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On March 18, 1969, American B-52s began carpet-bombing eastern
Cambodia. "Operation Breakfast" was the first course in a four-year
bombing campaign that drew Cambodia headlong into the Vietnam
War. The Nixon Administration kept the bombings secret from Congress
for several months, insisting they were directed against legitimate
Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge targets. However, the raids exacted
an enormous cost from the Cambodian people: the US dropped 540,000
tons of bombs , killing anywhere from 150,000 to 500,000 civilians.
Shortly
after the bombing began, Sihanouk restored diplomatic relations
with the US, expressing concern over the spread of communism
in Southeast Asia. But his change of heart came too late. In
March 1970, while Sihanouk was traveling abroad, he was deposed
by a pro-American general, Lon Nol. The Nixon Administration,
which viewed Sihanouk as an untrustworthy partner in the fight
against communism , increased military support to the new regime.
In
April 1970, without Lon Nol's knowledge, American and South
Vietnamese forces crossed into Cambodia. There was already widespread
domestic opposition to the war in Vietnam; news of the "secret
invasion" of Cambodia sparked massive protests across the US,
culminating in the deaths of six students shot by National Guardsmen
at Kent State University and Jackson State University. Nixon
withdrew American troops from Cambodia shortly afterwards. But
the US bombing continued until August 1973.
Meanwhile, with assistance from North Vietnam and China, the
guerrillas of the Khmer Rouge had grown into a formidable force.
By 1974, they were beating the government on the battlefield
and preparing for a final assault on Phnom Penh. And they had
gained an unlikely new ally: Norodom Sihanouk, living in exile,
who now hailed them as patriots fighting against an American
puppet government.
Kent State University, 1970, Vietnam War
protest |
Sihanouk's
support boosted the Khmer Rouge's popularity among rural Cambodians.
But some observers have argued that the devastating American
bombing also helped fuel the Khmer Rouge's growth. Former New
York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg said the Khmer Rouge
"... would point... at the bombs falling from B-52s as something
they had to oppose if they were going to have freedom. And it
became a recruiting tool until they grew to a fierce, indefatigable
guerrilla army." Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has
dismissed the idea that the US bears any responsibility for
the rise of the Khmer Rouge. As he argued in his memoir, "It
was Hanoi-animated by an insatiable drive to dominate Indochina-
that organized the Khmer Rouge long before any American bombs
fell on Cambodian soil."
NEXT
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1975-1979: TERROR AND GENOCIDE
photo: Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger - 1975
credit: Photo Courtesy U.S. NARA
photo:
President Nixon at Press Conference on Vietnam & Cambodia
- 1970
credit: Photo Courtesy U.S. NARA
photo:
US marine in Da Nang, South Vietnam, 1965
credit: Photo Courtesy U.S. NARA
photo:
Kent State University, 1970, Vietnam War protest
credit: Photo Courtesy Kent State University
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