The Slumbering Prince

Former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson is one of the most highly esteemed Americans in Pnompenh. The reason dates back to last year, when Acheson successfully represented Cambodia before the International Court of Justice in The Hague in a territorial dispute with Thailand. Last week the U.S. tried to capitalize on this friendship in an effort to end its acerbic--and somewhat mysterious--little quarrel with Cambodia's vain, unpredictable leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

The U.S. was rudely rebuffed. Sending Acheson out to Cambodia on a peacemaking mission would be fine, declared the Prince, but only on three conditions: 1) that Washington apologize for the U.S. diplomat who described as "barbarous" Radio Cambodia's tasteless comments on John F. Kennedy's assassination, 2) a formal withdrawal by U.S. diplomats of a question asking whether the "Cambodian government had rejoiced over Kennedy's death," 3) and the closing down of a radio station that Sihanouk claimed was run by CIA in Laos or Thailand for the purpose of sending subversive broadcasts into Cambodia.

Washington termed Sihanouk's conditions "totally unacceptable." In fact, Sihanouk is probably only taunting the U.S. out of fear of the Red Chinese and wants to avoid an overt diplomatic break. Sihanouk is still anxious for a Geneva Conference to guarantee Cambodian neutrality, but such a conference is meaningless without U.S. participation. As Sihanouk himself said last week after closing Cambodia's embassy in London, "It appears necessary, without a diplomatic break, to put our relations in slumber."

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