Sihanouk Makes War Threat

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 14

Sihanouk Makes War Threat

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PHNOM PENH (Cambodia), Aug. 9. Prince Norodom Sihanouk has threatened to go to war with the United States and said he would not hesitate to ask assistance from China and North Vietnam, United Press International reported.

Prince Sihanouk broke relations with the United States in 1963 when he accused American and South Vietnamese forces of attacking Cambodian border villages.

The Cambodian Chief of State made similar charges in recent weeks, and in a news conference yesterday said he would hold 11 captured Americans until the United States paid indemnity for Cambodian civilians he claimed were killed in June during allied shelling of a Cambodian village. Prince Sihanouk said all American and South Vietnamese troops were posing a “heavy menace” to Svay Rieng province, an area of Cambodia which juts into

South Vietnam to a point 30 miles west of Saigon. Heavy Viet Cong activity has been reported in the area, reviving pressures among some allied commanders for the right to cross into Cambodia in “hot pursuit” of enemy troops. “That would be war with the United States,” Prince Sihanouk said of any allied move into Svay Rieng province. “I would not hesitate to call upon Chinese and Viet Cong Communists.’’

The Associated Press reported that in Washington, State Department officials said on Thursday there had been no official request from Cambodia for 14 bulldozers and for an admission of responsibility from the United States for a June 29 helicopter attack in which 14 Cambodians died. Prince Sihanouk was reported to have expressed the demands as the price for re. leasing the United States landing craft and its crew of 11 seized by Cambodian gunboats after straying into Cambodian waters.

United States officials have been aware of some of Prince Sihanouk’s informal proposals that the United States pay compensation in the form of one bulldozer for every Cambodian life lost as a result of the Vietnam war spilling over its borders. But no formal request or demand for payment had been sent to the United States through the Australian Embassy in Cambodia, they said.