The Hundred Years War

THAT they should have been caught by surprise by the American invasion of Caniboclia is a measure of the lack of understanding of American objectives in Vietnam among critics of the United States. They have apparently allowed themselves to be persuaded by the rhetoric of successive US Presidents that the US will voluntarily give up pursuit of the goal of a total victory in Vietnam. If, however, it is accepted that the US goal in Vietnam has been, and remains, the complete capitulation of the enemy, the massive American attack on Cambodia seems both rational and something which should have been expected. The invasion of Cambodia was necessary for two reasons: first, to drive out Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops from their entrenched positions in Cambodia and, second, to prop up the Lon Nol regime. The very nature of these objectives impart a permanency to the American intervention, and the consequent extension of the Vietnam war to Cambodia, irrespective of whether or not American troops are withdrawn from, Cambodia by the end of June. Even if the present operations are totally successful