Issue Date: November 20, 1968 Vietnamese War: Shelling of Cambodia Charged
The Cambodian government charged November 17 that U.S. and South Vietnamese patrol boats had shelled the Cambodian village of Prekkoeus in Kampot Province November 16. It reported 12 civilians (9 women and 3 children) killed and 12 wounded. Pnom Penh said the allied boats had fired from the South Vietnamese side of the Gianthanh River above the village. In a previously reported border incident, Cambodia had charged that U.S. helicopter gunships November 6 had fired on the Cambodian village of Preytoul, killing one person and wounding 23 others. Cambodian Chief of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk had asserted November 11 that as a result of allied attacks on his country's border in the previous 5 days, he was forced to reconsider his position on the status of the 11 U.S. servicemen captured by Cambodian forces July 17. The men had been seized after their landing craft strayed into Cambodian waters on the Mekong River. Rejecting a conciliatory note in which State Secretary Dean Rusk had requested the release of the Americans, Sihanouk told newsmen: "I cannot examine any possibility of liberating the prisoners for the moment." "If I get something from President Johnson directly, I will re-examine the situation." Sihanouk had said November 7 that he would free the U.S. captives if President Johnson "sends me a cablegram, promising that the military will do their best to refrain from bombing our villages along the Cambodian border." He had said previously that he would not release the Americans until the U.S. accepted Cambodia's claims in its border disputes with South Vietnam, and Thailand. (According to Sihanouk, more than 200 Cambodians had been killed by U.S. planes bombing and strafing Viet Cong supply lines along the Cambodian border.) [See 1968 Vietnam Fighting: Cambodia Seizes U.S. Boat] © 2011 Facts On File News Services
Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation: "Vietnamese War: Shelling of Cambodia Charged." Facts On File World News Digest: n. pag. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services, 20 Nov. 1968. Web. 2 Aug. 2011.