50 Years Ago

BY GAYLE GARMISE

June 1: Thailand announces it will send volunteer troops to help defend Phnom Penh. Eight newsmen disappear in Cambodia, bringing the number of missing media people inside the country to 24. The Cambodian government institutes martial law. In the Fishhook area inside Cambodia, two American and eight enemy soldiers are killed in battle.

June 2: The State Department says it will provide arms and other supplies to Cambodians living in Thailand who return to their country for military duty.

June 3: While attending the U.S. Military Academy graduation at West Point, Vice president Spiro Agnew praises the cadets for their leadership abilities and criticizes “criminal misfits” and “charlatans of peace.” In the Senate, a bipartisan coalition defeats an amendment that would have put legislative restrictions on future U. S. military operations in Cambodia. President Richard Nixon speaks on television about Cambodia, calling it “the most successful operation of this long and difficult war.” Three Americans are killed in two border clashes. In Saigon, a Buddhist nun burns herself to death in protest of the war. Eleven governors and congressmen leave for Southeast Asia on a fact-finding mission for the White House.

June 4: Eleven University of Minnesota professors tell Agnew his public comments are “driving moderates into the arms of extremists.” In South Vietnam, 71 enemy shells kill three Americans and 16 South Vietnamese. Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky arrives in Phnom Penh for a conference with Cambodia’s leaders.

June 5: The USSR warns communists in Southeast Asia not to follow the dictates of China or they will face “defeat and destruction.” Thailand announces it has put troops on the Cambodian border on full alert because communist soldiers have been spotted north of Tonle Sap.

June 6: In Kompong Trach, a Cambodian field commander makes an urgent appeal for arms to Nixon’s fact-finding team. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issues a staff report challenging Nixon’s rationale for the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and suggests the gains claimed are outweighed by the possibility of a widened Indochinese war. Near Angkor, communist cadres take the airport at Siemreap, while others strike at Phnom Penh. Prince Norodom Sihanouk claims China is loaning him money and providing arms for his government-in-exile. Ky says South Vietnam has no territorial ambitions in Cambodia and that his country will send troops wherever and whenever they are requested.

June 7: At a Senate hearing of the Subcommittee on U.S. Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad, State Department and Defense Department testimony discloses a 1967 secret agreement between the U.S. and Thailand that has the U.S. paying $50 million a year for a Thai combat division in South Vietnam. Joseph Hannah, director for the Agency for International Development, admits the CIA has been using his agency as a cover for operations in Laos. A 25th Infantry Division soldier is killed in an enemy assault.

June 8: The House of Representatives votes to send a fact-finding mission to study “all aspects of the United States military involvement in Southeast Asia.” Sources report that more than half of the U.S. troops sent into Cambodia already have been withdrawn. Two members of Nixon’s Indochinese mission meet with Lon Nol, after which the task force flies home. At Fort Bragg, seven Green Berets are killed after dynamite explodes prematurely during a demolition class.

June 9: Laos announces the fall of Saravane, a major town in the southeast, to communist Pathet Lao forces. The U.S. Army drops all charges against Capt. Thomas Willingham in the alleged massacre of civilians in 1968 in Song My, citing a lack of evidence. Members of the Nixon task force to Southeast Asia report that the Cambodian invasion is the “most important single military achievement of this whole unfortunate war.”

June 11: The U.S. military reports that the VC have overrun the South Vietnamese village of Baren, 13 miles southeast of Danang, killing 74 civilians. The USSR says it is increasing aid to North Vietnam. Reports say communist troops have taken control of the area of Angkor. In a Playboy article, former Army intelligence officer Jesse Frank Frosch writes that the American unit accused of the Song My massacre received conflicting intelligence reports. Sonn Voeunsai, the new Cambodian ambassador to the U.S., thanks Nixon for having saved his country from the communists.

June 12: Diplomatic sources in Cambodia say the government has no alternative but to let half the country fall under communist control and concentrate on saving Phnom Penh and the rice belt to the northwest.

June 13: Nixon names a nine-member panel to study the causes and consequences of campus violence. A Defense Department official says Laird will tighten the reins on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. High Cambodian government officials call the reported plans to give up half the country to the communists “ludicrous” and “obvious communist propaganda.”

June 14: Between 2,000 and 3,000 U.S. troops are withdrawing back into South Vietnam; 10,000 remain in Cambodia.

June 15: Sen. Jacob Javits (D-N.Y.) proposes a war powers bill to limit presidential powers, allowing for the commitments of U.S. combat troops no longer than 30 days without congressional consent.

