Cambodian government forces lost their last beachhead on the lower Mekong River, finishing perhaps for months the effort to reopen the vital supply route to Phnom Penh. Cambodian and Western military sources reported today that the entire garrison at the beachhead was evacuated by navy craft, which carried 800 to 1,000 men 10 miles up to Neak Luong. Since the Communist‐led insurgents closed the river in mid‐January the capital’s supplies have been coming in by American airlift. The military situation was similarly bleak around the capital, with rockets still hitting Pochentong Airport with regularity, although the airlift continued unabated. Efforts to push the insurgents out of range of the airport were still unsuccessful, with brigades rushing from point to point to bolster severely weakened units on two fronts in the northwestern area of the capital.
At a news conference yesterday President Ford, appealing once again for additional assistance to Cambodia, said it would enable the Government of President Lon Nol to survive through the dry season, after which the prospects for a negotiated settlement would be better. It seemed clear, however, even to hopeful Western military analysts, that Government forces can make no major headway toward reopening the Mekong until it has risen substantially. The rains may begin late in June, and it will be at least two months after that before the rise will be sufficient to force the insurgents back, enabling minesweepers to clear the river without harassing fire.
In the flight from the Mekong beachhead the garrison was forced to leave behind its ammunition supply and three, of four American‐made 105‐mm. guns. Military officials said that the ammunition was destroyed the air strikes and that the guns were disabled. A Western military observer said that 105‐mm. shells falling on Pochentong in recent days were found to have serial numbers indicating that they had been captured since Feb. 1. Such losses are believed to be widespread. Their source is in an arc northwest of Phnom Penh — the southern fringe of what is believed to be the heaviest concentration of the 30,000 insurgent troops that Western military officials estimate to be around the capital.
As for the government’s munitions supplies, the United States Embassy said on Feb. 8 that without additional aid they would run out by the latter part of March, and on February 25 the President said in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Carl Albert, that unless assistance was provided they would run out “in less than a month.” Today the embassy said it had not changed its assessment. Other Western military observers felt that stockpiles could last up to three months longer. Efforts are being made to stretch the reserves. A comminder on Route 5 a key highway, said that his ration had been cut from 100 shells is day a month ago to 30 a day.
Cambodia’s former ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, warned the United States today against “direct intervention” in Cambodia, which he said was being prepared by Washington to prevent the fall of the Phnom Penh Government headed by President Lon Nol. Asserting that the insurgents’ victory was imminent, he said: “In the face of a situation which has been described as desperate by the most important leaders in Washington, the U.S. and its valets in Saigon are preparing to intervene directly in the Cambodian war.”
Primary schools in Phnom Penh are open only every other day now and then only for a few hours. In Government offices, piles of paper mount steadily higher on the desks as the pace of work declines. Many professors stopped coming to class because with the astronomical prices here their pay does not even cover the cost of transportation to the university. Ambulances sometimes run out of gas coming from the battlefronts. Then, with the wounded inside slipping toward death, the vehicles simply sit stalled by the roadside because no one has money to get more fuel.
In these and a multitude of other ways one can see the institutional structure of Cambodia steadily grinding down in recent days like a slow‐motion movie. Some things on the Phnom Penh Government side still do keep functioning — such as the army and the rice distribution system — but these are survival mechanisms that function by sheer necessity and reflex, and even then they function poorly and corruptly.
The Americans at the embassy here share the general disillusionment. “A few weeks ago, I was still a little hopeful,” said an embassy official “but now I feel different. It’s as if the wheel has missed a turn. Things are out of phase. They’re not making important decisions that have to be made.” It is not so much that something crushing has happened in this year’s fighting —although the Communistled insurgents have indeed made major gains — as it is a reflection of the cumulative exhaustion of five years of war without any hope of success.
Some diplomats and other observers here feel that whatever real power or direction still exists rests at the American Embassy. The Cambodian Government has always looked haplessly for the Americans to bail them out of every crisis and the state of the regime now is more hapless than it has ever been. “I’m really depressed now,” said one ambassador to a visitor today. “I’ve never before felt like this. I really think it’s hopeless. More aid can’t do any good.”
