On 1 May 1970: following the joint military operation Total Victory (Toàn Thắng 42), South Vietnamese Task Forces 333, 318 and 225 battalions led b y General Do Cao Tri took over Svay Rieng City, which had been attacked by North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops. According to journalist James Sterba, General Tri talked with several Vietnamese shopkeepers who lived there and told them that if any of them wished to return to Vietnam (“their native country”), they were free to do so (“A Saigon General rides onto Cambodian town.” The New York Times, 2 May 1970, p. 3). The Vietnamese had formed more than half of Svay Rieng City’s 15.000 residents and owned shops, restaurants, and little businesses. In April 1970, many had fled the town and sought shelter in South Vietnam (“In border town, Cambodian-Vietnamese hatred.” The New York Times, 8 May 1970, p. 15). Those who had not escaped then were taken by South Vietnamese troops out of Cambodia in a four-day evacuation in the first week of May. The US military publication The Hurricane confirms that 1.130 families (5.642 persons) had arrived at that period in the Phuoc Dien transit camp with South Vietnamese convoys returning from Svay Rieng (Special Cambodia, no. 35, September 1970, p. 31).

Military operation to free Svay Rieng City from Vietnamese Communists attack and subsequent evacuation of Vietnamese residents from the town to South Vietnam

Svay Rieng City, Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia

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