BANGKOK: The war in Cambodia is over. After weeks of heavy fighting in their final assault on the Cambodian capital, the National Liberation Armed Forces ... today [April 17] captured the centre of Phnom Penh and proclaimed victory. In Peking Cambodian Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk announced that the “traitors” in Phnom Penh had officially surrendered at 09.30 local time. … A spokesman for the Cambodian embassy in China told Reuter Phnom Penh had been “completely liberated”. … Prince Sihanouk also said that, according to the wish of the resistance leaders, he would remain Head of the Cambodian State.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Washington,] a secret report to the [US] Senate Foreign Relations Committee has described the situation in South Vietnam as beyond repair, and predicts the National Liberation Forces will have Saigon under siege early in May, informed sources disclosed here. … The report, presented by two committee officials who spent 12 days in South Vietnam, accused United States ambassador in Saigon Graham Martin of delaying the evacuation of Americans and pro-US Vietnamese. The officials … urged Congress … to speed up the evacuation.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2025