In Washington, the Ford Administration is appealing to Congress for more military aid for Cambodia on the ground that this will give the Phnom Penh Government a chance to survive until some kind of a negotiated settlement can be arranged. But such hopes cannot be found here. “They’ll need technocrats after the war is over,” said a Cabinet minister, smiling wryly as he spoke of the inevitability of insurgent victory, “so maybe there will be a place for me.”
[Ed: Sadly, there will be a place for you. In the camps, and in the mass graves. The Agony of Cambodia is only beginning. The time of the Killing Fields is at hand.]
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, by blowing up bridges and seizing one base camp in the last four days. North Vietnamese troops have succeeded in cutting the vital road that leads from Pleiku, the principal government‐held town in the Central Highlands, to the coast. A report from the town of Pleiku tonight said that at least two and possibly as many as six bridges on the road, Route 19, had been destroyed in the last four days.
In addition, the report from the field said, two bridges on Route 21 leading from the Highlands town on Buôn Ma Thuột to Nha Trang on the coast had been blown up in what appeared to be the beginning of a new regional thrust in the area. Traffic was reopened yesterday on the hazardous run from Buôn Ma Thuột to the coast, but the Saigon command reported today, that a third bridge, nine miles west of Khánh Dương district town, was destroyed and that movement on the road had again been halted. If Routes 19 and 21 remain cut, the main Government‐held towns in the Central Highlands will be isolated.
In addition to knocking out bridges on Route 19, the report said, North Vietnamese troops three days ago overran Base 94, which is 28 miles east of Pleiku, scattering the 100 men defending it and capturing two 105‐mm. howitzers. A survivor of the attack said that North Vietnamese tanks had been prepared to support the ground attack on the base, but were not brought into action. The North Vietnamese also seized a hill overlooking the road. The upsurge of activity in the Highlands — which had been expected — marked the end of a strange lull that had settled over the battlefields of South Vietnam since the capture of Phước Long Province by the North Vietnamese in early January. The report from the Highlands said that one regiment of the South Vietnamese 22d Division had moved down from northern Bình Định Province to try to reopen Route 19, through which Pleiku receives most of its overland supplies. However, the town of Pleiku was reported to be calm.
[Ed: This is, of course, not merely another small setback. This is Endgame. The final collapse of the Republic of Vietnam has begun.]
The worst crisis in international shipping and shipbuilding since World War II has been brought about by steadily falling oil consumption and an unusually mild winter in Europe. A glut in tanker capacity has collapsed charter rates for the shipment of crude oil from the Middle East and other petroleum sources to refining centers. Oil-storage facilities all over the world are full or close to capacity, and many tankers are idling at sea.
The oil-exporting countries have reportedly agreed that further deterioration of the United States dollar in foreign exchange markets would prompt an emergency meeting of their oil ministers to adjust oil prices upward or set new methods of payment.
The Soviet Union is steadily expanding its naval and air activity and base and port facilities in the strategically important Persian Gulf-Indian Ocean area according to intelligence sources in Washington and London.
In Setúbal, Portugal, at least 16 people were wounded when policemen twice opened fire on leftists who had wrecked a meeting of the Popular Democratic party, a center‐left group, here last night. Witnesses said that the police used machine guns and threw two hand grenades at the clash. The trouble began when about 400 leftists broke through a police cordon and stormed into the hall, where they bgan attacking some of the 2,000 Popular Democratic supporters at the rally and smashed banners.
The Irish Republican Socialist party decided tonight to disband its organization in Belfast, Northern Ireland, raising hopes of an end to the bloody feud between the party and the Official Irish Republican Army. The party broke away from the Official I.R.A. three months ago on the ground that the Officials had abandoned nationalist aims in favor of Socialism. At least two persons have been killed, and many wounded, in violence between the two groups. Tonight’s announcement followed the shooting of a 5‐year‐old boy during an attack last night on two leaders of Official Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Official I.R.A. Bernadette McAliskey, a leading member of the party who announced the decision to disband in Belfast, denied that this amounted to an admission that the party had a military wing.
