Crisis fades
---
U.S. hope
rises for
Cambodia

By George W. Ashworth
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor

Washington

The crisis appears to have passed in
Cambodia.

In the judgment of officials closely in-
volved with U.S. efforts to bolster Cambo-
dia's fighting ability, the North Vietnamese
now could only pose a desperately serious
threat to Cambodia by committing more
troops and resources than they appear will-
ing to risk.

Thus, through a curious combination of
some improvement in Cambodian fighting
ability, a lack of North Vietnamese resolve,
and the continuation of South Vietnam as
"the main show" in the Communists' view,
survival of the present Cambodian regime
appears likely—at least in the near future.

It appears almost certain that United
States will continue to support the Cam-
bodian regime to a heavy extent, despite
the administration's current problems over
the foreign-aid bill.

The administration had asked for $341
million during fiscal 1972 for military and
economic assistance to Cambodia. The Senate

Cambodians make 'courageous'
economic reforms

Report from Phnom Penh: Page 3

cessions. Usually in international bargain-
ing, the participants show more flexibility
in private than in public.

Europeans have also been assured that the oft-stated objections U.S. officials have to Common Market policy amount to a "list." The U.S. wants changes in these policies.

## Positions softening

There are some indications in other countries that some softening of positions is taking place.

Reports from Paris indicate France is willing to let the franc stay put in value should the U.S. devalue the dollar. In effect, this would be a modest revaluation of the franc in dollar terms.

This change is important to West Germany, which does not want the mark upgraded against the franc by too large an amount. France is an important market for German industry.

Bonn has signified that it is willing to spend "hundreds of millions of marks" on improving living conditions for U.S. troops in Germany. Probably this would reduce the foreign exchange costs of the U.S. forces there.

Tokyo, too, has indicated it will take up more of the defense "burden."

On the question of long-range monetary and trade reform, the administration has numerous suggestions to consider.

The latest proposals are outlined today in a report prepared by a committee of the National Planning Association, a private nonprofit Washington organization.

## Some recommendations

Some of the more important recommendations of the group are these:

* The major industrial nations should continue the process of tariff liberalization by reducing to zero all tariffs of 5 percent or less, and to reduce by 1 percentage point a year all tariffs below a specified level — say 20 percent — until they reached 5 percent. Then these too would be abolished in the succeeding year.

Tariffs about the specified level should be cut by 2 percentage points a year until they reach the 1 percent a year level.

* New principles should be negotiated to govern international trade and other economic relationships.

For instance, the major industrial countries should negotiate a code of behavior to regulate all of their export-promotion activities. They should devise a code of behavior

Foreign Relations Committee resolved to try to hold the limit at $250 million. But, under heavy congressional pressure, original backers of the lower figure, led by Sen. Stuart Symington (D) of Missouri, agreed to the administration's desires, not so much to keep spending down as to emphasize congressional right to set ceilings.

Everything fell apart, of course, when the foreign-aid bill was rejected, and it is possible that the Foreign Relations Committee may decide to try again for a reduced figure. It is also quite possible that the administration will be less bellicose in its demands on the second go-around in the interests of harmony and getting acceptable legislation through Congress.

According to Pentagon officials, these are several key aspects of the military situation in Cambodia now:

* At present, an estimated four North Vietnamese divisions and three regiments with a total strength of an estimated 10,000 troops are in Cambodia. It would take one or two divisions more, officials believe, plus some beefing up of units already in the country, for the North Vietnamese to be able to pose a serious military threat.

* The Cambodian forces include 180,000 armed and trained men, including territorial forces. The total force goal is 220,000. The Cambodians have a light complement of 105-mm. howitzers as an artillery force, plus 8 helicopters, and 16 T-28 fighter aircraft.

* American military aid has been climbing steadily in quantity and total cost. During the last part of fiscal 1970, when the American program began, and fiscal 1971, when matters got into high gear, military aid topped $200 million. Now the administration wants to spend another $200 million in military aid, plus $141 million in economic and other supporting programs this year.

★ Please turn to Page 3

★U.S. hopeful
on Cambodia

Continued from Page 1

* So far, some 60 Cambodian battalions have been trained in South Vietnam, with an additional five trained in Thailand. Plans now call for moving the training into Cambodia, which will save the Phnom Penh government money, although officials expect the quality of the training to fall off for a while. However, it is believed best to have the Cambodians handle the training to the highest extent possible.

Involvement question

No one is sure just how involved the United States will eventually be in Cambodia. It remains the professed goal of the Nixon administration to keep the American presence low. Although the number of Americans in Cambodia is rising, the increase is not precipitous.

The administration refused to go along with a military request for 100 men in Phnom Penh to handle the military-equipment deliveries. The limit was set at 50 on the delivery team, and there is debate now whether to increase by another 8 or so.

So far as money is concerned, officials expect spending to possibly climb a bit above the proposed level for 1972 to peak in 1973. From that point, it is anticipated by these civilian officials that the spending would begin to taper off.

Higher spending now is necessary, they say, in order to pay for more equipment. After the equipment purchases are accomplished, heavy spending would only be needed for some further modernization, replacement, and the most expensive single category, ammunition.

The Pentagon, of course, will continue to press for more men on the scene in order to do a more orderly and possibly better job of handing out equipment, and it will ask more money for more equipment for them to use.

The original concepts of very limited American involvement have been altered as the effort has come more and more under the direct domination of the Pentagon and its men in the field. But still, in the business of making wars, the endeavor in Cambodia remains small. With a little firm resolve on the part of the administration it may well stay that way.

an official Romanian exhibit was withdrawn from the fair because of the West Germans' "unauthorized" publication of a book by a Bucharest author.

