Between and , the U. The pace of bombing increased in , as U. B carpet-bombing began, in support of the slow pullout of U. In March , a coup was launched against Prince Sihanouk resulting in a new government with Lon Nol at the helm. The coup government made a drastic change in Cambodian policies, deciding to counter the North Vietnamese, in support of the South Vietnamese and U.
The Vietnamese Communists widened and intensified their actions in Cambodia as well, working with insurgent Cambodian communists. However, extensive bombing forced the Vietnamese communists further west and deeper into Cambodia, and ultimately radicalized Cambodian citizens against the government. An alliance of royalist, Cambodian and regional communist forces fought against the Lon Nol government, US and South Vietnamese forces, and, despite many internal rifts, expanded their areas of control quickly.
By , writes Kiernan, the Lon Nol government was secure only in the towns and their outskirts. In some places, this effort resulted in heavy fighting between ostensible allies.
The final phase of the U. After the U. Fatalities Our research indicted a rough low estimate of , people during this period. Fatalities from U. Johnson and ended in under President Gerald Ford. More than 10 percent of the U. Secretary of Defense gave him an estimate of 50, deaths in Cambodia due to the bombings from Demographer Patrick Heuveline [ix] has produced evidence suggesting a range of , to , violent deaths from to In an article reviewing different sources about civilian deaths during the civil war, Bruce Sharp [x] argues that the total number is likely to be around , violent deaths.
He argues that several factors support this range: 1 Interviews with survivors after the Khmer Rouge period who discussed when and how their family members were killed; 2 research by social scientists Steven Heder and May Ebihara, both of whom separately conducted extensive interviews with Cambodians; 3 adding information about the geography of conflict and variations in the intensity of the conflict; and 4 application of insights from documentation of the Vietnam War.
Sharp addresses some reasons why discrepancies may appear in various interview-based sources. Second, deaths calculated in relation to reporting by family members requires that a family member survive and bombs would have high clustering of mortality, potentially killing entire families.
Third, the areas heavily targeted by the U. This case is coded as ending by strategic shift, when the U. The author argues that key events leading up to the Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia present a historical puzzle. Instead, the author argues, these decisions can be explained only if we understand the political cultures of the rival states. This book is the only study of Southeast Asian affairs by a Western scholar who has used the rich archives of the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The key sources drawn on constitute confidential records of the former sponsor and ally of Vietnamese communism; they also provide fresh light on Chinese and Soviet foreign policy, as well as recent events in Cambodia. They are supplemented by extensive materials from French and American archives, as well as interviews with some of the main political decisionmakers.
His analysis is valuable in focusing attention on cultural and historical factors that are often ignored in contemporary international relations theory. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book should appeal not only to the Asian specialist, but also to the general reader interested in world affairs. We only had army rations to feed ourselves in battle.
Yet, he said, "faced with this situation the soldiers could not avoid saving lives" and they used their rations to make a thin rice soup for the starving. Vietnam does not want to entirely forget about the war in Cambodia, said Mr Nhan. It only wants to remember an official version: a victorious, lightning attack that toppled Pol Pot. Best forgotten, Mr Nhan said, are the 10 years of punishing hit-and-run fighting and the largely-forgotten veterans still scarred from their experiences.
They rest in peace. We have to struggle every day. Our lives continue. Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Image source, Nguyen Thanh Nhan. Vietnamese veterans like Nguyen Thanh Nhan Bottom, first from left are still haunted by the war. Mr Nhan has kept detailed accounts of the war, including this diary entry recounting a battle.
Image source, AP. Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge in a wave of killing. Image source, Getty Images. The Khmer Rouge forced millions of Cambodians out of the city and into the countryside. Image source, AFP. Up to two million people are believed to have died under the Khmer Rouge. A propaganda poster from the s depicts Cambodian-Vietnamese relations.
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