Cambodia: Border Incident

In the communique that followed his visit with Prince Norodom Sihanouk three weeks ago, U.S. Ambassador Chester Bowles assured the Royal Cambodian government that “the U.S. will do everything possible to avoid acts of aggression against Cambodia, as well as incidents and accidents which may cause losses and damage to the inhabitants of Cambodia.” Sihanouk chose to interpret that as an ironclad promise that U.S. forces in Viet Nam would not cross the Cambodian border under any circumstances—which it was not. Thus he was enraged when, in the midst of a firefight with a Viet Cong unit, U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers inadvertently crossed the border, killing, he claimed, three Cambodians.

Last week the U.S. State Department sent an apology to Sihanouk, but at the same time took care to set the record straight. The allied unit involved had received heavy fire from a South Vietnamese village located in a border pocket and surrounded on nearly three sides by Cambodian territory. The allied troops attacked and then took the village, and the Viet Cong retreated into Cambodia, firing as they went. In the melee, U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers penetrated some 75 yards into Cambodian territory. “It was not planned,” said the State Department. “It occurred in the heat of battle and was due to an attempt of American and ARVN forces to protect themselves.”