The author, a party member, is 36-year-old Paul Goma. The book "Ostinato" (The Obstinate One), is based on the Stalinist years in Romania and draws on his own experiences as a political prisoner following the Hungarian uprising in 1956.

It was denied publication at home and the Romanian authorities tried hard to dissuade Mr. Goma's German publishers from bringing it out.

Conformist regime writers and some of the leaders of the Writers' Union have endorsed Mr. Ceausescu's austere recipe for Romanian culture. But many of the country's foremost literati and artists in other spheres have made dissent obvious by their silence. The showdown may come at the Writers' Union congress at the end of the year.

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OVERSEAS

# Saigon export drive prepares way for living without aid

From Derek Wilson

Saigon, Nov 16

South Vietnam is now engaged in "a race against the clock" to achieve economic self-sufficiency before American aid peters out, Mr Pham Kim Ngoc, Minister of the Economy, told reporters at breakfast today.

He made the comment as the Government drastically devalued the piastre and established four different exchange rates for different kinds of transactions.

The measure was in part meant to strike a blow at the flourishing black market. Indeed the furtive men in Saigon who accost American soldiers and whisper "You want change dollars", had vanished today, doubtless only temporarily.

But the main purpose of devaluation is to encourage exports. It is one of a series of sweeping economic reforms announced by President Thieu yesterday, the purpose of which, as Mr Ngoc put it, is the "Vietnamization of the economy". This has been made necessary by the American withdrawal.

Mr Ngoc said the Government was very aware of the present mood in the United States regarding foreign aid. "One day we will be on our own", he said. The Government's grandiose economic scheme, which envisages a big increase in agricultural production as well as industrialization, offered South Vietnam the only chance of survival.

He admitted that it would not be easy "while the guns are

booming" to expand exports so that they become the principal source of foreign exchange, but he believed it was possible.

He emphasized, however, that the maintenance of American economic aid at a rate of at least $750m a year for "several years" was essential if the scheme were to work.

Mr Ngoc forecast that the new measures would put up the cost of living by 10 to 15 per cent and would be universally unpopular. The Government would have to "batten down for a storm" to get them through Parliament, he said. Sacrifices would have to be made.

Phnom Penh, Nov 16.—Communist troops fired rockets into Phnom Penh's international airport for the fourth time in three days today but no damage or casualties was reported.

The airport has been under pressure since last Wednesday when a communist attack killed 20 people and put nine aircraft out of action. This raid marked the start of a series of attacks around the capital, mainly to the south and the west.

According to informed sources, Cambodian troops at Tuol Leap, 12 miles west of Phnom Penh, carried out a "tactical withdrawal" at dawn today

United States Air Force helicopters intervened for the first time in the zone this morning and rocketed the North Vietnamese positions. A Government battalion also tried to breach enemy lines, but was unsuccessful.—Reuter and Agence France Presse.

9

Senator says Greek
leaders aided Nazis

From Ian McDonald
Washington, Nov 16

Senator Lee Metcalf (Democrat, Montana) has said he is incensed by evidence that several members of the Greek Government, possibly including Mr Papadopoulos, the Prime Minister, were active collaborators with the Nazi occupation forces during the war.

In a letter to Mr Eliot Janeway, the economist, Senator Metcalf writes that, as a veteran of two years of combat in Europe during the Second World War, he is "incensed and infuriated that a military regime of collaborators and Nazi sympathizers in Greece is receiving American aid".

"It is outrageous", he states, "that one nation in the Nato alliance refuses to honour the Greek resistance fighters or respect those who died fighting the Nazi invaders."

The Senator based his allegations in part on an unpublished thesis by Dr Nicholas Stavrou, an assistant professor at Howard University.

The thesis traces links between Mr Papadopoulos, then a colonel, with the extreme right-wing Holy Bond of Greek Officers (IDEA) which was formed after the war ostensibly to protect the Greek population against communist attack. In reality a principal activity of IDEA was to secure the rehabilitation of those officers who had been initially purged by the post-liberation coalition Government because of their activities in the collaborationist "security battalions" of the occupation years.

The thesis says that Colonel Papadopoulos, who was chief of staff in the Greek central intelligence service, played a

prominent role in the clandestine Pericles plan of 1961, a right-wing military attempt to destroy the left and centre parties in the elections that year. The paramilitary units of the Pericles plan were the Battalions of National Defence, widely regarded as the spiritual heirs of the wartime security battalions.

Colonel Papadopoulos's associates in the Pericles plan were General Alexander Natsinas, the head of the intelligence service, and General Nicolaos Gogoussis. Both generals were members of IDEA.

A private affidavit presented to Senator Metcalf quotes Mr Philip Talbot, the American Ambassador in Greece at the time of the 1967 coup, as saying: "We were aware that some of them were collaborators". Mr Talbot now says he has doubts whether he made this remark.

Senator Metcalf also received a copy of a confidential discussion paper prepared for the Hudson Institute, an influential "think tank", by Mr. Elias Demetrapopoulos, a leader in the Greek opposition movement here. The memorandum quotes numerous reports to the effect that Colonel Papadopoulos served in a German-armed security battalion during the war

On gaining power, Colonel Papadopoulos issued a decree that time spent in the security battalions would count towards government pensions.

Representative Benjamin Rosenthal, the Chairman of the House foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe, was also reported to be investigating the junta's alleged links with the former Nazi occupying forces.

