Southeast Asia: Hitting the Sihanouk Trail

An eerie lull settled over Southeast Asia last week, broken only by the rumble of Polish-built trucks on Red in filtration routes and the steady thump of American bombs aimed at interdicting them. The lull was reflected in South Viet Nam by battle statistics: the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allies suffered only 456 dead in the previous week—the lowest toll since January 1965—and even when U.S. air cavalrymen surrounded three Red regiments near Bong Son last week, the bulk of the Communist force slipped furtively away. The enemy battalion that was finally trapped put up a good fight—but reluctantly (see following story). The Reds were saving their strength for the monsoon, waiting for the rain-rich thunderheads that hamper American air strikes. And they were doing a lot of their waiting in the sanctuary of neighboring, “neutral” Cambodia.

Of late, Prince Norodom Sihanouk has frankly admitted that Communist troops have been using Cambodia for “rest and recreation” between battles.

In April the Prince handed over seven tons of dried fish to a Viet Cong representative in a ceremony at Pnompenh’s royal palace. Last week American officials in Saigon disclosed that U.S. troops near the town of Lo Go on the Cambodian border had received heavy weapons fire from Cambodian territory, and were ultimately forced to silence it with howitzer fire. Even more interesting evidence of Sihanouk’s cooperation with the Communists was the discovery of a new infiltration route into South Viet Nam—a chain of truck roads, bicycle trails and rivers that provides transport for supplies moving north and east out of Cambodia to some of the most important fighting areas of South Viet Nam. It has come to be known as the “Sihanouk Trail.”

The new route—a supplement to the maze of paths and roads leading south called the Ho Chi Minh Trail—was discovered by the Laotian air force, whose commander, Brigadier General Thao Ma, had been keeping a close eye on Cambodia since last September. About that time, Ma received reports of activity along the Se Kong River, a tributary of the Mekong. Near its banks could be heard the sound of blasting and rumble of heavy equipment in a region virtually empty of inhabitants. By early April, Ma’s aviators could follow the trail for 60 miles from Cambodia to where it entered South Viet Nam. Last week TIME Correspondent Don Neff flew over the Sihanouk Trail in one of six Laotian T-28 fighter-bombers led by General Ma. His report:

“We left the Laotian airstrip at Pakse at 10:25 a.m., flying at 2,500 ft. Some 23 minutes later, my pilot announced: ‘We are now at the Cambodian border.’ Two minutes later we had located the trail. It snaked out of Cambodia, clear as a road map. The area was flat and only spottily foliaged. I could see the Se Kong River in the background. A note I made at the time says: ‘No question about it. From the river going east [toward South Viet Nam] is a large road. The trail winds and turns, the trees growing thicker in a narrow valley.’ Sometimes we lost sight of the road. But it seems safe to conclude that it is one continuous trail capable of carrying trucks from Cambodia through Laos into Viet Nam. We flew eastward, diving to less than 1,000 ft. for as close a look as we could get. We decided to unload our ordnance—two napalm canisters, 24 rockets and 700 rounds of .50-cal. machine-gun ammunition per plane—in a heavily forested area about four kilometers north of the Cambodian border. One after another, our planes dived in, hoping to hit hidden trucks under the foliage.”

As many as 40 trucks a day use the gravel-topped Sihanouk Trail. The trail bristles with 12.7-mm. antiaircraft emplacements, and other sources say that there are at least 30 Viet Cong supply depots strung along its length. A dozen North Vietnamese regiments are currently poised for action in South Viet Nam, and of these, at least four are inside Cambodia. Half of the remaining eight are within easy marching distance of the Cambodian sanctuary and the supply lines of the Sihanouk Trail. Its strategic value to the Communists is as an alternate route to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This main southbound network has been improved by 200 miles of new roads surfaced with crushed stone and often concealed by bamboo trellises covered with branches. Down it flow an estimated 5,500 to 7,000 men each month. In an effort to stem the tide, Guam-based B-52 Stratoforts last week carpet-bombed infiltration outlets in South Viet Nam’s “Zone C” for the eighth time in eleven days. But only Ma and his antique, prop-driven T-28s have been hitting the Sihanouk Trail.

Since Cambodia’s Sihanouk now offers the Reds active support, he is risking a widening of the war. If the Communist monsoon offensive is to be checked before the rains come, both trails must be severed—or at least heavily interdicted—before they join up in a ribbon of men and supplies that cannot be cut. Though there is no indication that the U.S. will cease to respect Sihanouk’s phony neutrality, his policy inevitably carries with it the chance that more and more of the bullets of war will spill over into Cambodia itself.