World: Cambodia: Toward War by Proxy

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On Cambodia's broad flatlands, ARVN commanders could wage a conventional, European-style war of maneuver, using textbook tactics that the Communists chose not to test in determined combat. Only four days after Nine Dragons began, ARVN General Ngo Dzu's armored columns had effortlessly swept light Viet Cong forces from the towns of Takeo and Kompong Trach and the key ports of Kep and Kampot. Equally facile was ARVN Task Force 318's high-speed dash 75 miles down Highway 1 toward Phnom-Penh. TIME Correspondent John Mulliken joined General Tri as he directed the drive alternately from his helicopter and the map-and-radio-filled command armored personnel carrier. Reported Mulliken: "Smashing through villages, overrunning the enemy even before he could complete his L-shaped trenches, Tri's tanks and APCs outran their American advisers (limited to 21.7 miles by Nixon), their U.S. air support and even their own artillery. Someone laughed at one point: 'If you hurry, General, you can take Phnom-Penh before dark.' Tri smiled past his long, Abe Abrams-style cigar and said: 'Phnom-Penh is not in my AO [area of operations].' " To avoid untoward incidents, Saigon has ordered its commanders to approach no closer than three miles to the Cambodian capital.

Flare-Dps and Foul-Ups. Some flare-ups were inevitable−and some foulups. In Phnom-Penh, hand-lettered signs were pasted to several buildings one morning with a message addressed to Americans: "South Vietnamese soldiers have committed cruel acts on the Cambodian population−pillaging, violations of women, burning, killing. Now they do not want to leave our territory." Officials claimed that the signs were the work of Viet Cong sympathizers−though the Phnom-Penh regime has so aroused anti-Vietnamese feelings in recent weeks that almost anyone could have been responsible.

The worst foul-up occurred at the Mekong town of Kompong Cham, where Communists and Cambodians had been battling for several days. During the fighting, South Vietnamese A-l Skyraiders swooped down on the wrong side, killing ten Cambodians.

Confident and even cocky, ARVN officers have begun to sound like Americans discussing the vicissitudes of the Vietnamization program. One senior South Vietnamese officer told TIME Correspondent James Willwerth: "The Cambodians wanted us to do their fighting for them. I said to one general, 'Sir, if you are not willing to fight for yourselves, we will not do your fighting for you.' Then I realized that this is what the Americans had been saying to us−and suddenly I am very ashamed. We, too, must fight our own battles."

Naive Suggestions. More and more, it seems clear that many of those battles will be fought on Cambodian soil. Speaking in Saigon last week, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky openly jeered at the idea that ARVN 'has to withdraw" when the Americans do. Said Ky: "These are naive suggestions coming from naive people. Our armed forces are strong enough to carry on independent operations on Cambodian as well as Vietnamese territory."