The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, kidnapped 7 weeks earlier by the “Black Panther”, was discovered in Bath Pool park, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England.
Leonid I. Brezhnev kissed a Young Pioneer girl. Some 4.5 million carnations, roses and hyacinths have been transported to Moscow. Men were reported helping to set the dinner table. The Soviet Union has begun a weekend of honoring women, who comprise 54 per cent of the country’s population. Simultaneously with the celebration tomorrow of International Women’s Day, official concern seemed to be rising in Moscow for the plight of women in the non‐Socialist world. African and American women alike were said in official reports to be still struggling for liberation, and Soviet women were said to be firm in their solidarity with their less‐fortunate sisters.
The bodies of five more people were discovered today in the rubble of the Tel Aviv hotel that was attacked Wednesday night by Arab guerrillas, the police reported. The death toll is now 18, including seven of the eight Arabs. A police spokesman said the five found today were two Swiss, a West German, a Somali and a teenaged boy from the Netherlands, Asher Feldman. The boy was among the hostages taken when the guerrillas rushed into the Savoy Hotel. The Swiss victims were identified as Maria Krahenbel and Anders Lamron. The German was Hans Gassen. Karol Feldman, father of the dead boy, was wounded in the incident and his condition was termed critical.
Southern Yemen has ordered five anarchists who were flown out of West Germany to save the life of a kidnapped West Berlin politician, Peter Lorenz, to leave the country, the Arab country’s embassy here said today.
The Shah of Iran said today that “ancient differences between Iran and Iraq are finally over.” He made this statement on returning from a meeting of leaders of the major oil exporting nations in Algiers, where he also reached agreement yesterday with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, on steps to settle long‐standing disputes. “With both sides showing realistic statesmanship, the future cooperation of the two countries is now assured,” the Shah said today, according to the Pars news agency. The Iranian leader and Mr. Hussein, who is deputy chairman of the governing Revolutionary Command Council of Iraq, agreed in Algiers to settle a simmering border dispute that had frequently brought the two countries to the brink of full-scale war. The conflict involved navigation rights along the Shatt al-Arab, which is the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and which forms part of the Iranian‐Iraqi border. Also involved was Iranian support for Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in northern Iraq.
[Ed: For a few years. The peace will only last a little longer than the Shah himself.]
Differences over what to do with uranium fuel after it has been burned are delaying a $7‐billion deal for the United States to provide Iran with nuclear power plants, according to Administration officials. The spent fuel can be reprocessed to produce pure plutonium, which is used to make nuclear bombs. The officials describe the issue as follows. Will the United States have a say in where and under what conditions Iran might be permitted to reprocess the fuel? Or will Iran have autonomy on these matters subject only to international safeguards on use of atomic energy? Many officials do not consider the international safeguards adequate to prevent the development of nuclear bombs if the reprocessing plant is in Iran.
Two military‐backed right-wing parties that led the move yesterday to topple the eightday‐old civilian Government of Premier Seni Pramoj are now expected to form a new coalition. The coalition’s program would call for the withdrawal of all United States forces from Thailand “step by step” within one year, according to Major General Chatichai Choonhavan, a leader of one of the prospective coalition partners, the Thai Nation party. But before that happens, he said in an interview, Thailand should first establish diplomatic relations with China, and then the three great powers should “guarantee Southeast Asia as a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality.”
A number of United States crewmen on a captured tuna-fishing vessel have been detained at the Salinas navy base and will be tried under Ecuador’s maritime law, the Foreign Ministry in Quito announced tonight.
A conference of 13 French‐speaking African countries and France opened here today, emphasizing the need for “a new world economic order.” Gen. Jean Bédel Bokassa, the Central African Republic’s President for Life and the host, told heads of states and other delegates: “The existing economic system is hopelessly out of date. The economic and social system of our planet is like a worm‐eaten ship unable to weather the storm.” The Ivory Coast President, Félix Houphouët‐Boigny, referring to raw materials, said, “Let’s hope that the era of prices imposed by the industrial countries is gone forever.”
