The third year of the Khmer Republic's war, 1972, opened with a deceptive lull. Like a battered boxer after a punishing round, the U.S.-equipped Cambodian army (Forces Armées Nationales Khmères, or FANK) was still reeling from the disastrous Chenla II operation that had failed to break the Communist hold over central Cambodia (see 'Chenla II: Prelude to Disaster,' in the June 1992 Vietnam). The North Vietnamese Army (NVA), responsible for decimating FANK's best troops, was focusing on logistical preparations for its upcoming Eastertide Offensive against neighboring South Vietnam. Nurtured, trained and abetted by the NVA and Communist China, the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer, or KR) was building up strength and planning its future strategy. Meanwhile America continued its policy of pulling out of Southeast Asia, begun in 1969, while wishfully pumping up South Vietnam and Cambodia to stand by themselves.

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On January 10, FANK's 22nd Brigade pulled out of Krek near the area known to the Americans as the Fishhook, on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, leaving Route 7, one of the last remaining open roads linking Cambodia and South Vietnam, to the enemy. Farther south that day, the first FANK offensive of the year was launched below Route 1, leading through the area known as the Parrot's Beak into Vietnam. The 11 battalions of Operation Prek Ta, a FANKArmy of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) joint venture, made a lot of noise but the offensive proved inconclusive.

The next FANK offensive was designed to wrest control of Cambodia's most important national symbol, Angkor Wat, from Communist hands. Operation Angkor Chey (Angkor Victory) was an effort to encircle the long-abandoned capital of the ancient Khmer empire in northwestern Cambodia and cut off supplies to its Communist occupiers. Dating back to the 1st century, the 72-square-mile Angkor complex was undergoing restoration by a French team when an NVA regiment and several KR battalions took over the more than 600 vine-embraced ruins in June 1970. Aside from stray shell hits in 1971, the ruins had been largely blessed by an informal truce between the invaders in the jungle-shrouded complex and FANK troops in nearby Siem Reap. Irreplaceable pieces of antique carvings periodically appeared on the Bangkok, Hong Kong and Western art markets, however, as the Communists chiseled off select items to finance their occupation. Abruptly, in January 1972, the French archeologist overseeing the restoration work was expelled, and his Cambodian workers were arrested; 20 were executed 'for providing information to the Central Intelligence Agency.'

Unleashed January 29, Angkor Chey got off to a sluggish start with skirmishes east and west of Siem Reap along Route 6. Opposing troops exchanged fire on the four-mile-long road, marked by a theater and a sports stadium left unfinished from rosier tourist days, connecting the town with the Angkor ruins. A Communist counterattack 10 days later punched back the FANK advance, only to be repelled two hours later by airstrikes. Cambodian units inched north to the dikes and moat marking the boundary of Angkor Wat, the famous temple honoring the god Vishnu and southernmost of the major ruins. Then, on February 21, the advance stalled.

The Communists furiously struck back at the other end of the country toward the end of the dry monsoon season. On March 20, mortar and recoilless rifle rounds, accompanied by 122mm rockets, slammed into the provincial capital of Prey Veng. They were followed by ground actions to the south along Route 15 and in the rice flats to the west. Sixteen miles away, at the key Route 1 ferry-crossing town of Neak Luong, 122mm rockets turned a fuel and ammunition depot into a ball of fire. By the time things quieted down, 18 Cambodians were reported dead, 60 wounded and 10 missing, to the enemy's 33 fatalities. The assault both insulated the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from Cambodian interference and undercut a possible FANK linkup with an ARVN operation probing for the NVA in the Parrot's Beak 30 miles to the east.

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