BATTLEFIELD STRATAGEM

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32396, 8 September 1970, Page 13

BATTLEFIELD STRATAGEM

Viet Cong Use Naked Women (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) PHNOM PENH, Sept. 7. The Viet Cong are using naked women on the battlefield in an attempt to lure Cambodian Government soldiers to their deaths, a Phnom Penh newspaper reported yesterday. The daily newspaper “Courier Phnompenhois” said the Communist women were first sighted two weeks ago during the battle for Prek Tameak clqse to the capital. Groups of shapely Vietnamese women showed off their charms to Cambodian soldiers from relatively safe positions during the fighting. “These perfidious Viet Cong women carried nothing but a rifle, not to hide parts of their exposed anatomy, but to spit out death,” the paper said. Describing the new strategem as “military-psychoero-tic,” it said that there had so far been no reports of Government troops leaping from their trenches. Buddhist Talisman

But more worrying for the Cambodian soldier is the belief that naked women deprive his Buddhist talisman of its power to protect him from flying bullets. During battles it is common to see Cambodian troops clenching between their teeth small ivory images of the Buddha. But they believe that if a soldier sees a naked woman, or is touched by a woman’s clothing in battle, the image loses its potency and leaves him exposed to mortal danger.

Certain monks are invested with the ability to make effective Buddhist charms, but such adepts are in short supply.

The Cambodian Prime ■ Minister (General Lon Nol) i made a personal radio appeal ■ recently for monks to come forward to proffer their serI vices for the sake of the nation.