The United States Senate voted to change the rules on ending a filibuster. Voting 56 to 27 after a session lasting well into the evening, the Senate finally voted to reform its filibuster rule. It had been a foregone conclusion since Wednesday that a new rule would ultimately be adopted despite the opposition of Senator James Allen, Alabama Democrat, and a small group of allies. The new rule permits 60 Senators — assuming there are no vacancies — to limit debate and bring any measure except a proposed rules change to an up or down vote. Two-thirds of the Senators present and voting would still be required to end debate, or invoke closure on a change in the Senate’s rules. Under the old closure rule, the two-thirds requirement applied to all matters. Previously, the vote of 67 the 100 Senators (at least 2/3rds) was needed to end an overly long speech, and the rule was changed to 60 percent.
The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent of the work force in February, unchanged from January, but the total number of available jobs dropped by 540,000 because that number of people quit looking for work last month and were not counted as unemployed. Among other bleak economic signs was that the number of long-term unemployed, defined as those who have been out of work at least 15 weeks, rose by 300,000 to a total of 1.8 million.
In his strongest declaration to date regarding his plans for 1976, President Ford appealed for a broadened Republican party embracing “all who care about this country” and implicitly rejected conservative demands for greater ideological purity. He renewed his pledge to “never again permit an elite guard serving a single purpose to exclude and ignore the regular party organization,” and said he fully intended to seek the nomination in 1976.
The Federal Reserve Board signaled a further easing in credit conditions by reducing the discount rate it charges on loans to commercial banks. The action was interpreted as another move by the nation’s money manager to stimulate the economy, suffering the worst business slowdown since the Depression. The lowering of the discount rate — to 6¼ per cent from 6¾ per cent — is one of a series of strategic moves taken in recent months by the Federal Reserve in an effort to drive down interest rates and to foster growth of the money supply and thereby help revive the economy. Yesterday’s action marked the third month in a row that the Fed had cut its discount rate on the same day that worrisome unemployment figures were announced. The cut follows increased Congressional and academic criticism that the nation’s central bank has not been doing enough to spur economic recovery. Although interest rates have declined precipitously, the money supply — or cash in the hands of the public plus checking accounts — has shown no increase during the last three months, thus frustrating one chief aim of the Federal Reserve.
Democratic members of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress said today that a tax cut of $32-billion to $35-billion would be required, plus some further increases in government spending, if the unemployment rate was to be reduced below 7 percent by the end of 1976.
Five Democratic Senators announced today that they would attempt to force a Senate vote on including repeal of the controversial oil depletion allowance in the anti-recession tax-cut bill.
The Rockefeller commission on the Central Intelligence Agency, is looking into allegations that the C.I.A. was somehow involved in the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, according to informed sources close to its investigation. One focus of the commission’s inquiry, the sources said, is the recent assertion of a group headed by Dick Gregory, the comedian, and civil rights activist, that E. Howard Hunt Jr. was seized by the Dallas police near the Kennedy assassination site within minutes of the shooting. Mr. Hunt, convicted two years ago of conspiring to carry out the Watergate bugging plot, was a clandestine political officer for the C.I.A. at the time President Kennedy was murdered. The Gregory group’s charge is founded on photographs published last year in underground newspapers and elsewhere purporting to show Mr. Hunt and Frank A. Sturgis, one of the convicted Watergate burglars, being led by the police away from a grassy knoll across from the Texas school book depository building. Mr. Hunt, in testimony before the Rockefeller commission, reportedly denied that he was in Dallas at the time of the assassination or that he knew Mr. Sturgis then.
Representative Bella S. Abzug made public today copies of documents that were collected by the Central Intelligence Agency over a 20‐year period and maintained in agency files bearing her name. Mrs. Abzug, a Manhattan Democrat, termed some of the documents a “collection of trivia and inaccurate information,” and she again assailed the agency’s opening of her mail, calling it “a violation of privacy, my individual constitutional rights and the law.” The documents released today were supplied to Mrs. Abzug on Tuesday by William E. Colby, the Director of Central Intelligence, one day before he testified at a session of a House subcommittee on privacy matters that Mrs. Abzug heads. Mr. Colby affirmed at the hearing Wednesday that the agency had opened her mail as part of an operation in which it monitored correspondence between the United States and some Communist countries between 1953 and 1973. Mrs. Abzug then denounced the C.I.A. action as illegal.
