Southeast Asia Assault and Pursuit

A Vietnamese blow to the Kampuchean resistance

The attack was carefully timed and meticulously planned. Shortly after midnight under a full moon, small-arms fire began to crackle around the Kampuchean refugee camp and guerrilla base known as Ampil, hard by the border with Thailand. The shooting eventually died away, only to be replaced, just after sunrise, by a thunderous artillery barrage. Plumes of smoke rose from the dusty thatch-and- bamboo compound as heavy Vietnamese guns poured thousands of rounds into the area--"a huge rumbling," as one witness described it, "an explosion not every minute but every second." A dozen Soviet-built T-54 tanks and nearly two dozen armored personnel...

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