The excruciatingly slow and steady strangulation of Phnom-Penh approached a climax last week. Intensifying their already viselike grip on the capital, the Khmer Rouge insurgents pushed their way to within two to four miles of the city's northwest and east boundaries—a distance that allows deadly accuracy to the U.S.-made 105-mm. howitzers the rebels have captured from government forces in the provinces. U.S. intelligence experts saw no hope for the defense of Phnom-Penh and predicted its final collapse, possibly within days.
In his televised address to Congress last Thursday, President Ford did...
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