June 16: Curtis Tarr, the director of the Selective Service System, issues new standards to draft boards for men who apply for conscientious-objector status. Agnew calls for the resignation of 22-year-old Joseph Rhodes, Jr., from the new presidential panel looking into campus violence because of remarks he made to The New York Times. Three American reporters, taken by communist forces in Cambodia on May 7, are released.

June 17: Communist troops cut Cambodia’s last working railway line. The country’s parliament asks the UN to send forces to protect the ruins at Angkor.

June 18: Highway 1, the last main road linking Saigon and Phnom Penh, is cut off by enemy forces. UNESCO makes an urgent appeal to all involved countries to protect Angkor’s temples. Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, the U.S. surgeon general, denies, in front of a Senate Commerce subcommittee, that 2,4-D, the most widely used herbicide in the U.S., is a public health hazard.

June 19: Thai premier Thanom Kittikachorn makes a surprise visit to Saigon and meets with Gen. Creighton Abrams and Gen. Cao Van Vien. The U.S. command says 300 Americans have been killed in Cambodia since April 29.

June 20: Hanoi radio claims the U.S. has been bombing North Vietnamese villages during the past week. The U.S. denies the report. Three Americans are killed in scattered fighting around South Vietnam.

June 21: Military sources reveal U.S. planes and gunships have been bombing deep into Cambodia for nearly two months. In Danang, Pvt. Michael Schwarz is convicted of the February 19 murders of 12 Vietnamese civilians. He is sentenced to life at hard labor. A 12-man fact-finding team from the U.S. House of Representatives and John Chafee, the U.S. secretary of the Navy, arrive in Saigon for separate visits.

June 22: American military sources disclose they suspended chemical-defoliant spraying during the last two months. Cambodian Army officers complain that South Vietnamese troops are robbing civilians. Australia announces it will double economic aid to Cambodia but will not provide troops or arms.

June 23: Laird says the South Vietnamese military will be free to move anywhere inside Cambodia after all U.S. troops are withdrawn on June 30. The U.S. Army dismisses charges brought against three officers implicated in an alleged cover-up of the 1968 Song My killings.

June 24: The Senate votes to repeal the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Jonathan Ladd, the American political-military counselor at the embassy in Cambodia, says the U.S. has stepped up arms shipments to Cambodia. A Cambodian spokesman says the U.S. has bombed Kompong Thom, 100 miles from South Vietnam, in conjunction with Cambodian and South Vietnamese planes. Nixon invites 40 media executives to a private briefing on June 26. PFC Thomas Boyd, Jr., is acquitted in Danang of murder charges in the February 19 incident in Son Thang. In Saigon, the National Assembly votes to give President Nguyen Van Thieu special economic powers for five months. At a news conference, several American professors say Nixon has “significant support” among college educators for his decision to send troops into Cambodia. Three hundred scientists from the National Academy of Sciences call on Nixon to withdraw all U.S. forces from Cambodia immediately and from Southeast Asia within the next year. The SSS announces a plan to revamp the draft lottery so the selection will be completely random.

June 25: The Cambodian government issues a general mobilization decree stating all citizens must engage in military duty or “service in the national interest.”

June 26: North Vietnam confirms that the list of 334 POWs compiled by the Committee on Liaison with Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam is complete and that the country does not hold anyone who is not on it. The Defense Department says the list of POWs omits at least 40 men. Laird reiterates the U.S. intention to continue the bombing in Cambodia after June 30.

June 27: The House Committee on Government Operations recommends that the South Vietnamese piaster be devalued to dampen inflation and curb corruption. Cambodian troops abandon four northeast provinces to communist forces. Military sources say U.S. planes will provide air support to Cambodian troops anywhere in the country except around Angkor. A Gallup poll says 56 percent of the American public thinks the “U.S. made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam.”

June 28: South Vietnam’s economic minister, Tham Kim Ngoc, says his country needs $200 million in emergency economic aid from the U.S. to help the severe inflationary crisis.

June 29: Lon Nol says if the military situation gets worse, he hopes Nixon will send U.S. troops back into Cambodia. Secretary of State William Rogers warns North Vietnam that it shouldn’t expect a safe haven in Cambodia, even though American forces have been withdrawn. Military spokesmen say 337 Americans were killed in the Cambodian operation. A Cambodian Army spokesman says Sihanouk will be tried in absentia on July 3.

