When reminded that similar programs in Laos and South Vietnam led to such widespread corruption and abuse that they had to be drastically curtailed or abolished. American officials admit that this will be a "problem." However, they say frankly that they have no choice.
Moreover, the question of American investment is so ticklish that it is simply not politically feasible to launch a full-scale American aid program.
American officials here point out that the proposals submitted by USAID/Laos director Charles Mann last summer were scotched. The plans called for setting up a large USAID mission in Cambodia. The estimated cost was in the neighborhood of $200 million. The program, calling for large numbers of American technicians and advisers, was precisely what the Nixon Administration seeks to avoid.
Despite the limited goals of the air program, however, the signs of American presence are everywhere.
The staff of the American Embassy has grown from two before the March 18 coup to over 60. About half are military personnel.
Two bars, the Miami and Amigo, have recently opened. Signboards in front proclaim that "American-style" food and music are offered inside. Within, the blaring juke-boxes, over-priced drinks, and aggressive bargirls familiar to habitues of American haunts in Saigon and Bangkok are very much in evidence. "Before the coup the girls solicited you in French," says one long-time Phnom Penh resident; "now they start off in English."
The Hotel Manoram, the best hotel in the center of the city, once was inhabited by camera-bearing tourists on their way to or from Angkor Wat. Now they have been replaced by the crew-cut, square-jawed and white-shirted American advisers found in CIA hangouts throughout Southeast Asia.
Continental Air Service, a subsidiary to Continental Airlines in the States, has established a beachhead. Continental drops arms, ammunition, and rice and transports troops on contract to the CIA in Laos. It expects such business in Cambodia as well. Although it has only a few planes right now in Cambodia, its director says that they have their full stock in Laos to draw from, and that things will pick up once the aid request is passed.
THE $70 million envisioned over the next six months is clearly a stopgap effort, however. American officials frankly state that it is meant only to shore up the regime so that it does not go bankrupt.
If the Lon Nol government manages to survive the coming dry season, however, the goals of American economic aid will become clearer. If it continues at its present relatively low level, it will be clear that the U.S. is hedging its bets on Lon Nol and simply tying its efforts here to the war in Vietnam.
If, as is more likely, however, the economic aid program is increased and broadened, one can foresee an attempt to install a permanent American presence in Cambodia similar to those in Thailand, Laos and South Vietnam.
The requests made by Nixon for aid to Cambodia during the first part of 1971 will be a good indication. In any event, however, it is the U.S. who will determine the viability of the Lon Nol regime or a non-Sihanouk successor.
Copyright Dispatch News Service International