Soutenue par les hélicoptères américains

L'armée
gouvernementale
est en difficulté
près de Phnom-Penh

La situation s'aggrave de
jour en jour pour les troupes
gouvernementales cambodgiens.
En effet, les combats se
déroulent maintenant à 16 kilomètres seulement à l'ouest de
Phnom-Penh. Les Américains
sont venus mardi 16 novembre
à la rescousse des Khmers avec
leurs hélicoptères de combat
lance-roquettes Cobra... Une
attaque des forces communis-
tes contre Phnom-Penh même
entraînerait automatiquement
l'intervention d'importantes
forces sud-vietnamiennes.

On se bat maintenant au corps
à corps dans les villages proches
de la capitale. Les gouverne-
mentaux ont dû évacuer celui de
Tuol-Leap, à 18 kilomètres de
Phnom-Penh, ils se sont repliés
sur Tapoung, à 2 kilomètres plus
à l'est, où ils ont alors été en-
cercés par des éléments qui
appartiendraient à la 1ère division
nord-vietnamienne. L'endroit est
situé à 5 kilomètres seulement de
l'aéroport international de Poche-
tong et à 2 kilomètres de la cen-
trale de transmission de Kambaul.
Le quartier général de la division
communiste serait, selon une
source citée par l'A.F.P., installé à
30 kilomètres au nord de Phnom-
Penh.

(Lire la suite page 5. 2e col.)

où quarante-six écrivains slovaques ont été exclus de leur union. Un journaliste, M. Bzoh, a même été arrêté le 4 novembre dernier : on avait trouvé dans la serviette qu'il avait égarée une copie de l'interview de M. Josef Smrkovsky (« le Monde » du 17-9-1971) à une revue communiste italienne.

Les intellectuels du « printemps de Prague » restent toujours fort mal vus. Privés de leur travail normal, ils n'ont pas le droit de gagner plus de 1 200 couronnes par mois quel que soit l'emploi qu'ils trouvent. Selon les statistiques officielles, le salaire moyen actuel en Tchécoslovaquie est de 1 950 couronnes. Ainsi, une ancienne speakerine populaire de la télévision, Mme Kamila Mouckova, gagne sa vie actuellement comme serveuse dans le club fermé d'un théâtre.

L'obsession des autorités et leurs craintes des manifestations possibles continuent à se manifester partout, avant chaque anniversaire jugé dangegeux. Ainsi, le pouvoir a fait couper dans l'opéra « la Fiancée vendue », de Smetana, au quatrième acte, la fameuse phrase : « Nous déchirerons cet accord. » La représentation devait avoir lieu trois ans après la signature de l'accord de Moscou sur le stationnement « temporaire » de troupes soviétiques en Tchécoslovaquie. Cette phrase aurait provoqué les manifestations que l'on devine.

Cependant la population affecte l'indifférence. Ceux qui ne sont pas favorables au régime de M. Husak se tiennent. Les autorités ont d'ailleurs trouvé cette année le moyen de réduire les opposants : de l'attitude des parents dépend, en effet, la possibilité pour les enfants de poursuivre leurs études au lycée et dans

# L'armée gouvernementale est en difficulté près de Phnom-Penh

(Suite de la première page.)

Face à deux régiments nord-vietnamiens (environ trois mille hommes) très bien armés et entraînés, l'armée khmère oppose six bataillons (deux mille hommes selon l'A.F.P., cinq mille selon A.P.) avec notamment les troupes de choc du colonel Lon Non, frère du maréchal Lon Nol, le premier ministre. A partir de Phnom-Penh, des troupes fraîches ont en vain tenté de percer les lignes adverses, utilisant pour se rendre au front la voie férée. La population fuit, indique l'envoyé spécial de l'A.F.P., qui fait aussi état de nouvelles alarmantes parvenues du nord de la capitale. L'opération Tchela-II (vingt mille hommes engagés) tourne elle aussi fort mal, en effet, pour l'armée gouvernementale. En effet, les communistes, après avoir pris Rumlong, le week-end dernier, investissent d'autres localités. La situation ne paraît guère meilleure à 75 kilomètres au sud de Phnom-Penh, où la bourgade d'Angtosom est encerclée.

Le commandement ne peut dans ces conditions renforcer les défenses de Phnom-Penh puisque le gros de ses unités est fixé en province, dans des conditions délicates. Est-ce à dire que les communistes vont tenter de prendre d'assaut la capitale ? Une telle action, matériellement possible semble-t-il, serait pour eux coûteuse et prendrait une allure « putschiste » politiquement risquée. Il est cependant certain que le Front uni du prince Sihanouk a ses militants dans la ville même. Il serait d'ailleurs intéressant de savoir quel est le rôle joué dans les combats actuels par les révolutionnaires khmers, qu'il s'agisse de militaires ou de civils opérant dans le domaine de

la logistique. Les autorités de Phnom-Penh observent traditionnellement le silence sur ce mouvement politique et militaire.

Le quartier général de l'armée de libération khmère affirme de son côté que, entre le 20 août et le 12 novembre, quelque neuf mille soldats de Phnom-Penh ont été mis hors de combat. Au début de novembre, M. Khieu Samphan, ministre de la défense du gouvernement du prince Sihanouk, qui se trouve dans les maquis, avait lancé un appel à l'offensive pour la saison sèche 1971-1972. Il déclarait que « les défaites subies dans tous les domaines par l'impérialisme américain et ses valets constituent un grave échec de la « doctrine Nixon » au Cambodge ». Il appelait « tout le peuple cambodgien à s'unir avec les peuples vietnamien et laotien dans la lutte contre l'ennemi commun ».

