Cambodia: Toward War by Proxy

ONCE the Communists and their supplies have been rooted out of their Cambodian sanctuaries, Richard Nixon said four weeks ago, "we will withdraw." The 14,000 American G.I.s now in Cambodia will come out by June 30, as advertised. But what about the South Vietnamese, who have repeatedly boasted that they have "no deadline"? By last week it seemed clear not only that thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers would remain on Cambodian soil, but also that the whole Cambodian venture was evolving into what amounts to a war by proxy.

There was, to be sure, no announcement of Saigon's post-withdrawal plans from the Administration, which has its hands full with a widening political war at home (see THE NATION). But there were no denials that the U.S. is quietly encouraging a continued campaign against the Communists in Cambodia, to be fought by troops from Saigon and possibly other Asian capitals and supported by U.S. logistics.

Saigon is openly jubilant over the situation. Its troops were already ranging far and wide in Cambodia, where its total strength jumped last week from 21,000 troops to more than 40,000, the equivalent of 31 divisions. One ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) marine unit was actually within three miles of Phnom-Penh, the Cambodian capital, while tank units sped across the Cambodian countryside, seizing Communist-held towns. Acting more like conquerors than allies, ARVN soldiers often treated Phnom-Penh's troops with condescension and even contempt. "I'm thinking of disarming the Cambodians," joked Lieut. General Do Cao Tri, the ARVN boss in the Parrot's Beak sanctuary, "because one of these days they're going to lose all their weapons to the Viet Cong." Said another South Vietnamese officer: "The Cambodians are good people, but they have been asleep too long. They need help and more military training. Even their uniforms do not match."

New Battleground. The widening war involved more than a little irony. Though the search for Communist supplies went on, the business of "cleaning out" the sanctuaries (see box, page 27) reverted almost to a sideshow. Cambodia itself had become the main arena. Two months ago, when Premier Lon Nol and Deputy Premier Sirik Matak overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk, one of their major objectives was to rid the country of Communist Vietnamese troops. Now the Vietnamese loyal to Hanoi are outnumbered in Cambodia by Vietnamese loyal to Saigon, and the country of 7,000,000 has become a battleground for the warring outsiders.

The allies have inflicted severe losses on the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. In barely three weeks of fighting, according to the Saigon command, the Communists have suffered 8,541 killed out of an original force of 40,000 men in Cambodia (v. 191 U.S. and 508 South Vietnamese dead). Of course, estimates of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong casualties could turn out to be grossly inflated; if they were even close to correct, however, they would represent a serious manpower loss of 20%. The survivors seemed to be retreating into three widely separated areas: