01005752 Case File No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC E313 3.5. Justification for the Transfer of the Population of Phnom Penh - American Bombings 153. The CPK leadership cited the possibility of American bombing attacks on Phnom Penh as a justification for the transfer of the population out of the city.444 154. From March 1969, with the apparent acquiescence of NORODOM Sihanouk,445 the U.S. military secretly bombed locations in the eastern provinces of Cambodia, although there were planes straying across the border from Vietnam even prior to this.446 They initially targeted the HO Chi Minh Trail, a route from North Vietnam through Cambodia into South Vietnam, by which Vietnamese communists supported the conflict in Vietnam with troops and supplies.447 After NORODOM Sihanouk was deposed, the United States also sent thousands of ground troops into Cambodia from April to June 1970.448 In December 1970, in response to domestic opposition to U.S. military intervention in Cambodia, the U.S. Congress appears to have prohibited the use of funds for “United States personnel in Cambodia who furnish military instruction to Cambodian forces or engage in any combat activity.”449 444 French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Telegram, Subject: Situation in Phnom Penh – 21h00, E3/2688, 17 April 1975, p. 1, ERN (En) 00491356; T. 13 December 2011 (NUON Chea), p. 30 (after the liberation of Phnom Penh it was not clear whether Americans would continue to be involved); T. 6 June 2013 (NUON Chea), p. 38 (“If our soldiers come to control the city, will the Americans bomb […].”); T. 2 August 2012 (SUONG Sikoeun), pp. 99-100; T. 25 October 2013, pp. 63-65. 445 Book by W. SHAWCROSS: Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, E3/88, 1979, pp. 70, 92-95, ERN (En) 00429757, 00429779-82; The NUON Chea Defence also relies on the book Sideshow by William SHAWCROSS. See NUON Chea’s Closing Submissions in Case 002/01, E295/6/3, 26 September 2013, n. 581. 446 Book by W. SHAWCROSS: Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, E3/88, pp. 19-24, ERN (En) 00429706-11; T. 23 July 2012 (David CHANDLER), pp. 40-43, 125; Book by P. SHORT: Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare, E3/9, 2004, p. 182, ERN (En) 00396382; cf. T. 31 July 2012 (ROCHOEM Ton alias PHY Phuon), p. 31 (bombing began in 1962 on Nhang Commune which is now part of Vietnam, and intensified in 1969). 447 T. 23 July 2012 (David CHANDLER), pp. 126-127; T. 11 April 2013 (François PONCHAUD), pp. 25-26, 28; T. 31 July 2012 (ROCHOEM Ton alias PHY Phuon), p. 32-33 (Americans were targeting Viet Cong troops in Kampuchean territory); T. 6 December 2011, (NUON Chea), p. 11 (Vietnam was suffering from carpet bombardment and Vietnam had encroached on Cambodian territory to allow Vietnamese to reside in villages there). 448 Book by P. SHORT: Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare, E3/9, 2004, pp. 204, 215, ERN (En) 00396404, 00396415; Book by W. SHAWCROSS: Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, E3/88, p. 396, ERN (En) 00430099; Book by W. DEAC, Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975, E3/3328, p. 77-78, 250 ERN (En) 00430657-58, 00430830; T. 9 April 2013 (François PONCHAUD), p. 12; T. 11 April 2013 (François PONCHAUD), pp. 33-34. 449 Book by W. DEAC, Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975, E3/3328, p. 79, ENR (En) 00430659; Book by W. SHAWCROSS: Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, E3/88, p. 399, ERN (En) 00430102. Case 002/01, Judgement, 7 August 2014 - Public 85