321. Editorial Note
No minutes have been found for the Washington Special Actions Group meetings of June 8 and 9, 1970. Briefing memoranda for these meetings from John Holdridge to Henry Kissinger, June 8, indicate the issues to be discussed: provision of captured Communist arms to Cambodia, improvement of intelligence collection and analysis concerning Cambodia, the response to the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong attack on Seam Reap (including the psychological impact of the possible fall of Seam Reap and the nearby ruins of Angor Wat), the situation in the Green Triangle, the reconditioning of Cambodia T–28 aircraft, and the provision of communications equipment to Cambodia. The Lon Nol government urgently requested South Vietnamese air support and Thai troops to defend Seam Reap, and General Creighton Abrams advised that the South Vietnamese should set up a helicopter base at Seam Reap. The subsequent recapture of the air strip at Seam Reap eased the situation, but it remained precarious. There was also discussion of Cambodia making a formal appeal to the 1954 Geneva Co-Chairmen, the International Control Commission, the United Nations Secretary-General, and the Pope, but the feeling—at least as reflected in the briefing memoranda—was that these moves were premature. Kissinger charged the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency with making recommendations to improve intelligence collection in Cambodia. Lon Nol asked that all North Vietnamese/Viet Cong arms caches captured [Page 1043] in the sanctuaries be turned over to Cambodia. The issues of reconditioning Cambodian aircraft and providing communications equipment to Cambodia were not resolved at these meetings. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Boxes H–074 and H–075, WSAG Meetings, Cambodia, 6/8/70 and 6/9/70)