World: Cambodia: Toward War by Proxy

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≫ In the north, some 5,000 Communist troops continued to battle for control of Kompong Cham and other towns along the Mekong, the Tonle Kong and the Tonle San−main arteries of the riverine network by which badly needed supplies could be brought down from North Viet Nam.

≫ In the south, a force of some 10,000 Communists roamed around Kampot province, menacing highways to Phnom-Penh and attempting to open routes for supply by sea through the ports of Kep and Kampot.

≫ In the west, the Communists were staging their most disturbing effort. In small bands that have been stealing west past Phnom-Penh since mid-April, an estimated 10,000 enemy troops have gathered in two areas: Tonle Sap, the largest fresh-water lake in Southeast Asia, and the Cardamom Mountains.

On paper, huge hunks of Cambodia appear to be under Hanoi's control (see map). The Communist Vietnamese still appeared able to roam almost at will over much of Cambodia. Last week, however, it sometimes seemed as if the place were being overrun by men from Saigon. No fewer than 20 South Vietnamese military men checked into Phnom-Penh's Hotel Royal and set up a sophisticated communications center in Room 30. The red and yellow flag of South Viet Nam flew from the portico of a two-story building where Saigon last month established its first diplomatic mission since Sihanouk severed relations seven years ago.

Nine Dragons. In the Cambodian countryside, ARVN's 40,000 troops were the biggest armed force around−except for Phnom-Penh's own ragtag army of 150,000, most of whom undergo no more than a few days of training before being sent against seasoned Communist troops. Lancing deep into two previously untouched Communist areas, ARVN troops opened the twelfth and 13th fronts of the border campaign. Northwest of Saigon, 5,000 ARVN troops on Operation Pacify West III rode tanks and helicopters into a North Vietnamese base opposite the Central Highlands. Far to the south, another 10,000 ARVN soldiers headed into Cambodia's delta region in "Operation Nine Dragons," so named because it is there that the brown Mekong splits into nine branches on its way to the sea.