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| erence i AAR EET ER TOE REN ENE eI OR ee Bg pred oy can te Roehm pte ce a ee yt “ye CONFIDENTIAL - ROT FOR POBLICATION OR QUOTATION WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AFSC oe American Friends Service Committee 160 North 15th Street, Phile., Pa.- Journey to the War: A Current View of Vietnam by Bronson P. Clark 1. The Spreading War The return to Southeast Asia for a second visit separated by one year“ " produced a striking impression of a war of increzsing intensity but, far more seriously, @ wer thet has now spread in substantial ways to the Southeast Asian ‘countries around Vietnam. We are familiar with the 0,000 American troops in Thailand and the existence of five major air bases from which Americen pilots currently bomb Laos and North Vietnam. We are also aware of the recent issue of hot pursuit into Cambodia. Unfortunately, most of the press and public attention appears to have been on the point of the reaction of Prince Sihanouk should hot _pursuit occur either in-the form of incursions into his territory by American troops or, more likely, bombing by the air force. There has been far less attention to the fact that such hot pursnit is e najor escalation of the war. as | Predicted by U Thant well over & year ago. As for Laos itself, conversations with international agency personnel, diplomats and newsmen would appear to confirm that the war there is growing in intensity although limited in part by the fact that the United States cannot overtly, under its 1962 neutrality agreement, place American military troops in Laos. However, I have met International Voluntary Service personnel who indicate that there are at least two military camps which are under the direction of American Green Berets who are not in uniform but dressed in blue denim and who are engag& in training the Laotian army in counter-~insurgency tactics. Furthermore, IVS personnel in Laos tell me that a very substantial number of individuals who are known as "requirements officers" and who are attach to the USAID mission are in fact military personnel actively engaged in advising and training the Lao army. In addition, the CIA was reported to be active and had installations adjacent to most of the major air ports in the areas under the ‘control of the Laotian government. There was considerable evidence that American military assistance to the Lao air force was causing increased bombing of the areas involving the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other Pathet Lao controlled areas. 7 Another disquieting development ‘is the Green Beret training of an elite military unit of "Free Khmers" in South Vietnam, I personally visited this ‘training camp and talked with many of the Khmers themselves, They are technically in the South Vietnamese army but are dressed in better than average uniforms and are paid 2,000 piastres per month over the normal pay of other South Vietnamese army urlits. They are in training et Long Hai, which is located just across the bay from Vung Tai at the mouth of the Saigon River. Many of these men were born in Cambodia, although some were born in South Vietnam. They &re anti-Sihanouk followere of Son Ngoc Thanh who is a political opponent of Sihanouk currently resident in Saigon, Thanh was formerly the prime minister of Cambodia at the time of the vJapanese occupation during the Second World War. =20-. a