14 Hanoi Tanks Hit
In Cambodia;
Hamlets Retaken

From News Dispatches

SAIGON, Aug. 7—U.S. jets, aiding ground forces facing the largest concentration of North Vietnamese tanks ever seen in Eastern Cambodia, have knocked out 14 T-54 tanke in the past two days, it was announced Monday.

To the north, Saigon said its
militamen recaptured all five
of the hamlets near Hue
which were occupied by Com-
munist-led forces early Sun-
day. Other government troops
fought off two attacks around
Fire Base Checkmate in the
hills southwest of Hue.

And in Quangngai Province,
65 miles south of Danang, mil-
itamen with U.S. air support
beat back waves of North Viet-
namese and Vietcong troops
who made concerted attacks
against three government out-
posts. Saigon claimed 86 Com-
munist-led troops were killed
in nine hours of fighting.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the day took place in Cambodia, where elements of two North Vietnamese divisions, backed by at least 30 tanks, have cut Highway 1 which links Saigon and Phnom Penh.

U.S. Marine and Air Force jets flying to the aid of hard-pressed Cambodian forces knocked out 14 Soviet-built T-54 tanks Sunday and Monday as they attempted to encircle the town of Kompong Trabek, the allied commands announced.

The town, which was only
recently recaptured from the
North Vietnamese, was said to
be defended by teen-age Cam-
bodian troops who panicked
when they spotted the tanks.

The Cambodian command,
which admitted that Highway
1 was cut west of Kompong
Trabek, said that one enemy
tank shot its way into the
town, fired a dozen shells, and
withdrew.

North Vietnamese troops
have been moving through the
"Parrot's Beak" salient of
Cambodia into the Mekong

rangers is operating in the
"Parrot's Beak" region in a
effort to block North Vietnan
ese infiltration.

In the air war, U.S. plane
attacked the Loidong tran-
shipment plant and storag
depot four miles northwest o
Haiphong. Planes also demo
ished three spans of a key ra
bridge 48 miles northeast
Hanoi on the line to China.

Another 1,400 U.S. soldier
were withdrawn from Sout
Vietnam last week, reducin
U.S. troop strength to 44,600
the U.S. Command said.

AUG 8 1972

W.P.

armor, today reopened the main highway to the south of the capital, relieving the last position besieged by Communists, the military command reported.

Paratroops fought their way through to the village of Trapeang Lean, about 26 miles south of Phnom Penh on highway 2, then drove farther south to link up with another column making a push from the southern end of the highway.

## Cambodia Troops Reopen Key Highway

Reuter

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 2 — Cambodian troops, backed by

are little fish to begin with,
he explains. "Once they have
been caught and identified
their usefulness to East Ger-
many as agents is ended. And
after they've been in jail
year or two, they're out of
touch with what's happening
in West Germany and have
nothing of value to give the
East Germans, even if they're
allowed to cross over."

"Thus," he concludes, "what
do you do with them? You can
keep them in West German
jails as a burden on the tax-
payers. Or you can use them
to secure the release of some
poor devils who are languish-
ing in prison on the other
side. In most cases, we prefer

CAMBODIANS REPORT
FREEING SEA ROUTE

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, Nov. 17 (Reuters)—Cambodian troops have reoccupied the highway from Pnompenh to the sea after a two-week closing halted the flow of imported food and United States military supplies to the capital, the Camodian military command reported today.

The troops moved on to the last remaining occupied stretch of Route 4 about 40 miles southwest of here yesterday, a command spokesman said.

Military sources said that North Vietnamese forces were last reported at several villages

south of the road, but it was still not clear whether they were pulling out completely or preparing further attacks.

The sources said that the road, which leads to Cambodia's only seaport, Kompong Som, will need extensive repair before it is reopened to truck convoys.

PNOMPENH, Nov. 17 (AP)—The Cambodian command said today that its troops had reopened the road from Pnompenh to Cambodia's rice-growing area in the northwest.

The road, Route 5 leading to Battambang Province, was cut in mid-August, resulting in shortages of rice and rioting in Pnompenh.

Nixon vs. Congress on Vietnam

President Nixon has set himself against a majority in Congress and the nation with his curt rejection of a Congressional declaration that it is "the policy of the United States" to withdraw all of its military forces from Indochina "at the earliest practicable date . . . subject to the release of all American prisoners of war."

The President may be constitutionally correct in choosing to ignore what is essentially a nonbinding amendment to the military procurement authorization bill. But he has made a grievous political error in slapping down a responsible Congressional offer to share with him the heavy burden of extricating this nation from a costly and still perilous blunder by the best available means. By defying the will of Congress thus moderately expressed, Mr. Nixon invites more drastic measures to curb a Presidential policy that points toward new American disasters in Southeast Asia.

That policy as defined by the President and his aides in recent days repeats mistakes of the past. While spurning opportunities for a negotiated settlement in Paris, the Administration indicates an intention to pursue the illusion of military victory in Indochina through continuing unqualified support for the present Saigon regime. This support will include, according to the President's recent statement, not only vast sums of money and material, but a "residual force" of American ground troops and massive American air power for an indefinite period.

The Nixon policy condemns American prisoners of war to interminable internment. It places the slowly dwindling "residual force" in increasing peril of being overwhelmed by a still powerful enemy. It subjects the long-suffering peoples of Indochina to continuing terror and bloodshed, including the tragic civilian casualties which are the inescapable consequence of the wholesale use of air power.

The fresh danger into which the Nixon policy is leading the nation is dramatically demonstrated by the current battle in Cambodia, where American helicopter gunships are engaged in close support of beleaguered Cambodian forces fighting only ten miles from their capital at Pnompenh. This new direct American involvement in a widened conflict is only a portent of things to come if the President persists on his present course.

NOV 19 1971

MAS DAY! REMEMBER THE NEEDIEST!

New York Times

LATE CITY EDITION

Weather: Chance of rain today;
cloudy, cold tonight, tomorrow.
Temp. range: today 36-40; Sunday
36-39. Full U.S. report on Page 32.

W YORK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1972

15 CENTS

## RELIEF WORKERS FLY TO MANAGUA FROM MANY LANDS

600 Burials Are Reported in Nicaraguan Capital, Devastated by Quake

100,000 SAID TO FLEE

Total Evacuation of the City Is Reported Ordered—Typhoid Is Feared

By RICHARD SEVERO
Special to The New York Times

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Dec. 24—Relief workers from many nations worked today to evacuate the injured and bury the dead in this capital city, much of which was destroyed by a series of earthquakes yesterday.

"We are fighting against time," said Jorge Cojuc, a Frenchman who runs an auto repair shop in Mexico City, but who was now a Red Cross volunteer in Managua. Mr. Cojuc said that 600 bodies had been buried already, adding that "there will be disease if we do not bury the others quickly."

Nearly all the dead had been crushed; now the Red Cross, aware of the ruptured water mains and sewers, was waiting for typhoid to strike.

[Nicaraguan authorities have ordered the total evacuation of Managua, Reuters re-

United Press International

A building on Calle 27 de Mayo in Managua that housed several foreign consulates in ruins after the earthquakes

A full page of photographs of the disaster in the Nicaraguan capital appears on Page 10

## Also Brings Tears

Their mother had disappeared, and their father had married a retarded woman

Rev. Timothy McDonnell's idea. Father McDonnell, the chaplain at Cardinal McClos-