The general counsel of the Senate internal security subcommittee admitted today that he might have destroyed some files containing “raw data” on members of Congress after denying last year that such material existed. Appearing before the Senate Rules Committee, J. G. Sourwine reaffirmed his testimony last year before the committee that the subcommittee has never kept “investigative files” on members of Congress or their staff, But under questioning by Senator Mark O. Hatfield, Republican of Oregon, Mr. Sourwine said that the subcommittee did keep files on Senators and House members who corresponded with the committee, and also that their names may appear in newspaper clippings in files on groups suspected of subversive activity. In addition, Mr. Sourwine testified that after he told Mr. Hatfield last year that there were no investigative files on members of Congress, some files were destroyed. “I do destroy files periodically and have done so for 25 years,” he told Mr. Hatfield, but denied that he had destroyed “any I said we did not have.”
The special Watergate prosecution asked Judge John J. Sirica today to dismiss the charges against the one remaining defendant in the Watergate coverup case, Gordon C. Strachan.
The defense rested its case today after former Oklahoma Governor David Hall told a jury that United States Attorney William Burkett and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were willing dupes in a state and Federal plot to frame him.
Defense lawyers in the Attica murder trial moved today to subpoena Vice President Rockefeller as a witness. The lawyers contend that Mr. Rockefeller should testify about statements that he has made asserting that William E. Quinn, the correction officer who died shortly after the prison was overrun by inmates, “was thrown from a window.” The first time that Mr. Rockefeller mentioned Mr. Quinn’s being thrown from a prison window was during the uprising, which took place in September, 1971. He mentioned it again last Nov. 22, when he was questioned at his VicePresidential confirmation hearing before the House Judiciary Committee at the hearing, Mr. Rockefeller said, “One guard died from a beating and being thrown out the window.” The report of the officer’s being thrown from the window had currency during the four‐day insurrection. However, it was termed “a manifestly false rumor” in the official report of the New York State Special Commission on Attica, which was disclosed in September, 1972.
Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement will be charged with murder in connection with the death today of a South Dakota man, according to Jack Klauck, the Pennington County States Attorney.
Streetcars and buses will emerge from their barns Sunday after a winter-long hibernation, signaling the end to a strike of operators and drivers that deprived the city of New Orleans of its public transportation system for almost three months.
The National Park Service, professing concern about preserving a fragile world of dune and wave, beach plum and seashell, has come up with a novel solution: It is proposing to ban nudity within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
The U.S. performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
Francine Larrimore, a noted actress of the first half of the century, died of pneumonia at her home in New York. She was 77 years old.
The 114th and final episode of the television series “The Odd Couple” was broadcast on the U.S. ABC television network. Nearly five years after meticulous Felix Unger (played by Tony Randall) was divorced by his wife and moved into the apartment of his slob friend Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman), the story concluded with Felix being taken by his wife and moving out.
RCA releases “Young Americans”, David Bowie’s 9th studio album, recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City; featuring appearances by John Lennon on two tracks, it peaks in the U.S. charts at No. 9, and No. 2 in the U.K.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 770.10 (+8.29, +1.09%)
Born:
Jason Whittle, NFL guard and long snapper (New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills), in Springfield, Missouri.
Kelvin Moore, NFL defensive back (Cincinnati Bengals), in Los Angeles, California.
Danielle Viglione, WNBA guard (Sacramneto Monarchs), in Sacramento, California.
Audrey Marie Anderson, American actress (“The Unit”, “The Walking Dead”) and model, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Died:
Ben Blue, 73, Canadian-American comedian (“Accidental Family”, “Frank Sinatra Show”).
Francine Larrimore, 76, French actress (“John Meade’s Woman”).
Mikhail Bakhtin, 79, Soviet author and pioneer in semiotics.
History Diaries 