailand with Phnom Penh. The "private companies" World Airways and Airlife International have now been bolstered by the CIA-controlled Bird Air company. American and Taiwanese pilots are flying transport planes. A second air bridge has been set up linking Saigon and the Cambodian capital. But the cost of this aerial bridge is enormous. The Pochentong airport (Phnom Penh) is too small to handle the necessary Iraific. It has already been bombarded by the FUNK, and this has destroyed some of its installations. Air traffic has already had to be suspended once because of rocket attacks; thare seems to be difficulty maintaining traffic at maximum capacity. Ford has insistently asked for an additional $222 million in military credits and $100 million in food aid to take care of Lon Nol's needs. But the U.S Congress seems reticent. Senators Kennedy and Mansfield and former Senator Fullbright have opposed the government's demands and asserted that the security of the United States "is not threatened in Indochina. The costs are exorbitant and the peoples of these tortured countries have been subjected to a bloodbath that is still not over, even worse than anything that could happen after a Communist victory. " (L'Humanité, February 19, 1975.) In spite of the grand-style offensive being waged by Ford, Kissinger, and Schlesinger aimed at getting new aid funds, opposition in Congress seems to have mounted. The administration has been compelled to admit that even $222 million may not save the regime and that what is involved is simply trying to foster the opening of negotiations, a prospect explicitly rejected by Sihanouk and the FUNK. The Pentagon, nervous about the future, has contradicted Kissinger, explaining that the loss of Phnom Penh would not change that much in Saigon's situation after all. The New York Times came out against granting the funds requested by the administration, while Senator Barry Goldwater declared that Cambodia is lost. In the meantime, CIA money and funds allocated to "Thailand" are being used. But already the financial question has ceased to be the essential one. It is not likely that Lon Nol will have an army capable of making use of a new influx of arms and ammunition. He lacks soldiers and morale.
Waiting for July The FUNK offensive is probably only in its beginning stages. In April the waters of the Mekong will be at their lowest level. Today, the waterway is still 800-1,000 meters wide. By April it will be 100 meters in some places. It is only in June that the waters will recover their February levels. This means that the isolation of Phnom Penh should last for several more months and that the heart of the offensive is yet to come. It is not only military battles that are at stake. Foodstuffs are now rationed in the capital and the government is trying to make up for the losses of the puppet army with forced drafting. On January 27 Khieu Samphan, vice prime minister of the FUNK, issued an appeal to the populations of the urban centers under puppet control. He called on them to seize the rice depots, to unite with the People's Armed Liberation Forces to overthrow the regime, and, for those who cannot continue the struggle in Phnom Penh itself, to move to the liberated zones; he also invited foreign families to leave the country. (Information Bulletin of the GRUNK, February 2.) The following day, Hu Nim, minister of information, issued a similar appeal to the bonzes, and on January 31 Chey Chum, president of the FUNK committee in Phnom Penh, reaffirmed the terms of the appeal. The Second National Congress called by the FUNK, which was held in the liberated zones February 2526, also solemnly took up these appeals. The congress called "on the population of Phnom Penh and the provincial capitals temporarily under enemy control, on the benzes and laymen, workers and employees of all categories, pupils, students, village school teachers, and professors to stand up and unite in the struggle in all its forms... from meetings, demonstrations, strikes, struggles against the draft and against famine, attacks on the rice and food stores of the traitors, to insurrections. " (Declaration of the Second National Congress of Kampuchea, point 4, "Nouvelles brèves du Cambodge, " March 1, 1975.) The FUNK news agency has reported several cases of secret rice depots being seized (such as one of those belonging to the "prime minister, " Long Boref) and of strike movements (notably among the personnel of Pochentong airport). Some cases of mutinies, still localized, have also been reported. Riots have taken place in the city of Battambang and in the port of Sihanoukville (Kompong Som). And a flow of population toward the liberated zones is going on in spite of the fighting. (The FUNK cites the figure of 60,000 people for the month of January and the first two weeks of February.) According to Sihanouk, Peking has promised increased military aid, and Hanoi has guaranteed
regime is in its death agony» that the "land bridge" supplying Cambodia would be strengthened in order to respond to the air bridge that now serves as the lungs of Phnom Penh. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam has made gestures of solidarit and issued a declaration demanding the "imme ate dismantling" of the air bridge linking the ambodian capital to Saigon, affirming that "the seople of South Vietnam... intend to punish th, act of aggression, " (Le Monde, February 28, 1975.) The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh recognizes the gravity of the situation, but is nevertheless maintaining its optimism. But it has not been able to refrain from recommending that American citizens who are not indispensable leave the Cambodian capital, thus acceding in effect to the orders issued by Khieu Sampnan in his January 27 message. The FUNK is more than ever asserting is confidence in the outcome of the battle. Nevertheless, it refrains from predicting the fall of Phnom Penh during the current dry season. The same is true of Sihanouk,
"the lon nol who says that he has always detested astrologers, unlike Lon Nol." (Le Monde, March 1, 1975.) But he does think that the liberation of the Cambodian capital will occur this year or next year. The Lon Nol regime is in its death agony. And the FUNK offensive of the 1974-75 dry season is already an important success. Washington has decided to send a helicopter-carrier to the Guld of Thailand off the coast of Cambodia. Marine units in Okinawa and puppet troops in Saigon have been placed on alert. The Pentagon claims that these moves are intended to prepare to evacuate American citizens. It realizes that in order to do this the Marines would have to intervene to open Pochentong airport. Apart from journalists, the only Americans remaining in Phoom Penh are U.S. advisers and members of the Embassy staff. Their presence may serve as the pretext for a last U.S. attempt to save the Lon Nol regime. This must be prevented!
-PIERRE ROUSSET 5
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