Cambodia Gives Up All American Aid

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30294, 21 November 1963, Page 15

Cambodia Gives Up All American Aid

PHNOM PENH, November 20.

Cambodia’s Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, yesterday severed all economic and military ties with the United States, the Associated Press reported.

The Prince, who alleged that United States aid was being used to undermine him, announced his decision in a speech before an emergency session of his political party at a Phnom Penh stadium. Earlier, the United States Department of State had announced that aid to Cambodia would continue pending formal notification that Cambodia wanted it ended.

Prince Sihanouk’s decision could “change the whole situation in South-east Asia,” the “Guardian” reported from Washington. The Prince had already indicated he might replace American aid with Chinese aid and that he would seek China’s assistance in the development of his country along Socialist lines, the newspaper’s correspondent said. Prince Sihanouk made his call before an audience of 20,000 people. He reaffirmed, in what seemed to be a final form, his earlier demand for the immediate termination of all United States economic, military and cultural aid to his country, the “Guardian” said. At the same time he repeated his allegation that the United States had been assisting the rebel “Free Cambodia" movement, which was plotting the overthrow of the Government. Prince Sihanouk also demanded the withdrawal of all non-<diplomatic American personnel from Cambodia. The “Guardian” said that for some years the form of neutralism which Prince Sihanouk had adopted for his country had tended to lean “somewhat heavily to the Left of centre.”

It had been felt in Washington for some time that Prince Sihanouk was becoming increasingly convinced that the efforts of the United States and the Western Powers to stem the tide of Chinese expansion were doomed. Swimming With Tide

The “Guardian” report said the action "presumably marks the beginning of the application of a policy designed to bring Cambodia into closer relations with Peking, on the theory that it is better voluntarily to swim with an ineluctable tide than to try vainly to resist it.” American aid to Cambodia has been running at about 30 million dollars a year, of which about two-thirds has been economic. The Associated Press reported that crowds at the stadium wildly cheered Prince Sihanouk's declaration. Confessions The Chief of State produced two Cambodian prisoners, who said they belonged to the rebel movement. Both said they had used American radio equipment at a Vietnamese strategic hamlet to broadcast anti-Sihanouk propaganda, and that American Army officers were in charge of the strategic hamlet. After the purported confessions of the two prisoners, Prince Sihanouk said he was tunning one of them over to the justice of the people. The crowd surged forward, threatening the prisoner with their fists, but were blocked by troops. Later he was taken off to gaol.

The other prisoner was freed. The State Department said yesterday: “As we have indicated before, the United States Government is in no way involved in the activities of the group and we deplore any activities which would undermine Cambodia’s independence and neutrality.” No Diplomatic Breach Washington officials confirmed that Prince Sihanouk had made it clear that no rupture in United StatesCambodian diplomatic relations was contemplated. But they said they did not know why the Cambodian leader was blaming the United States for the activi-

ties of the group, which has been reported to be making broadcasts from neighbouring South Vietnam and Thailand. “We have tried to make it crystal clear we. are in no way involved,” the State Department spokesman said. Diplomatic sources said last night that the United States was privately urging Prince Sihanouk to reconsider his position by restating the views expressed by President Kennedy at a press conference last week. The President said he hoped that Prince Sihanouk would not decide to surrender his country’s independence "at this dangerous point in world affairs.”

The most popular theory in Washington was that Prince Sihanouk was reacting to the military coup which overthrew the Diem Government in South Vietnam. The late President Diem, a Roman Catholic, and the Cambodian leader, a Buddhist, disliked each other and Prince Sihanouk could be using the United States as a target now that President Diem had been removed, sources said. Another theory was that Prince Sihanouk was angry because the United States seemed to be lukewarm towards his proposal that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia should be established as a neutral belt in South-east Asia.