June 30: The Senate votes to adopt the Cooper-Church Amendment, which limits presidential operations in Cambodia. In a report on the completed operation in Cambodia, Nixon says the action was “successful”; he rules out any future use of American troops there; he appeals to North Vietnam to begin serious peace negotiations; and he agrees to accept any solution arrived at by South Vietnam. The last U.S. advisors and support troops leave Cambodia.

July 1: Nixon names David K.E. Bruce, a former ambassador, to head the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks. In a Southeast Asian Treaty Organization meeting in the Philippines, Thailand foreign minister Thanat Khoman denounces “some Western politicians” for “hounding, harassing and persecuting” SEATO governments. Eight Americans are killed when two U.S. helicopters are shot down near the Cambodian border. The second annual draft lottery is held. The Defense Department announces a draft call of 10,000 men.

July 2: The National Selective Service Youth Advisory Committee recommends to SSS director Curtis Tarr that the draft age be lowered to 18, that student deferments be eliminated, and that an all-volunteer armed forces be the ultimate objective. Sources say that on July 1, Thai aircraft bombed Ban Phai, five miles inside the Cambodian border. Eight 101st Airborne Division members are killed after an enemy attack on their camp 25 miles from Hue. Fifteen enemy bodies are found. Gen. Earle Wheeler retires after 38 years with the Army and 6 years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is succeeded as chair by Adm. Thomas Moorer, chief of naval operations. A federal judge in Atlanta rules that Sgt. Esequiel Torres cannot be tried for atrocities until a judicial panel rules on the legality of the Vietnam War.

July 3: Thailand denies its Air Force has carried out bombings in Cambodia. Two U.S. soldiers are killed 80 miles northwest of Saigon after their artillery base is attacked. The Cambodian government opens the trial of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in his absence; he is charged with betraying Cambodia to its enemies.

July 4: Secretary of State Rogers meets with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon. Teip Hung, the former Cambodian minister of justice, testifies that Sihanouk ordered hundreds of executions of members of the Khmer Rouge and anti-Sihanouk forces. South Vietnamese Vice President Ky says U.S. economic aid to his country has failed to produce long-range development because it has been used for short-term problems.

July 5: In Saigon, the U.S. and South Vietnam appeal to Thailand, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia—four allies in South Vietnam for the annual Allied Nations Ministerial Conference—to provide urgently needed aid to Cambodia, but they do not respond immediately. Sihanouk is condemned to death by a Cambodian military tribunal for treason and corruption. Ky says his country will accept a coalition government if it is the result of free elections.

July 6: Tarr tells local draft boards that the primary criterion for conscientious-objector status is the sincerity of one’s beliefs. Don Luce, of the Division of Interchurch Aid of the World Council of Churches, says his visit to the South Vietnamese prison on Con Son Island, which he saw when he accompanied Reps. Augustus Hawkins (D-Calif.) and William Anderson (D-Tenn.) during the House fact-finding mission, uncovered inhumane conditions. Sources report communist troops have abandoned the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat.

July 7: Thomas Harkin, a staff member of the House fact-finding team to Southeast Asia, calls the group’s report a “whitewash” that suppresses serious findings, including the conditions at Con Son. Sources say the Angkor Wat ruins are undamaged. Thieu discloses that Nixon has promised $100 million to his government to build badly needed housing for South Vietnamese troops and their families.

July 8: Near Khe Sanh, U.S. troops kill 139 North Vietnamese and capture four in a seven-hour battle while suffering four killed. The Thai government announces the capture of Prasert Iawchai, the highest-ranking communist in the country.

July 9: The U.S. Army discloses that Maj. Gen George Casey, director of the U.S. pullout from Cambodia, along with six others, has been missing since July 7. The U.S. military command announces 61 Americans were killed last week, the lowest weekly toll in more than three years. Rogers says China could be the key to Southeast Asian peace. Aerial searchers report finding the wreckage of Casey’s helicopter.

July 10: In a letter to North Vietnam, 87 U.S. senators demand an end to “inhumane treatment” of American POWs. Thieu asks his country’s war veterans to stop their protests and give his government time to solve its problems. The government of South Vietnam promises to eliminate the tiger cages at the Con Son prison if an investigation confirms that prisoners are being mistreated. During a news conference, three Saigon University students, recently released from Con Son, accuse the Thieu government of “not telling the truth” about conditions there.

July 11: In Saigon, police break up a student peace demonstration. South Vietnam releases 62 North Vietnamese POWs and 24 fishermen. The U.S. says it has recovered all seven bodies from Casey’s helicopter. Sources say the Green Berets will be phased out of South Vietnam by the end of the year.

