Moving Out Of Indochina - Finally

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Indochina has dominated headlines for two weeks, as Cambodia finally came under control of the Khmer Rouge forces, and Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Theiu resigned in the face of massive South Vietnamese defeats north of Saigon, and blamed the U.S. for his regime's setbacks.

Meanwhile, the feud between the Ford administration and Congress continues, with Ford still trying to get approximately $1 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Vietnam. The House Appropriations committee approved a proposal by committee chairman George H. Mahon (D-Texas) for $165 million each for humanitarian and military aid, but the proposal is not likely to receive full House approval. The Senate approved $250 million in humanitarian aid Wednesday, but refused military aid.

The airlife of Americans from Saigon continues, with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger opposing a complete pullout. Kissinger insists aid is needed for a "controlled situation" that would permit a negotiated settlement. Thieu's resignation was cited as potentially opening up such talks, but word from Hanoi late Tuesday indicated a mere shift of names without an overall alteration of power was not adequate. Theiu's successor, Tran Van Huong, served as Thieu's vice president, and will simply continue Thieu's policies, with the same generals in control, according to Hanoi.

The U.S. role in Cambodia came to an end a week earlier, with the final capitulation of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. Guarded borders are keeping foreigners out of Cambodia at present until the situation settles, but refugees now camped out in Thailand have been encouraged to return.

In the following report by Richard Boyle, Pacific News Service reporter, filed shortly before the liberation of Phnom Penh, Boyle talks about the "mysterious" Khmer Rouge who now control the Southeastern country.

Battamband, April 15 (PNS)

Since the Cambodian war began five years ago, the rebels; called Khmre Rouge (literally, Red Cambodians) or Khmer Front for National Unity (FUNK) have been a mystery to the western press.

In late March this reporter and two others crossed the Thai border at Poipet and drove by taxi to the encircled enclave of Battamband, barely held by a handful of troops still loyal to the Lon Nol govemment. Phnom Penh 's authority had virtually ceased to function at the border and we got reports that nearly all of Battambang province had fallen to advancing rebel troops.

Although we passed one jeep with four Lon Nol soldiers in camouflaged fatigues and helmets racing toward the Thai border, we saw not other troops on the road except for a few guards at a bridge crossing.

Then we came to a small town about an hour from Battambang where a column of troops was moving west. Unlike the troops in the jeep, they wore black uniforms and floppy jungel hats. Most had AK-47 rifles, made in Communist countries, and others had old battered M-16's. Instead of jeeps they rode in cyclo's, bicycle-driven carts and motorscooters.

We stopped at the village, took their pictures and they smiled and waved as they proceeded down the road. The villagers seemed friendly to both the troops and us. The troops smiled at the villagers and moved on.

It was only when we reached Phnom Penh days later that we were able to glean from battle reports what we had first suspected-the strange troops we had stumbled across were part of the Khmer Rouge advance which had just routed on one of the last Phnom Penh army units in the province.

Although the rebel government remains an enigma to most most westerners, the FUNK set forth its policies and its strategy for the final offensive at the secret 2nd National Congress-held somewhere in Cambodia on February 24 and 25. It was at that conference, according to underground radio reports, that the rebel government issued the demand.

Meanwhile, shelling continued at Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa considered major forward defense lines for SAigon. Liberation forces are gradually shutting off surrounding access to the capital and driving ARVN units back toward Saigon. With a military settlement now seeming imminent, Saigon can not hold up much longer. Massive desertion by Southern troops to the North and continuing defeats have demoralized Saigon's soldiers. With the capital's fall, the U.S. will finally be forced out of Indochina, and one of this country's saddest eras will come to an end.

that "the seven traitors who put Cambodia to the fire and the sword" be punished. Since then, six of the seven named government officials have fled as the rebels have continued to cut up the last few remaining units fighting for the Phnom Penh government.

The FUNK Congress asked all Lon Nol troops and bureaucrats to cross into liberated zones and promised assistance in in settling and making a new life. The labeling of the seven traitors and the promise not to carry out reprisals against any others may have been a major reason why thousands more of Lon Nol's troops have deserted to the Khmer Rouge in recent weeks- despite Phnom Penh government posters warning of an impending bloodbath if the rebels win, with lurid pictures of naked women being bayoneted.