CAMBODIA: Bitter Round in a Senseless War

• Share

For nearly two weeks, Kompong Cham−Cambodia's third largest city−has been besieged by Khmer insurgents. During the initial onslaught, government forces were split in two and Communist-backed troops invested more than half of the T-shaped Mekong River town. Late last week the tide of battle turned. The besiegers began to drift away, and the Phnom-Penh government claimed a significant victory. TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand rode a Cambodian helicopter into Kompong Cham, left the scene two days later with a convoy of wounded for the 75-mile voyage downriver to Phnom-Penh. His report:

The chopper spiraled down from its 4,500-ft. cruising altitude, darted over the flood-swollen Mekong toward a riverbank landing spot. Cambodian soldiers sucking Buddha amulets for luck leaped from the helicopter, lugging cases of food and ammo as they sprinted for shelter. As I jumped out of my seat and sloshed through knee-deep water toward the shore, insurgents began firing at us: the pilot had ill-advisedly put us down in a no-man's land between the two forces. We were lucky. No one was hit.

∙

Later, at the government command post, Major General Sar Hor, who was in charge of the city's defenses, spelled out the problems. At that point, government troops held less than a third of a square mile; the insurgents controlled 60% of the city and were pressing for more. But Sar Hor, a roly-poly man of 56 who wore several large oval rings on his fingers, was confident. "The situation was once very critical," he said, "but now it is merely critical. We will recapture what has been lost." There was reason for his growing optimism, and it became plainer over the next several days. River convoys and helicopters brought in enough troops and supplies to more than replace government losses.

∙

Next door to the heavily fortified command bunker is the town hall. A small group of tough Cambodian special-forces troops walked in, exuberantly displaying a .50-cal. machine gun recovered from an enemy position that they had just destroyed. General Sar Hor pulled a wad of riels from his map case and handed the reward to Major Kim Phong, the group's commander. "Special forces, can do!" he shouted. Kim Phong, a tall, strapping Khmer with a stubbly beard, who looks a bit like an Asian Lee Marvin, has been a soldier for 20 years, first for the French, then for U.S. Special Forces in Viet Nam, now with the Cambodian army. He speaks loud, brash G.I. English sprinkled with obscenities, leads his team on special missions and helps direct the local forces. He is one of the heroes of Kompong Cham's defense.