Cambodia,+1975-79

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Cambodia-1975 to 1979: Operation: Menu By, Alex Kern and Abby Wilmer

Cambodia's global location near Vietnam, which at the time was a struggling country, fighting a war against the rise of communism. [] || President Richard Nixon's bombing plan of large communists bases in neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War. [] || A Khmer Rouge supporter threatens and orders civilians in Phnom Penh, Cambodia after the capital fell into the communist forces of Pol Pot, April 17, 1975. [|CX3434600205&docType=GALE&role=|http://go.gal] [|egroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountTypen=4&conte] [|ntSet=] || Victims of Pol Pot's harsh, new organization, the Khmer Rouge. [|http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/] [|projects/genocides/cambodia/CambodiaSkulls.jpg] ||
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Tasks I: Explain the nature and scope of the conflict.-- Due Friday, November 18 Cambodia was significantly affected by the neighboring war in Vietnam. Additionally, Cambodia struggled with a civil war and genocide. During the Vietnam War, the Cambodians remained neutral, yet provided territorial resources for both sides. The Cambodians allowed the communist Vietnamese to use the Ho Chi Minh Trail in order to ship and receive supplies, but they also supported the pro-Western, South Vietnam by allowing the United States, who was one of their allies, to secretly bomb Viet Cong hideouts that were located in Cambodia. It all began in the late 1960’s when the Prince Norodom Sihanouk was exiled and US-backed Lon Nol came to power in Cambodia. When he took over, the United States felt free to move into Cambodia in order to continue their involvement in the Vietnam War and goal to contain communism. This resulted in lots of bombings and lots of lost lives in Cambodia. In turn, the government collapsed.The real war began in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge was created by a strong communist supporter, Pol Pot. All along, the greatly favored, yet exiled prince suppored the Khmer Rouge, so followers of the prince additionally supported the new party. Ben Kiernan, a professor in history and the director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University wrote in his article, “In 1975, the Khmer Rouge leadership, secretly headed by Pol Pot, took power, pushed the Prince aside, and established the Democratic Kampuchea regime” (Kiernan 608). Pol Pot’s goal was to restart the Cambodian civilization in what was referred to as “Year Zero”. He was the leader of the Democratic Kampuchea, which was a communist organization that was controlled by the Khmer Rouge, which were it’s followers. Pol Pot had a vision of what kind of government the Democratic Kampuchea would be. According to Steve Heder, the author of the article "Cambodia” in the Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, “Pol Pot’s vision of communism called for the expulsion of the entire urban population into agricultural cooperatives; the deportation of Vietnamese to Vietnam; the abolition of markets, money, religion, and ethnic identities; the construction of railroads, steel mills, and hydroelectric dams amidst the rice fields; and the annihilation of anyone in the general population or within the Party who got in the way”(Heder 1). All communist Cambodians that followed the new government rose up and caused embroils within the streets with those who did not follow the vision of Pol Pot. The issue at hand was the fact that Pol Pot was killing successful Cambodians for his dream to spread communism and create an ideal society. In less than 4 years of this communist rule, between 1.5 and 3 million Cambodians died. In 1979, this genocide came to a close as Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge.

Works Cited: Heder, Steve. "Cambodia." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 141-146. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

Kiernan, Ben. "Khmer Rouge." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 608-613. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

Task II: Analyze the U.S.’s involvement in the conflict.- Due Tuesday, November 22nd In Max Boot’s informative book, The Savage Wars of Peace, about small wars from the late 1700s to present day and distinguishes four types of small wars: punitive, protective, pacification, and profiteering. During the Vietnam War, the conflicts occurring in Cambodia are argued to reflect a small war. This small war illustrates the purpose of protection. The goal of the Cambodian Campaign that Nixon helped conduct was to destroy communist base areas that Cambodia was helping protect in its neutral stance. Additionally, the entire Vietnam war was a strive to contain communism from spreading world wide. The United States stance in Cambodia was protection.The U.S. made the decision to fight this small war because of protection. The situation relates to the Cold War where President Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed our policy with The Domino Theory. Eric Foner and John Garraty, both historians who wrote Vietnam War in The Reader’s Companion to American History summarized the domino theory in context of the Vietnam War as “if the communists succeeded in controlling Vietnam, they would progressively dominate all of Southeast Asia” (Foner, Garraty 2). The possibilities of outcomes that could spur from staying neutral in the war were unappealing so the United States decided to take action. Communism is such a powerful and appealing idea that it could easily be accepted into numerous organizations. Therefore, the Domino Theory presented by Eisenhower years before was a precedent of the U.S. participating in the conflict in Cambodia.