July 13: Officials report that since July 8, a U.S. attack and B-52 raid near Khe Sanh have killed at least 384 NVA troops. The federal government proposes new regulations for demonstrations that limit those in front of the White House and allow unlimited gatherings on the Ellipse and the Washington Monument grounds. A House watchdog committee urges an investigation into the conditions at Con Son. Nixon names senior diplomat Emory C. Swank as the new ambassador to Cambodia, the first since 1965.

July 14: The Senate Armed Services Committee adopts a revision to the defense authorization bill that prevents Nixon from using Defense Department monies to indirectly support Cambodia. Six 101st Airborne soldiers are killed in an NVA attack 34 miles southwest of Hue. Three enemy troops are killed. A February report by the Red Cross describes conditions at Con Son as “not so bad.”

July 15: Nixon’s commission on campus unrest hears testimony concluding that turmoil won’t end until the U.S. gets out of the war in Vietnam and that the leading cause of the protests is the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The White House urges Congress to discard the Cooper-Church Amendment, which restricts American military action into Cambodia, because it is an infringement on the president’s “lawful responsibilities” as commander-in-chief. At a military ceremony in Cao Lanh, Thieu threatens to “beat to death” those who call for “immediate peace in surrender to the communists.” A federal court hears testimony that Sgt. Torres cannot receive a fair military trial in the U.S. because Nixon already has said he is guilty. The House panel that investigated the Song My incident states the U.S. Army, by failing to cooperate with the committee, hampered the investigation.

July 16: Dr. Marjorie Nelson, a physician with the American Friends Service Committee who worked in Vietnam for 13 months, says political prisoners were tortured and abused at Quang Ngai Prison.

July 17: Nelson tells a House Government Operations subcommittee that she treated victims at a South Vietnamese “interrogation center” that had an American adviser. Thieu and Foreign Minister Tran Van Lam meet in Cambodia with Premier Lon Nol, Deputy Premier Sirik Matak, and Chief of State Cheng Heng. Nixon approves an additional $1 million in arms aid to Cambodia. The U.S. military command announces that Marines are involved in a sweep southwest of Danang with South Vietnamese troops to destroy an enemy buildup.

July 18: The abandoned Special Forces camp at Kham Duc, 13 miles from the Laotian border, is reoccupied as an allied base. A South Vietnamese villager tells of his harsh experiences in a Con Son tiger cage that left him unable to stand or walk.

July 20: At a news conference, Nixon agrees with Thieu in his opposition to a forced coalition government and agrees that an election open to all is the best course to a political settlement. Lt. William Calley asks that the charges against him be dropped or that he be able to have a civilian trial by jury.

July 21: The Thieu government announces Con Son Prison will halt the use of tiger cages until improvements have been made. Lon Nol arrives in Thailand for talks on aid to his country.

July 22: Over the last 48 hours, 13 American troops have been killed near the A Shau Valley at Firebase Ripcord. Pvt. George Hardin is taken into custody at Tan Son Nhut Airbase after he tries to hijack an Air Vietnam plane to Hong Kong.

July 23: A Justice Department analysis, based on an FBI investigation into the deaths at Kent State University, concludes that shooting into the crowd was unnecessary. Laos declares a state of emergency in six southern provinces. Lon Nol returns to Cambodia without a promise from Thailand that the country will send troops. American troops abandon Firebase Ripcord.

July 24: A Red Cross inspection report protests the treatment of POWs at Con Son Prison as a violation of the Geneva Convention. Nuclear physicist Edward Teller testifies that radical student protesters are jeopardizing scientific research related to the nation’s defense.

July 26: Sen. John Stennis (D-Miss.) says he would favor another drive into Cambodia by U.S. troops if it was again necessary to clean out enemy sanctuaries. South Vietnamese sources say their Army’s desertion rate is 50 percent higher than last year.

July 27: The General Accounting Office contends the armed forces accept 20,000 men into the ranks each year who should be rejected because of physical defects.

July 28: A presidential commission report on Defense Department reorganization is made public. One of the recommendations is to remove the JCS from involvement in military operations and to give its duties to a new civilian deputy secretary.

July 30: In a news conference, Nixon says it is unfair for Heard to put all the blame for campus dissent on his administration; some of the blame should go to administrators, faculties, and the shallowness of curricula. At a dinner for eleven Western correspondents, Thieu says 50,000 U.S. troops will be needed after 1973 to “guarantee the peace.”

July 31: In a television speech, Thieu rules out any coalition government with the communists except one that resulted from internationally supervised, free elections.