World Notes Southeast Asia

For the past 2 1/2 months, in a rolling offensive, the Vietnamese army has been hammering away at the Kampuchean resistance. Last week Hanoi's forces laid siege to a key guerrilla redoubt in the Phnom Malai mountains. The Vietnamese fielded an estimated 36,000 infantrymen backed by artillery and armor against some 17,000 lightly armed Khmer Rouge fighters.

In response to the Khmer Rouge's deteriorating situation, five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines), which backs the Kampuchean resistance, demanded that the Soviet Union curtail its military aid to Viet Nam, estimated at $6 million a day. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the nominal head of the resistance coalition government, warned that China, which invaded Viet Nam in 1979, would teach the Vietnamese "a second lesson" if the guerrillas are pushed to the wall.