Before dawn, crowds of people waving red-and-yellow Vietnamese and Kampuchean flags assembled in the streets of Phnom Penh and along the boulevard leading to Pochentong airport. As marching music blared, senior Vietnamese officers, led by Lieut. General Le Ngoc Hien, drove past the Kampuchean throngs in Soviet-made jeeps, followed by buses carrying other officers and enlisted men. At the airport, a team of Cambodian classical dancers showered fragrant white flowers on the departing officers and soldiers, who boarded planes and helicopters bound for Ho Chi Minh City. After almost ten years in Kampuchea, the Vietnamese army was officially going home.
Viet...
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