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| The Truth About 'Christmas in Cambodia' From Someone Who Would Know |
| 2004-08-13 |
| Andrew Antippas served as a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Embassy in Saigon (March 1968 to February 1970) as the "Cambodia Man" and at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1970 to 1972). He spent 32 years with the State Department (1960-92). ---------------------------------------------- I was startled to read the Aug. 10 issue of the editorial page of The Washington Times concerning the assertion attributed to Sen. John Kerry that he had spent Christmas 1968 aboard his swift boat some five miles inside Cambodia and had been shot at by our Vietnamese allies, as well as the Khmer Rouge. I would like to offer some insights and some background about the subject of Cambodia as it related to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam in that period. I served as a Foreign Service officer in the American embassy in Saigon from March 1968 to February 1970 and subsequently at the American embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 1970 to 1972. My job in the political section of our embassy in Saigon was to be the "Cambodia Man." My principal tasks were to follow border incidents involving U.S. forces along the Cambodian border. I worked as a liaison with U.S. forces, wrote reports to Washington, followed the intelligence about Communist use of Cambodia and, given that we did not have an embassy in Phnon Penh at that time, maintained contact with the Australian embassies in Saigon and Phnom Penh because the Australians were the U.S. protecting power in Cambodia. I also worked with the International Control Commission (ICC) in Saigon and Phnom Penh. More at the link |
| Posted by:Capt America |
| #5 Maybe only Kerry's swiftboat was chosen for the operation secretly because the spooks thought that a guy packing his own Super 8 and shooting without orders in formation was a good security risk. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-13 9:01:40 PM |
| #4 As U.S. forces in 1966 and 1967 progressively pushed the Vietnamese Communists farther and farther away from Vietnamese population centers, U.S. commanders sought permission for "hot pursuit" operations against Communist forces attacking from Cambodian territory. This always was denied, much to the military's frustration. The Cambodians patrolled the crossing border points on the Bassac and Mekong Rivers and had fortifications above the frontier. In mid-1968, just before Adm. Zumwalt took over, a U.S. Army LCM landing craft sailing north on the Mekong River — loaded with lubricants, gas, rations, beer and a forklift, as well as a number of U.S. soldiers — missed the turn from the Mekong River to the Bassac River (the two main north-south rivers that flow through the Mekong Delta) in order to reach its destination on the southern portion of the Bassac. Apparently the troops were somewhat bemused from the heat and the beer consumed and sailed right up into Cambodia, where they were halted by a Cambodian patrol craft and taken to the frontier base and then up to Phnom Penh. Gen. Creighton Abrams, newly in command, was furious, and Adm. Zumwalt's predecessor was nonplussed, blurting out that it wasn't one of his boats. Gen. Abrams snarled, "Yeah, it was one of mine and why did they do it?" We got the crew and LCM back eventually, but that was the only river incident involving the Cambodian border or Navy actions inside Cambodia to my recollection. |
| Posted by: Wuzzalib 2004-08-13 8:45:12 PM |
| #3 Hard to know when you're in a fetal position on the deck, no? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-08-13 8:13:24 PM |
| #2 Perhaps he was shot at by the Khmer Mauve. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-13 8:08:23 PM |
| #1 What's significant is that this guy pointed out that the Khmer Rouge didn't start shooting at anyone until 1972. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-08-13 7:55:52 PM |