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The deserters' firsthand accounts confirmed reports by American intelligence. The White House protested that Hanoi has been diverting international relief supplies intended for Cambodia's hungry civilians to its own occupying troops. However, Washington's appeal "not to feed the flames of war, but to use your aircraft and airfields to feed the people" went unheeded. When two U.S. Air Force cargo planes tried to fly into Phnom-Penh last week with cranes to be used for un loading relief supplies, Hanoi ordered the airport closed to them.