Dans le Bas-Laos, les forces gouvernementales viennent d'ailleurs de perdre deux positions, non loin de la piste Ho-Chi-Minh, contre laquelle l'aviation sud-vietnamienne intervient désormais régulièrement. Alors que le porteavions Coral Sea fait route vers le golfe du Tonkin, il serait étonnant que les Américains ne répliquent pas vivement à la poussée communiste, qui place le régime de Phnom-Penh dans une situation précaire. L'agence U.P.I. rapporte que des équipes de renseignement américaines, placées sous l'autorité directe du commandement de Saigon, opèrent au Cambodge.

Par A. G. MARTY
« Vendez »

En vente en librairie

Connaitre et
Atteindre
Inci

## Cambodia

Alors que des combats sont signalés sur tout le territoire

# Les troupes gouvernementales cambodgiennes ont dû se replier à 12 km du centre de Phnom-Penh

L'offensive déclenchée le 9 novembre par les forces combinées nord-vietnamiennes, vietcongs et les troupes khmères favorables au prince Sihanouk semble s'être généralisée mercredi 17 novembre et jeudi. Des attaques sont déclenchées sur tous les fronts du territoire, indique le communiqué publié jeudi matin 18 novembre par le haut commandement khmer.

La situation s'aggrave dans la région de Phnom-Penh. Mercredi, quatre roquettes avaient été tirées contre l'aérodrome, situé à 4 kilomètres à l'ouest de la ville.

La position de Run-Duong est tombre entre les mains des soldats nord-vietnamiens de la première division à la suite d'un « repli tactique » dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi des soldats cambodgiens qui l'occupaient. Le front se trouve donc maintenant à 12 kilomètres à l'ouest de la capitale, apprend-on au poste de commandement avancé de Samrong.

Pentagone insistera sur l'emploi des troupes non américaines dans les aventures militaires. Mais ce n'est guère une nouveauté. La formule de faire combattre les Asiatiques par les Asiatiques date du temps de Dulles et de l'armée secrète de Vang Pao au Laos, mise sur pied sous Kennedy. Le fait nouveau c'est que les dirigeants américains, devenus maintenant plus conscients des limites de leur puissance et même de leur richesse, évitent systématiquement l'éparpillement de leurs forces dans le monde et comprennent mieux qu'un soldat thailandais ou sud-coréen coûte environ vingt fois moins cher d'un G.I.

» Ils sont devenus aussi plus conscients de l'impopularité de la présence de troupes américaines en pays étranger. Les vides laissés par le départ des soldats américains seront comblés par le progrès technique en matière d'armement. Dans l'actuelle guerre spéciale au Laos, considérablement intensifiée depuis 1969, les

Le colonel Lon Non, frère du maréchal Lon Nol, chef du gouvernement, a déclaré que deux des six bataillons qui sont engagés au nord de la route n° 4, à l'ouest de Phnom-Penh, avaient dû se battre au corps à corps avant de se replier et avaient subi des pertes qu'il n'a pu encore éviter exactement mais qu'il a quahifiées de « lourdes ».

La contre-offensive qui devait être déclenchée par les troupes gouvernementales dans la journée de mercredi pour dégager l'ouest de Phnom-Penh a dû être retardée en raison de l'intense pression adverse, indique l'A.F.P.

Les gouvernementaux se retranchent dans les faubourgs de la ville, et creusent des trous sur les pelouses de l'université, à mi-chemin entre l'aéroport et le centre de la capitale. Les services de renseignements font état de la marche vers Phnom-Penh de deux divisions communistes.

● A SAIGON, un communiqué indique que quatre appareils américains ont bombarcé mercredi des positions de D.C.A. au Vietnam du Nord. De son côté, la radio du F.N.L. a diffusé à quelques heures d'intervalle deux commentaires affirmant que seule une négociation prenant en considération le plan de paix présenté le 1er juillet permettra de mettre fin au conflit.

● A HANOI, le journal *le Courrier du Vietnam* publie une étude sur la « doctrine Nixon » et écrit : « Il est clair que dorénavant le

sommes dépensées pour l'organisation et l'équipement des mercenaires se sont multipliées par trois. Le rôle de l'aviation dans cette guerre comme dans celle du Cambodge et du Vietnam du Sud est d'une importance sans précédent. »

## M. Laird n'exclut pas une escalade aérienne

● A WASHINGTON, M. Laird, secrétaire à la défense, a déclaré mercredi que le Pentagone recommandera l'intervention de l'aviation américaine pour apayer toute nouvelle attaque sud-vietnamienne au Laos qui serait nécessaire pour protéger les troupes américaines restant au Sud. Il a affirmé que le facteur déterminant est la sécurité des cent quatre-vingt-huit mille soldats américains présents au Sud, dont le nombre va aller décroissant. Il a déclaré que, dans cette optique, l'aviation américaine pourrait être utilisée au Vietnam du Nord, au Laos et au Cambodge.

Parlant d'un éventuel envoi de troupes terrestres américaines au Cambodge et au Laos — que le Congrès a interdit, — M. Laird a remarqué que « cela ne faisait pas partie du programme de vietnamisation » et que, de toute façon, les troupes disponibles pour les opérations au Sud étaient maintenant réduites à une division et à quelques unités.

