91. Telegram From the Embassy in Thailand to the Department of State and the Embassy in Denmark1
26421. Copenhagen for Asst Secy Holbrooke. Subj: Vietnamese Attack: SitRep at Noon 24 June. Ref: A. State 165874 (Notal),2 B. USUN 2468,3 C. Bangkok 26249.4
1. This SitRep updates Ref C with information current as of 1230 local time June 24. Details are still spotty.
2. Situation along border is reported uncertain, but relatively free of combat. Vietnamese forces apparently still remain in the area near the Thai villages of Ban Non Mak Mun and Ban Nong Chan although villages themselves are reportedly now held by Thai militia. We cannot confirm that Vietnamese have totally withdrawn from Thai soil. Reports from Aranyaprathet cite military activity still going on in the area of yesterday’s attack including artillery fire and Thai air support. Overall casualty levels from yesterday are still unknown, but more [Page 330] than a dozen Thai soldiers died while about 30 Vietnamese were KIA with a few captured according to Thai military sources.
3. Information about evacuated Thai villages and Khmer refugees is fragmentary. In particular, the fate of the Nong Chan food distribution center is unclear. What we have is that:
—Several thousand Khmer went to Khao I Dang holding center where relief agencies set up a soup kitchen. The Khao I Dang hospital is treating 44 wounded, most probably from the concentration opposite Mak Mun.
—About 5–10 thousand Khmer and Thai villagers have been seen gathered at the Ban Ra Lom Tim bridge on the access road to Ban Khok Sung from the main highway. UNICEF has fed and watered here.
—Khmer from the camp opposite Nong Samet have fled indirect fire, possibly mortars and stopped around the new anti-tank canal about 2–3 km from the frontier. About 16 thousand have reportedly joined them from the Mak Mun and, perhaps, Nong Chan concentrations. UNICEF has fed and watered here, too.
—Unconfirmed reports claim several tens of thousands of Khmer and Thai villagers have fled to an area north of the road junction (VIC TA3525) from the Aranya-Khao I Dang highway to Ban Noi Parai.
4. Information from elsewhere in the Aranyaprathet area is fragmentary. Unconfirmed reports have it that the Son Sann camp opposite Ban Sangae, 40 km north of Aranyaprathet, has moved into Thailand due to menace from a nearby large, armor-supported Vietnamese force. That force also may threaten the Democratic Kampuchea (Pol Pot) base at Phnom Chat, 25 km north of Aranyaprathet. We have no rpt no confirmation of major Vietnamese activity against the DK areas just south of Aranyaprathet, but a Thai-Vietnamese firefight on the border directly south of the town was reported yesterday.
5. Radio Phnom Penh carried a short broadcast just before noon 24 June accusing the Thai of “provoking border engagements” in the contested area by arming bands of recently repatriated Khmer and sending them to open fire on Cambodian Government border guards.
6. Our information from Aranyaprathet is that no rpt no relief workers or Westerners have been injured. All are accounted for and evacuation plans updated. Agencies are exercising prudence in movement of staff in the area.
7. Since border area cut off, our information on confused situation remains fragmentary, but it appears that yesterday’s engagement has been broken off, although scattered shelling continues and regimental-size PAVN forces remain a few kilometers to the east of the main refugee sites, just north of Aranyaprathet.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D800305–0270. Limited Official Use; Niact; Immediate. Sent for information to Beijing, Canberra, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Paris for Johnstone, Rome for FODAG, Singapore, Tokyo, Vientiane, Wellington, USUN, the Mission in Geneva, Hong Kong, and CINCPAC and also for POLAD.↩
- Telegram 165874 to Bangkok, June 24, transmitted a proposed U.S. statement condemning the Vietnamese attack. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D800304–0727)↩
- Not found.↩
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