U.S. Support in Cambodia Growing, Pentagon Admits

More than 5000 South Vietnamese troops moved through mountain passes over the weekend to join a Cambodian squadron and fight their way up Cambodia's strategic highway, Route 4.

The South Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers, who had been trekking toward each other for two weeks, managed to clear the road of the rebel troops who had controlled it.

But their victory was overshadowed by the crippling rebel attack on Pnom Penh airport last Friday, in which most of the Cambodian Air Force's planes were destroyed as they sat on the runways.

When the attack was over, the United States rushed to protect the airport by shipping in extra war supplies-including guns, ammunition, barbed wire, and sandbags.

American military assistance flights were landing at Phnom Penh airport again yesterday, although most commercial aircraft were still kept away from the city.

During the Route 4 attack, American helicopter gave direct combat support to the South Vietnamese and Cambodians. The helicopters-each of them carrying cannons and grenade launchers-flew from American carriers in the Gulf of Siam and a land base on the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

Before the attack, American officials claimed their planes were only carrying out "interdiction" raids in Cambodia-high level bombing of enemy supply lines. But after several eyewitnesses reported on the helicopter attacks, the Pentagon admitted that Americans were involved more deeply than they had previously revealed.

"This is being carried on as part of the over-all effort to interdict and stop the flow of enemy forces which would have an opportunity to attack United States personnel stationed in Vietnam," Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird said last week to justify the expanded combat role.

Both Houses of Congress reacted to his announcement with attempts to block further involvement. In the House, 64 Democrats introduced a bill to ban American air or sea combat support for "any military operations in Cambodia."

In the Senate, Frank Church (D-Id.) and John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.) asked for hearings to determine whether the Pentagon had violated the restrictions Congress voted last year on Cambodian operations.