## **Cambodge**

### Tandis que les maquisards maintiennent leur pression

### Les B-52 sont intervenus à 12 km de Phnom-Penh

Les partisans du prince Sihanouk et les forces de Phnom-Penh se sont battus, jeudi et vendredi, avec acharnement (allant parfois jusqu'au corps-à-corps) et ont subi de lourdes pertes, à une quinzaine de kilomètres à peine de la capitale khmère. Si des combats sporadiques se poursuivent au nord comme au sud de la ville, c'est toujours à l'ouest que la situation est la plus grave pour le régime Lon Nol. Le front est désormais à 12 kilomètres de Phnom-Penh, après la perte par les gouvernementaux, dans la nuit du mercredi 17 au jeudi 18 novembre, du village de Rum-Duol. Les affrontements continuent aussi près de Tuol-Leap, tombé aux mains des maquisards dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi.

L'armée khmère a lancé jeudi une contre-offensive appelée « Tuol-Leap ». Huit mille soldats, commandés par le général Sosthène Fernandez, essaient de dégager leur capitale. Neuf bataillons, sous la direction des lieutenants-colonels Srey Meas et Lon Non, sont partis de Phnom-Penh pour tenter, avec l'aide de onze bataillons venus de la province de Kompong-Speu, de prendre les maquisards en tenaille. D'autre part, des bombardiers géants américains B-52 ont pilonné des positions communistes situées à peine à 12 kilomètres de la banlieue ouest de Phnom-Penh et à 3 kilomètres de Tuol-Leap. Les forces khmères tentent en même temps une seconde contre-offensive contre les forces adverses, qui avaient arrêté, plus au nord, vingt mille fantassins engagés dans l'opération « Tchenla-2 ».

De leur côté, les maquisards ont bombardé à la roquette la ville de Prey-Veng, située à 35 kilomètres de Phnom-Penh, ainsi que le bac stratégique de Néak-Luong, sur le Mékong. Des accrochages ont aussi eu lieu dans les provinces méridionales de Kompong-Speu et de Takeo.

D'autre part, le prince Sihanouk, président du FUNK, a adressé ses félicitations aux dirigeants révolutionnaires khmers et à la population de son pays pour les « victoires retentissantes remportées au début de l'offensive de la saison sèche » sur la route nationale 6 et autour de Phnom-Penh.

● AU WETNAM DU NORD, une délégation du FUNK et du gouvernement

royal d'union nationale (GRUNK) vient d'effectuer une visite à Hanoï. La délégation, qui était dirigée par M. Ieng Sary, « représentant de l'intérieur », comprenait notamment le ministre des affaires étrangères du GRUNK, M. Sarin Chhak. Dans un communiqué commun, Cambodgiens et Nord - Vietnamiens ont déclaré « avoir eu des vues identiques sur tous les problèmes abordés ». Ils ont aussi attaqué le dernier discours du président Nixon, qui « a mis davantage à nu les visées américaines consistant à prolonger et à développer la guerre d'agression contre les pays d'Indochine ».

L'aviation américaine a effectué plusieurs bombardements contre des objectifs situés dans la zone démilitarisée, tandis que des chasseurs-bombardiers F-4 basés en Thaïlande attaquaient des batteries de D.C.A. au Vietnam du Nord.

● AU VIETNAM DU SUD, où les maquisards du F.N.L. ont lancé plusieurs opérations contre des positions gouvernementales, les pertes américaines se sont montées à cinq morts et à vingt et un blessés au cours de la semaine écoulée.

● EN SUISSE, le Conseil fédéral helvétique a décidé d'accréditer l'actuel ambassadeur de Suisse à Ceylan, M. François-Pierre Chatelain, en qualité d'ambassadeur auprès de la R.D.V. avec résidence à Colombo.

Un chargé d'affaires ad interim entrera en fonctions à Hanoï en janvier prochain.

● A PARIS, le chef de la délégation américaine à la conférence sur le Vietnam, M. Porter, a prononcé jeudi sa plus courte allocation, déclarant seulement à ses interlocuteurs vietnamiens : « Vous connaissez parfaitement notre position, nous attendons votre réponse et donc nous n'avons rien à ajouter. » Le délégué de Saigon a fait une déclaration à peine plus longue, inaugurant lui aussi une nouvelle tactique M. Xuan Thuy, chef de la délégation de la R.D.V., qui n'avait pas participé aux réunions pendant deux mois, a, pour sa part, accusé les Etats-Unis d'avoir déclenché une campagne massive de bombardements contre le Vietnam du Sud, le Laos et le Cambodge, et d'avoir bombardé des zones peuplées au Vietnam du Nord. Il a aussi critiqué les dernières déclarations du président Nixon.

A l'issue de la conférence, les porte-parole de la R.D.V. et du G.R.P. ont été interrogés sur la proposition faite par la Malaisie d'une neutralisation de l'Asie du Sud-Est sous la garantie de Washington, de Moscou et de Pékin. « De nombreux hommes politiques demandent que leur pays se détache de la dépendance des Etats-Unis et adopte une attitude neutre », a déclaré le porte-parole du G.R.P.

et des loisirs »

* Règlements de comptes en Sardaigne ;

* L'hiver en Auvergne ;

* La mode, la maison.

Fondateur : Hubert Beuve-Méry

5, rue des It

## BULLETIN DE L'ÉTRANGER

### Hassan II
l'armée et les partis

Le roi du Maroc a-t-il tiré la leçon de l'affaire de Skhirat ? On en doutait dans les semaines qui suivirent la tentative de putsch. Plus de quatre mois après, les diverses initiatives prises par le Palais peuvent paraître tardives, timides et tactiques. Du moins vont-elles dans le même sens, celui de l'assainissement et de l'ouverture.

Hassan II semble poursuivre un triple objectif : se concilier les militaires en faisant poursuivre les éléments corrompus de son régime ; retrouver son crédit dans l'opinion par diverses measures à caractère social ; enfin, chercher du côté de l'opposition légale une caution qui lui a fait brusquement défaut dans l'armée.

