SHULTZ GIVES CAMBODIA NO PROMISES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580038-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: July 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580038-6
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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
10 July 1985
Shultz gives Cambodia
no promises
By Robert C. Toth
w An@en nbN
KHAO I DANG, Thailand - Secre-
tary of State George P. Shultz, tour-
ing the embattled Cambodian-Thai
border here yesterday, refused to
respond to pleas from displaced Cam-
bodians for direct U.S. military aid to
oust Vietnamese occupation forces
from their country.
"USA - No. 1" and "We want to
go home," Cambodians chanted as
Shultz toured a refugeeevacuation
site at the Thai-Cambodian border.
At the camp, called Site 7, about
50,000 Cambodians greeted him with
a sea of placards and posters, many of
them in English and many asking for
U.S. weapons
One banner read "We have man-
power. We need arms and education.
U.S. aid, please help us turn Vietnam-
ese killing fields into Cambodian
farming fields. We want to go home.
God bless America."
Many of these refugees slip back
across the border, through rice pad-
dies and over hazy low hills just a
few miles away, to fight the Vietnam-
ese.
"Your visit is a momentous occa-
sion in the history of the resistance,"
Site 7's administrative head. Thou
Thon, said in welcoming Shultz.
"You give us hope to carry on our
battle against the cruel Vietnamese
invaders. Your visit, we hope, marks
America's commitment to the plight
of our people."
Vietnam invaded Cambodia late in
1978 and soon replaced the commu-
nist Khmer Rouge regime there with
a pro-Vietnamese communist admin-
istration. A coalition of three resist-
ance groups, including the Khmer
Rouge, has fought the Vietnamese
and their pro-Hanoi regime in Cam-
bodia since then.
Shultz's visit may have raised ex-
pectations higher than planned, and
he refused to fulfill them by endors-
ing direct military aid for the rebels,
including moves in Congress to pro-
vide SS million for that purpose.
The United States already provides
S28 million in non-military aid for
the refugees, $8 million to Thai vil.
lages that have been affected by the
fighting, and almost S1oo million a
year in military aid to Thailand,
whose own security is threatened by
the Vietnamese strikes against the
rebel camps on the border.
"But the least of our response is
tangible financial assistance," Shultz
told the Cambodians. "There is also
the human response and the spiri-
tual response to your problem which
is very deeply and widely held in our
country."
At a news conference later i
Bangkok, he similarly refused to en-
dorse direct mi itary aid. He also
refused to comment on reports putt
lie a as ngton ear-
ter is week that the ent me -
ljgence Aaen~_212Y _g about
million a year to the non-Communist
Cambodian rebels through Thai
qliannels.
Shultz seemed nonetheless moved
by the plight and spirit of the Cambo-
dians and the Thais along the course
of his four-hour helicopter and car
trip yesterday.
"You take into your gut what you
knew in the head about the condi.
tions here, the outlook, the difficul.
ties and the human tragedies in-
volved," he said, coming away with
"a greater depth of realization and
understanding."
All these people are part of the
human flood of 230,000 who fled
Cambodia between January and
March in the face of Vietnamese at-
tacks on refugee camps that were
then inside the Cambodian border,
and of the more than 500,000 refu-
gees who have fled Cambodia in the
last 10 years.
In another development yesterday,
foreign ministers from Southeast
Asia's six non-communist nations
ended their annual meeting in Ma-
laysia by accusing Vietnam of forc.
ing civilians in Cambodia to work in
war zones.
The foreign ministers of the Asso-
ciation of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) vowed to seek a peaceful
solution to Vietnam's six-year occu-
pation of Cambodia.
But the ministers - from Malaysia,
Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thai.
land and the Philippines - charged
that Vietnam and the government it
installed in Cambodia have forced
thousands of civilians to work in
areas where three groups of rebels
are battling Vietnam's occupation
army.
The Associated Prom aLo contrib-
uted to this article.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580038-6