Cambodia: Now It's 'Operation Buy Time'

AT first, Richard Nixon described the Cambodian venture in apocalyptic terms--as a test of "our will and character" and a measure to win "a just peace in Viet Nam and in the Pacific." Last week, the billing was scaled down considerably. During a meeting with state Governors at the White House, the President remarked almost offhandedly: "I suppose you could call this 'Operation Buy Time.' "

By that, Nixon meant buying time for Vietnamization to prove a success, a goal that becomes especially important in view of his promise to pull U.S. forces out of combat entirely by July 1971. Just as the President was scaling down his rhetoric, the Cambodian operation seemed to be developing into a struggle not just for the Cambodian border sanctuaries, but for a sizable piece of the nation of 7,000,000. And South Viet Nam, which has not been notably successful in fighting its own war, seemed determined to play the lead role.

As some 5,500 G.I.s were withdrawn from operations in Cambodia, 2,000 ARVN (for Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) troops launched Operation Pacify West Two, the tenth thrust to date against Communist base areas. Elsewhere, the new war reached far beyond the sanctuaries. In the Gulf of Siam, U.S. and South Vietnamese patrol craft extended their coastal quarantine to a 70-mile stretch of the Cambodian coastline. At Neak Luong, South Vietnamese Marines and heliborne troops recaptured the vital Mekong River ferry crossing in a battle that left 139 Communists dead. Farther up the Mekong, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops were making determined stands. And north of the border, the Communists were putting so much pressure on Laos that a spokesman in Vientiane said it might become "a necessity" to ask South Vietnamese troops to help "clean up" the country.

No Deadline. U.S. troops have been ordered to clear out of Cambodia by June 30. While the White House says that it expects the South Vietnamese to follow suit, there is no guarantee that they will do so. "I have no deadline," said President Nguyen Van Thieu. And, he added, his troops would enter Cambodia "again and again, if necessary." Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky was equally outspoken. Resplendent in black flying suit and purple scarf, Ky helicoptered into Neak Luong and told newsmen that ARVN troops would remain in Cambodia for "at least months." When the Cambodians "can fight the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong by themselves, we will go home," said Ky, sounding like a U.S. general discussing Vietnamization.

Publicly at least, the Cambodians insist that they do not want the South Vietnamese roaming around their country indefinitely. Cambodia's Deputy Premier Prince Sirik Matak, who with Premier Lon Nol and Foreign Minister Yem Sambour formed the troika that ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk, told TIME Correspondent Louis Kraar: "After the sanctuaries are destroyed and after the end of June, we do not want foreign troops on our soil. It will be our task to chase the Communists away."

Despite such statements, Lon Nol's regime did not seem at all reluctant to accept help from its neighbors. Though U.S. forces have been told not to venture more than 21.7 miles into Cambodia, the South Vietnamese are observing no such limitation. By this week, ARVN forces were expected to be within three miles of Phnom-Penh. In the capital itself, a South Vietnamese diplomatic envoy was installed last week, pending the formal restoration of diplomatic ties after a seven-year break. Sambour was in Bangkok discussing the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Thailand, severed since 1961. In Saigon, Thieu called for a formal alliance of South Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to wage a "joint anti-Communist fight" and "shorten the war."

Huge Hauls. Whether the Cambodia venture will prove successful enough to shorten the war is, of course, the subject of intense debate. With the operation less than three weeks old, however, U.S. military men in Saigon and the Pentagon alike were already reporting that their huge hauls of Communist supplies would set the enemy back by anywhere from four to six months. In the Parrot's Beak and Fishhook areas, G.I.s put down their M-16s and picked up clipboards to inventory the mountains of materiel the Communists had left behind. Some officers fretted that there would not be enough time to remove it all before Nixon's withdrawal deadline. The latest tally:

> 10,898 Chinese AK-47 and SKS rifles, pistols and submachine guns --enough to equip an entire Communist division.

> 1,269 mortars, heavy machine guns and other "crew-served" weapons.

> 184 vehicles, including six armored halftracks (and a few old General Motors trucks).

> 2,730 tons of rice--enough to feed the 90,000 enemy regulars in the lower half of South Viet Nam for 41 days.

> 1,505 tons of ammunition--enough to supply the 126 Communist battalions in the lower half for anywhere from one week to four months, depending on the level of fighting.

> 7,519 Communist troops killed, v. 140 Americans and 472 South Vietnamese.

The allied attacks have turned what was once a relatively easy logistical problem into something of a nightmare for the Communists. Previously, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong could get supplies in as little as five weeks, especially when the port of Sihanoukville (now Kompong Som) was wide open. The captured supplies now must be replaced via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which makes for slower going. But despite the loss of such huge caches as "the City" and "Rock Island East," as American G.I.s nicknamed the supply depots they unearthed in the Fishhook sanctuary, the Communists are far from crippled. Food is as close as the nearest paddyfield. There is ample evidence, too, that the Communists, anticipating an assault, carted off substantial supplies. After Sihanouk's fall in March, they began commandeering unusual numbers of trucks and buses from Cam bodian businesses and plantations, presumably to evacuate men and gear.

