According to the March 28 New York Times, "the consensus of Cambodian and foreign military experts is that without heavy daily bombing, rocketing and strafing of insurgent forces by United States aircraft, the Cambodian Army would collapse."
This implication that the Cambodian civil war is basically a case of aggression by North Vietnam was flatly contradicted by New York Times correspondent Henry Kamm in a March 23 dispatch from Phnom Penh. Kamm wrote that "reliable American sources report that hardly any North Vietnamese or Vietcong forces are still fighting against the Cambodian Army."
Kamm continues: "Military experts who have visited areas near Phnom Penh after American tactical air strikes report that nothing was left standing above ground in a section one- kilometer square."
But support for the rebel side is growing so quickly that even the saturation bombing by U.S. B-52s has not succeeded in crushing its advance. After the Lon Nol regime's recent crackdown against the nationwide Cambodian teachers' strike "many of the students and intellectuals have either gone underground or slipped away to join the rebels," reported the March 26 Washington Post. The strike involves 45,000 teachers and students in areas controlled by the Vientiane government.
April 12, 1948
SOUTH ST. PAUL, April 7 - Two leaders of striking CIO
packinghouse workers in south St. Paul have been arrested and
two others cited for contempt of court. Milton Siegel, union
field representative, was the first to be taken into custody.
He was arrested for refusing to let police and office workers
through picket lines at the Swift plant after a temporary
restraining order had been issued. He was released on $1,000
bail.
Meanwhile, union representatives are appearing in Dakota
County district court to show cause why an injunction should
not be granted to Swift and Armour to prevent mass picketing
at plant gates. Obtained under the Stassen-inspired Minnesota
Slave Labor Act, the injunction proceedings represent a test
of this law. The union is basing the legal part of its case
against the injunction on the fact that the Big Four packers
(Armour, Swift, Cudahy and Wilson) did not bargain in good
faith and therefore are not entitled to the benefits of the
Minnesota law.
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