Il ne se passe guère de jour depuis un mois sans que l'on apprenne que telle ou telle personnalité est arrêtée, inculpée ou recherchée pour corruption ou trafic d'influence. Six anciens ministres, un certain nombre de hauts fonctionnaires et d'hommes d'affaires

## LA CRISE MONÉTAIRE INTER

### M. Pompidou rencontrer
quelques jours après la réunion

#### Deux parlementaires américains prop
une réévaluation du prix

M. Walter Scheel devait arriver vendredi au début de l'après-midi à Paris. Après s'être entretenu avec M. Maurice Schumann, le ministre allemand des affaires étrangères sera reçu en audience par M. Georges Pompidou. Il est probable qu'à cette occasion sera décidée la date de la prochaine entrevue entre le président de la République française et le chancelier Willy Brandt. Cet entretien franco-allemand « au sommet », qui portera sur les problèmes soulevés par la crise monétaire, aura lieu de toute façon dans les jours qui suivront la réunion des ministres de l'économie et des finances du groupe des Dix,

que M. John G. Rome.

Au congrès démocrate qu'on a réuni des parlementaires du parti démocrate, menant M. Karl Schiller, mesures destinées à améliorer la situation en République parlementaire démocrate, mentants, et Jacob viennent de proclamer le prix de l'or.

### M. Schiller annonce des mesures de relance
à l'économie allemande

pondant JEAN WETZ

nant le prix Nobel, M. Brandt a déclaré qu'aujourd'hui les mots d'« Allemagne » et de « paix » jouissaient de nouveau d'un « dénominateur commun ». A propos de sa politique à l'Est, M. Brandt a paru faire quelques ouvertures à l'opposition pour lui faciliter éventuellement une approbation des traités de Moscou et de Varsovie. Il s'agirait, lors du débat de ratification, de mettre au point une « déclaration commune » exprimant la volonté de paix de la République fédérale, son « attachment à la nation » et son désir d'unification européenne.

Quant à sa politique à l'égard de l'Europe, M. Brandt a plus particulièrement dans

SAIGON PREPARES
CAMBODIA DRIVE

10,000 Troops Reported Set
to Move Tomorrow on
Enemy Base Areas

By CRAIG R. WHITNEY

Special to The New York Times

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Nov. 20—South Vietnamese military sources reported today that a 10,000-man force was poised at the Cambodian border for a new attack on Communist base areas northeast of Pnompenh which has been under increased pressure from the enemy for nearly two weeks...

Vietnamese officers here said that some infantry and artillery battalions would be prepared to move to the outskirts of Pnompenh itself but that they expected the main thrust of the new operation beginning Monday to be directed at North Vietnamese base areas near Krek and Chup, 60 miles northeast of the Cambodian capital.

In Pnompenh today a spokesman for the Cambodian Army was reported to have ruled out the use of South Vietnamese troops there.

A move into the base sanctuaries of the rubber plantation area, abandoned by the South Vietnamese before the rainy season made a mire out of the region in May, would be designed to divert some of the North Vietnamese troops who inflicted serious casualties on a 16,000-man Cambodian operation on Highway 6 last week. The battle centered on the town of Rumlong, northwest of Chup and about 75 miles north of Pnompenh.

Senior American military

Continued on Page 8, Column 1

SAIGON READIES
CAMBODIA DRIVE

Continued From Page I, Col. 7

commanders here believe, in
the words of one official, that
"the Cambodians ran into trou-
ble there because they stretched
themselves too thin and over-
estimated their capabilities."

Responding to Communist attacks close to Pnompenh—last week there was heavy fighting at a small village eight miles west of the capital and the Pnompenh airport has been hit by rockets—the Cambodians have been trying to regroup and have pulled some units back closer to the city.

8 Go to Pnompenh

A delegation of Cambodian
officers flew to Saigon last
week to discuss future moves,
and today eight high-ranking
South Vietnamese officers were
reported to have flown from
their forward command post at
Tayninh to Pnompenh.

With much of the Mekong
River basin in Cambodia flood-
ed for most of the summer by
the monsoon rains, the Viet-

The New York Times/Nov. 21, 1971

South Vietnamese forces
are expected to thrust
across the border toward
Krek and Chup, shown on
the map by underlining.

namese withdraw from all but
Krek ad Neak Luong, two of
the passes they have main-
tained since the first border-
crossing operations in the
spring of 1970.

Normally, the South Vietnam-
ese forces operate inside Cam-
bodia only within ten miles of
the border, but they have pen-
etrated deeper on large-scale
operations. There are now
about 10,000 South Vietnamese

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troops in this zone, mostly around Krek and Neak Luong, which is southeast of the city on Pnompenh's Mekong River lifeline.

One senior American official here noted that the military situation in Cambodia was "delicate" but that it usually is "touch and go" when the dry season makes it easier for the Communists to move against the Cambodians.

The Americans view the South Vietnamese plans to move back into Cambodia as intended to do as much damage as possible to the 60,000 North Vietname troops in their jungle base areas there this fall before any Communist offensives begin farther north early next winter, when the weather will be favorable.

If the North Vietnamese forces are set back in Cambodia, these strategists argue, the threat to South Vietnam's southern provinces will be diminished and the South Vietnamese can devote more attention to problems in the north where the enemy supply lines are shorter and the Ho Chi Minh supply trails in Laos are close at hand.

