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COMtylJMST TROOPS INVADE
40 MILES
imp CAMBODIA
HANOI, Indo-China, Friday.
Communist troops have invaded the Kingdom of Cambodia in
Indo-China. They
surrounded the town of Voeun Sai, 40 miles inside the
border.
The assault on Cambodia, so far largely untouched by the war
in Indo-China, was made while fanatical Communists were making
suicide attempts to take the French fortress of Dien Bien Pim, SOO
miles to the north. <
Voeun Saw is on the San River,
about 185 miles north of
Saigon.
Invasion to-day was the first
time Communist regulars had
operated against Cambodia.
Previously only isolated Viet
Minh Communist rebel guerrilla
units had operated.
A Paris despatch to-night said
that reports from the Cambodian
capital, FROm Penh, to-day
said that French Cambodian
forces were being rushed to Laos
on the Cambodian frontier to
stem the invasion. A
London dispatch said later
that French staff officers in
Paris safety only About 2,600 Viet
mine were involved in the attack
on Cambodia.
The officers said the Vietminh
advance had been under French
observation for same Ungfc and
French' counter-action wwrunder
way. '
No particular anxiety was felt
about this new development;
these officers said.
French Counter Attacks In
Buen Bien Phil Fray
The French High Command
reported that the French launched
several violent counterat-
tacks in the Dien Bien Phu
battle during the night
Bombers and fighters flying to
and from Dien Bien Phu to aid
the small defending garrison
roared over Hanoi in a constant
night long procession.
Last night a High Command
spokesman said that the defenders
had recovered positions on
the Eastern perimeter of Dien
Bien Phu stronghold after these
had changed hands several times
during bitter lighting on Thursday.
The High Command this morning
announced that the rebels
had again cut the main road
linking Hanoi with its supply
port of Haiphong.
The rebels were reported to
have mined the Hanoi-Haiphong
railway blowing up two patrol
trains to-day.
One train was mined 30 miles
east of Hanoi and the other 2
miles west of Haiphong.
The rebels have consistently
tried to cut Hanoi's road and
railway links with Haiphong
through which American military
aid and supplies pass. Earlier,
they had tried to sabotage
the Hanoi and Haiphong areas
ports and wrecked several
planes
Fanatical Communist Indo
Chinese rebels penetrated the
inner defence of Dien Bien Phu
by grabbing barbed-wire entanglements
bareheaded and throw,
ing themselves over the strands J
the French High Command imported
today
The rebels, screaming with pain
and stepping over dead comrades
were reported fighting
fiercely to teach the path that
leads to the heart of the strategic
French stronghold in I
North-western Indo China. I
. Earlier this week nearly 40,000
Communist rebels launched
a feverish do-or-die attack on
French fortress, garrisoned by
about 12,000.
Colonel Christian de Castries,!
Commander of Dien Bien. Phu, who
had already made an urgent call
for reinforcements, was reported
to have feared that Communist
General Vo Nguyen Giap
next would send suicide squads
forward with bombs strapped to
their backs to blast open the de
[ fences.
The French High Command
[said that the defenders of Dien
Bien Phu were holding their
positions and inflicting! enormous
losses on the attacking web
'ela who outnumber them four
to one.
The French High Command
said last night that cargo planes
were dropping supplies to teh.
Bien Phu, but, anti-aircraft or
[kept them high in the air and!
gusty winds blew much of the
supplies off course into the
hands of the rebels.
An army spokesman said that
French troops yesterday afternoon
had recaptured all the positions
east of the main fortress
after those positions had changed
hands several times.
French officials, in the second
day of the biggest pitched "battle
of the war, estimated that the
Communists had suffered about
6,000 casualties, including 2,000
dead, boosting their losses in the
past 20 days to more than 2,000.
French losses were bound to
be high" a spokesman admitted.
Airmen bacOn from all day
bombing and strafing missions
said the six by four mile basin
was an inferno of smoke and
flame.
U.S. Facing Involvement Risk
A message from New York
to-night quoted The New York
Times as saying to-day that the
Senate was now facing up to
what some very responsible members
regard as the likelihood
though not the inevitability-of
eventual major American mt
vehement in the war in Indo-
china.
The report added that involvement
by the United States in
any got alone posture was generally
eXCluded as a possibility
The report said that the
French and local associates were
holding the Indo-Chinese gate-
way to South-East Asia against
Communist-led rebels and said
that the essential reality of the
political situation as Seen by
powerful Senators was that the
administration meant business
in the gravest sense, in Secretary
of State's proclamation
that "united action" must be
taken if necessary, to hold
South-East Asia from the Communist
imperialists
Senators hold the view that
this declaration had, as its immediate
objective, the stiffening
of the French against appeasing
the Communists at the forthcoming
Geneva conference on
Korea and Indo-China at which
the Big Four plus Indo-China,
were to sit.
The fundamental meaning of
the Dulles proclamation was
seen as far greater-as a firm
high policy decision by the administration
by which the U.S.
Government would resolutely attempt
to raise up A free nation
front against the marching Communists
and continue, as need
be, to aid such a coalition, the
Times repor^sald^^^^
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