The 40,000 Communist troops still estimated to be in Cambodia, moreover, are moving swiftly to establish new supply lines. Even now they are knitting together a river network that will supplement the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In southern Laos, North Vietnamese regulars two weeks ago overran Attopeu, a town on a Mekong River tributary called the Se Kong; last week they menaced Saravane, another strategically located town. Along the Mekong in northern Cambodia, Communist troops have captured Kratie and Chhlong; last week they attacked Stung Treng, a key town at the confluence of the Se Kong and the Mekong, and sent a full regiment against Kompong Cham, Cambodia's third largest city, only 50 miles northeast of Phnom-Penh.

Hanoi's evident determination to save its considerable investment along the Cambodian border presages months, not weeks, of heavy fighting. It also raises some serious questions:

Will the U.S. really be in a position to exit Cambodia by June 30?

Evidently so. One well-informed Republican Congressman speculates that Nixon will not only announce the withdrawal right on schedule, but will simultaneously announce a big withdrawal from Viet Nam--perhaps 75,000 men within the next 60 days.

Will the U.S. offer support other than ground troops?

Though Washington has not formally answered the Lon Nol regime's requests for arms, a few items have been reaching

Phnom-Penh, including 7,200 World War II-vintage M-2 carbines, 6,000 captured Soviet-designed AK-47 rifles and communications gear. In Washington last week, Secretary of State William Rogers made the first public admission that "we had air activity over Cambodia before the change of government," and he indicated that it could continue after June 30; yet Rogers stated flatly that the U.S. would not "become involved militarily in support of any Cambodian government." Evidently, Saigon intends to take on that task. Vice President Ky said last week that South Viet Nam is building a string of eleven airfields on the Cambodian border to provide ARVN with its own air support.

Will Saigon's role in Cambodia delay Vietnamization?

If the South Vietnamese should try to pursue the Communists all over Cambodia, Vietnamization could suffer. But as Defense Secretary Melvin Laird emphasized last week, the U.S. controls supplies and could prevent the South Vietnamese from going too far. At present, Saigon has only 21,000 men in Cambodia, the equivalent of two divisions (the U.S. still has 14,000). By spoiling the sanctuaries, it is argued in Saigon and Washington, the Cambodian venture has bought time for Vietnamization. It has also boosted ARVN's morale.

Will the Communists try to turn the rest of Cambodia into a "sanctuary?"

Communist bands are still troubling towns and highways south of Phnom-Penh, but the allied quarantine of the coast may have foreclosed Hanoi's hopes of staking out new sanctuaries in the lower half of Cambodia. Attacks on the Mekong towns above Phnom-Penh confirm that most of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong are spilling into the northeast and northwest quadrants of the country. Their temporary destination may be the quiet shores of Tonle Sap Lake, 70 miles north of Phnom-Penh. There they would be near the Cambodian rice bowl and a rich supply of fish, while waiting for a chance to move closer to the border.

Will the Communists try to install a puppet regime?

Though Sihanouk has made no move to leave Peking and set up a rival government in Cambodia's jungles, no fewer than ten Communist documents captured in recent days speak of plans for a pro-Sihanouk "war of liberation" in the northeast. French plantation managers report that Communists are recruiting some plantation workers and arming civilians. Still, allied units have yet to encounter any "guerrillas" in Cambodia. As Sirik Matak told TIME'S Kraar: "There are no signs of a civil war in Cambodia, no signs at all." There is some question, besides, about the genuine enthusiasm in Peking and Hanoi for setting up and supporting a puppet government. Lon Nol disclosed last week that secret Chinese emissaries tried to strike a deal with him for renewal of the old sanctuary arrangement. Only when he rejected the proposal three weeks ago, the Premier said, did Peking support the deposed Prince.

Will other Asian countries aid Cambodia?

A conference of 12 Asian nations* that began in Djakarta last week could lay the groundwork for assistance. The conference is likely to produce calls for support of Cambodian neutrality, withdrawal of all foreign troops and the sending of observers to the embattled country.

Encircled Capital. The old question came up for debate again last week: Why had the U.S. launched the Cambodian foray in the first place? The "pink Prince," as Sihanouk now calls himself, announced from his Peking exile that Nixon had acted only because a "liberation army" was "on the point of taking the capital by assault." Nixon did say in his April 30 speech that the Communists "are encircling" Phnom-Penh, but White House advisers cite other factors in his decision. The most important was that the Communists seemed to be moving to link up their border sanctuaries to create an unchallenged 600-mile front opposite South Viet Nam. In the Administration's view, that would have imperiled the Vietnamization program, especially with the U.S. hoping to pull out of combat altogether little more than one year from now.

* The others, besides Indonesia: Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, South Korea and Japan.

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