## New Division Forming

The need for greater mobility in the Vietnamese Army is increasing as the Americans withdraw, senior United States commanders say. Today the United States command in Saigon announced that nearly 1,600 men of the last full American combat division left in Vietnam the 101st Airborne Division, were being withdrawn from their bases near Hue in Thuathien Province in the north. The Vietnamese are now forming a new division, the Third Division, to assume the defense of the northern regions as the Americans leave.

The Vietnamese troops preparing to move back into Cambodia from Taynink are from the 18th and 25th Divisions and two brigades, roughly 8,000 men, of the airborne divisions.

The American role in such an operation would normally consist of lifting Vietnamese troops in helicopters, providing air support with helicopters and fighter bombers and providing supplies.

A spokesman for the United States command said today that the exact location of these air strikes or the nature of helicopter missions would not be described "because that is our policy."

BIG SAIGON FORCE
ENTERS CAMBODIA

Thousands of Troops Led
Into Parrot's Beak Area
by 65 Armored Cars

By Reuters

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, Mon-
day, Nov. 22 — A big South
Vietnamese military column,
spearheaded by armored cars
and including several thousand
troops, has rolled over the bor-
der into southeast Cambodia,
military sources said today.

The sources said they saw a
column consisting of 65 ar-
mored vehicles and 200 trucks
yesterday at Chipou, about 12
miles inside the Parrot's Beak,
a spur of Cambodian territory
that juts into South Vietnam.

[In Saigon, military sources
reported that a South Viet-
namese Ranger force was
probing eastern Cambodia.
The Rangers were reported to
have entered Cambodia un-
der cover of air strikes.]

Vietnamese sources in Pnom-
penh confirmed that a new
South Vietnamese operation
was imminent in Cambodia and
said it was likely to cover parts
of Kampong Cham Province.

The big province, due east of
Pnompenh, borders South Viet-
nam and contains several
known Communist base areas
in abandoned rubber planta-
tions around the provincial
capital of Kampong Cham, 50
miles from Pnompenh.

Senior South Vietnamese of-

Continued on Page 4, Column 5

Large South Vietnamese Force Enters Cambodia

Continued From Page 1, Col. 3

ficers said yesterday that there had been considerable movement of battalions in recent days in and out of the South Vietnamese base at Krek in the border region.

## Cambodians Angered

The possibility of a new South Vietnamese incursion has raised a storm of anger in the Cambodian press and among civilians and officers, who regard the Vietnamese as Cambodia's traditional enemy.

The vernacular daily Nokor Thom said yesterday: "We would be happy to give our borders to United States troops for military bases. But we do not want to be South Vietnamese lackeys."

"If the United States won't agree, we had better die ourselves. Don't call for the South Vietnamese to kill us."

The South Vietnamese maintain two bases in Cambodia with a total of about 9,000 troops with the permission of the Cambodian Government.

But Foreign Minister Koun Wick said in a recent interview that he hoped to be able to manage without their presence by the middle of next year.

Anti-Vietnamese feeling has been mounting recently with regular press accusations of rape and looting by the South Vietnamese Army. The Minister said troops in the field did commit excess although rela-

tions at higher levels were good.

Last week, South Vietnamese Army was reported to be drawing up plans for a division-size operation aimed at relieving pressure around Pnompenh and cutting through enemy lines to an isolated Cambodian force on Route 6 north of the capital.

## Bombing Raid Reported

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 22 (AP).—The United States Command today announced one of the deepest bombing raids this year inside North Vietnam, against an antiaircraft-gun emplacement near Vinh.

The command said four Navy A-7 Corsairs based on a carrier in the Tonkin Gulf struck the site yesterday afternoon after North Vietnamese guns fired on an unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane. The command said the results of the strike were not known.

It was the 80th "protective-reaction" strike by American planes over North Vietnam this year and the fifth in the last eight days.

American fighter-bombers made the 79th such strike inside North Vietnam early yesterday. The command said two enemy antiaircraft guns were knocked out 80 miles north of the demilitarized zone, which straddles the border between

the two Vietnams, after the guns opened fire on American planes.

United States headquarters also reported three more B-52 raids in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam along the Laotian border. The big bombers struck at bunker and storage areas and antiaircraft gun sites about two miles from the Laos frontier.

Increased ground fighting was reported in South Vietnam. A United States armored personnel carrier set off a mine 30 miles east of Saigon, killing two Americans and wounding three.

When enemy troops opened up with machine guns and

rifles on a 101st Airborne Division patrol 14 miles west of Danang, one American was killed and four were wounded.

Saigon headquarters reported a iVetcong mortar shelling of Hoian, a coastal provincial capital 15 miles south of Danang. The shelling hit a United States compound, wounding five American servicemen, and also damaged South Vietnamese installations, wounding four militiamen and four civilians.

The South Vietnamese also reported enemy attacks on a town about 25 miles south of Danang and on a ranger camp near Pleiku in the Central Highlands.

United Press International

with troops along the canal

## ops on Alert

mate total withdrawal from the
occupied lands.

Despite the talk of inevitable
battle, the President will pur-
sue diplomatic efforts tomor-
row when an African delega-
tion arrives in Cairo on a sec-
ond tour of Egyptian and Israeli
capitals seeking a peace agree-

Israeli Cabinet

By PETER GROSE

Special to The New York Times

JERUSALEM, Nov. 21—The Israeli Cabinet today confirmed the planned retirement of Lieut. Gen. Haim Bar-Lev as Chief of Staff of the Israel defense forces, paving the way for a new political career.

Early next year the 47-year-
old general is scheduled to
leave the armed forces and
enter the Cabinet as a Minister
of the ruling Labor party.

