Though Chenla II was FANK’s breaking point, the republic’s death was far off. A major event, the next tsunami—caused by the NVA drain-off—was yet to occur.
STAGING
In December 1971, the NVA 5th and 7th divisions, and part of the 91st, were pulled from “international duty.” This is why, when the 25,000-troop ARVN emergency relief force entered Cambodia at the beginning of December, they found very few NVA soldiers to engage. This sort of pullback was not new. In April, May and June 1970, the NVA had pulled back from the Khmer heartland, first to protect the fall-back from the border sanctuaries of other NVA units fleeing the US-ARVN incursion and then to rebuild those sanctuaries in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal. Again in February 1971, in reaction to the Laotian Incursion (Operation La
