Cambodian Campaign during mid-1970

Cambodian Campaign during mid-1970. Hillsborough County Veterans Memorial Park. , The Cambodian Campaign (also known, as the Cambodian Incursion) was a series of miliary operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during mid-1970 by the United States (U.S.) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. These invasions were a result of the policy of President Richard Nixon. A total of 13 major operations were conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) between 29 April and 22 July and by U.S. forces between 1-May and 30 June. , , The objective of the campaign was to defeat the approximately 40,000 troops of the Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the National Front for the Liberation Army of South Vietnam PLAF, (also known as Viet Cong) who were ensconced in the eastem border regions of Cambodia. Cambodia's official neutrality and military weakness made its territory effectively a safe zone where Vietnamese Communist forces could establish bases for operations over the border. With the US shifting toward a policy of Vietnamization and withdrawal, the Nixon administration sought to shore up South Vietnams security by eliminating the cross-border threat. , , A change in the Cambodian government allowed a window of opportunity for the destruction of the base areas in 1970 when Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed and replaced by pro-American General La Nol. Allied military operations failed to eliminate many communist troops or to capture their elusive headquarters, known as the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN), but the haul of captured material in Cambodia prompted claims of success and victory which remain controversial to this day. , , The new commander of the U.S, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), General Creighton W. Abrams, recommended to President Richard M. Nixon shortly after his inauguration that the Cambodian Base Areas be attacked by aerial bombardment utilizing B-52, Stratofortress bombers. The president initially refused, but the breaking point came with the launching of PAVN's "Mini-Tet" Offensive of 1969 within South Vietnam. Nixon, angered at what he perceived as a violation of the ingreement" with Hanoi after the cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam, finally authorized the covert air campaign. The first mission of Operation Menu was dispatched on 18 March and by the time it was completed 14 months later more than 3,000 sorties had been flown and 108,000 tons of ordinance had been dropped on eastern Cambodia. , , The logistical haul discovered, removed, destroyed in eastern Cambodia during the operations was indeed prodigious: 20,000 individual and 2,500 crew-served weapons; 7,000 to 8,000 tons of rice; 1,800 tons of ammunition (including 143,000 mortar shells, rockets, and recoilless rifle rounds); 29 tons of communication equipment, 431 vehicles and 55 tons of medical supplies. MACV intelligence estimated that PAVN/NLF forces in the southern Vietnam required 1,222 tons of all supplies, each month to keep up a normal pace of operations. {Due to the loss of its Cambodian supply system and continued aerial interdiction in Laos MACV estimated that for every 2.5 tons of material sent south down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, only one ton reached its destination. However, the true lowest rate was probably only around ten percent. . This historical marker was erected by Hillsborough County. It is in Tampa in Hillsborough County Florida