Operation Chenla I

Part of Cambodian Civil War, Vietnam War

Map showing the areas under Communist control.

Date	August 1970 – February 1971
Location	Cambodia
Result	Stalemate

Belligerents

Khmer Republic

Viet Cong

North Vietnam

Commanders and leaders

Um Savuth

Trần Văn Trà

Strength

3,000+

Unknown

Operation Chenla I or Chenla One was a major military operation conducted by the Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) during the Cambodian Civil War. It began on late August 1970 and ended in February 1971, due to the FANK High Command's decision to withdraw some units from Tang Kauk to protect Phnom Penh after Pochentong airbase was attacked.

Following the overthrow of the Cambodian head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in a coup d'état in March 1970 and its replacement by a pro-US Republican government, the re-christened Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) focused on expelling all North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) forces from their border sanctuaries in eastern Cambodia after the new President of the Khmer Republic, Marshal Lon Nol, issued an ultimatum. However, from May 1970, the ill-prepared FANK was quickly placed at a strategic disadvantage following the seizure of the northeastern areas of the country (the provinces of Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Kratie, and Mondulkiri) by the NVA in response to the ultimatum and the loss to the Khmer Rouge insurgents of several peripheral eastern and southwestern Cambodian provinces (Kampot, Koh Kong, Kampong Cham, Preah Vihear, plus portions of Siem Reap, Oddar Meanchey, Kampong Thom, Prey Veng, and Svay Rieng Provinces) during that same year.

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