General Bar-Lev has been
Chief of Staff, the highest rank-
ing officer in the armed forces
for the unusually long term of
four years. During that time he
has gained a position of popu-
larity and respect.

The next Chief of Staff is to
be Maj. Gen. David Elazar, 46,
known invariably by the nick-
name Dado. A long-time Bar-
Lev protégé, he is second in
command and chief of oper-
ations.

General Bar-Lev's promotion
from the army into the Govern-
ment, under speculation for
weeks, has stirred controversy
inside Israel about the desira-
bility of letting generals move
into politics.

General Bar-Lev's predecessor, Itzhak Rabin, became Ambassador to the United States shortly after leaving the army in 1967. He also has reportedly been in line for a Cabinet post for more than a year.

The main reservation of po-
litical analysts relates not to
the personalities of these two
particular men or even the
possible influence of the

Bloody Little Battle

Night Fight Near Phnom Penh
Leaves the Question: Why?

By Peter Osnos

Washington Post Foreign Service

PREY KHIEU, Cambodia, Nov. 21—For the better part of five hours early today, Cambodian soldiers withstood a determined enemy ground attack atop this bump in the rice paddies, just 15 miles from the center of Phnom Penh.

When it ended at sunrise, 13 Cambodians were dead, including three soldier's wives and one child. Another 23 people were wounded. Some of these were women and children, too.

The enemy left two bodies behind. One, found near the Cambodians' skimpy command post, was wearing only shorts and a skull cap. He carried a grenade bag and had made himself darker with charcoal. He looked Vietnamese.

It was a tough and bloody little battle that proved nothing. But it was close enough to the capital to be considered part of the enemy's dramatically stepped-up activity in the area, and for that reason it was significant.

American officials maintain that the attacks are merely harassment and not intended to culminate in a drive on Phnom Penh. That remains to be seen. For the moment, the city itself seems as quiet and lovely as always, except for the sound of constant artillery fire at night.

But in the villages on the outskirts to the southwest, there is considerable fear. The Communists are massed in the fields and bushes, attracting Cambodian artillery, South Vietnamese bombers and American helicopter gunships.

Along the roads, there are hundreds of refugee families, in carts drawn by cows, taking their possessions to a nearby village or pagoda, only to move again when that refuge is threatened.

The family of 48-year-old Nop Sim, his wife, children and grandchildren, fled from their home a month ago and came to a pagoda called Angtaloenk because Vietcong and Khmer Rouge were gathering in the vicinity.

See CAMBODIA, A8, Col. 1

MORTON

A mark of his mark of

A sed man

inter-Morton suit
bel inside the
thing to you.
pleasant things
you started to
comments of
admiring glance,
personal feeling
you go about
social life. For Fall,
ficient collection
contemporary

statement after Bruce's
expressing general support
the commissioner's objectives,
but the statement said the
"temporary personnel changes
. . . will be reviewed by Secre-
tary Morton and Commis-
sioner Bruce in the very near
future."

A spokesman for the secretary, Virginia Hart, said that "in no case are these personnel actions final because the paperwork has not been done on them yet. I'm not sure in all cases that the Secretary really had been informed of the commissioner's views on these."

Bruce said, however, "I
made my choices and the pap-
ers are being prepared and
submitted for departmental
approval and I have every con-
fidence that they will be ap-
proved at that level."

In addition to Stevens and
MacNabb, Bruce appointed
James Hena, a Teuque
Pueblo, as his executive assist-
ant; Flore Lekanof, an Aleut,
as acting assistant commis-

Leap Saves Girl
As 7 Perish in
Pontiac Fire

PONTIAC, Mich., Nov. 21
(AP)—A fire which authorities
said was deliberately set swept
through a house here early to-
day, killing seven persons.

The dead included a woman
and four of her five children.

Fire Marshal Charles Metz
said it appeared that an in-
flammable fluid of some kind
was poured on the wooden
porch and ignited, and that the
front door had been

9

45,000 Saigon troops
in Cambodia drive

Saigon, Nov 24.—About 45,000 South Vietnamese troops are involved in a big dry-season sweep of communist sanctuaries in neighbouring Cambodia, government military sources disclosed today. The announcement ended the official silence on the Saigon command's new drive along and across the Cambodian border.

Colonel Le Trung Hien, the command spokesman, said the operation involved two or more divisions, each numbering more than 10,000 men. According to the military sources, there was a real possibility that some South Vietnamese troops might be sent to help Cambodian soldiers to defend their capital of Phnom Penh, which is reported to be facing new communist attacks on the outskirts.

However, they added that sending Saigon troops to Phnom Penh involved serious political problems. Relations between the two armies have never been cordial and objections have been raised in both countries to such a move.

The official announcement said that South Vietnamese airborne,

ranger, infantry, and armoured cavalry units were taking part in the sixth phase of an operation codenamed Toan Thang, which has concentrated on border operations. It also said that 36 North Vietnamese were killed by South Vietnamese air strikes on Monday.

The military sources reported no significant clashes or South Vietnamese losses to date in the new drive. While one prong of South Vietnamese troops advanced along Highway Seven through the rubber plantation areas in eastern Cambodia, a second thrust was under way along Highway One, which leads to Phnom Penh.

Neak Leung, Cambodia, Nov 24.—Two South Vietnamese regiments, led by a large armoured column, have arrived in this Cambodian ferry town, 37 miles east of Phnom Penh, for operations whose purpose has not been divulged. A number of Americans in military uniform were with the South Vietnamese.

More than 40 armoured troop carriers lined up along roads and fields round the town today, together with a smaller number of heavy lorries and engineering equipment.—Reuter.