During the time of the war, the Untied States was run by two different, yet important, Presidents. These of which included Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Both of the Presidents were involved in the war, but were in action at different times. After the troops were removed from Vietnam, President Nixon gave a speech regarding what the next step for the US would be. Once Nixon released the information about removing more soldiers from Vietnam, he proceeded to speak about Vietnam’s neighboring country of Cambodia. Cambodia was neutral during the war, but their neutrality was not respected by North Vietnam. In his speech, Nixon stated “For the past 5 years..North Vietnam has occupied military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam...For 5 years neither the United States nor South Vietnam has moved against these enemy sanctuaries, because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral nation” (Nixon-excerpt). Cambodia was invaded and therefore, they called to the United States for assistance. Nixon also stated in his address that the attack on Cambodia was not an invasion, but only an attempt to get the communist North Vietnamese out. The United States did not want to occupy Cambodia, they just wanted to destroy the enemy and then withdraw. Nixon also stated the many reasons for doing so; he said “A majority of the American people...are for the withdrawal of our forces from Vietnam...want to end this war rather than to have it drag on interminably..and want to keep the casualties of our brave men in Vietnam at an absolute minimum...I promised to end this war. I shall keep my promise. I promised to win a just peace. I shall keep that promise”(Nixon-excerpt). However, Nixon was not the only President involved in this war. In 1976, Jimmy Carter was running for president and in that time he had been arguing in the favor of restoring mortality into American foreign policy, but he found it difficult to translate the goals into reality once he became President. Lawrence LeBlanc, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa, explained “The reports coming out of Cambodia provided chilling details of the genocidal massacres that were underway, and they were widely discussed in Congress. In April 1978, President Carter denounced the government of Cambodia for its policies and called upon other members of the international community to protest the genocide” (LeBlanc 1112). Due to Carter’s involvement, it was not the US, but the Vietnamese that invaded Cambodia to overthrow Pol Pot. This small war was greatly supported by the Nixon Doctrine. Nixon stated the primary things that the Doctrine argued for the pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies, like the Cambodians. One of the main reasons was that in cases involving any other typed of aggression, such as a genocide, the United States would provide military and economic assistance when requested by our allies. The United States was basically required to help the Cambodians, according to the Nixon Doctrine. Once the United states withdrew and the communist government was in place, many leaders were taken down like Heng Samrin, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and pro-American Lon Hol. The most prominent decision maker though was Pol Pot. Pol Pot made his way to the top when Americans pulled its financial aid and troops out of war in 1975. He immediately set up a new regime, the Democratic Kampuchea. It was a government lead and enforced by the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) who followed Pol Pot’s communistic demands. This group cleared cities, band all other religions, made a new calendar starting at ‘year zero’, and markets, money, privately owned properties, and other items and places Pot could not control were eliminated. In addition to these acts enforced, Pol Pot once again set a new regime. Ben Kiernan, a professor in history and the director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University wrote in his article, “In mid 1975, the new CPK regime expelled from Cambodia more than 100,000 Vietnamese residents...250,000 people, perished in the Cambodian countryside...Pot then ordered the deportation of [more]” (Kiernan 612). Pol Pot is responsible for about two million deaths and a deep scar of leadership failure which all affected the war in a negative way.

Works Cited: Eric Foner and John A. Garraty (1991). VIETNAM WAR. VIETNAM WAR. Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved from [|http://elibrary.bigchalk.com]

Kiernan, Ben. "Khmer Rouge." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 608-613. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.

"Richard Nixon: speech on Cambodia (1970) (excerpt)." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO,2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LeBlanc, Lawrence J. "United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 1107-1116. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Power, Samantha. "Lemkin's Law." A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Basic, 2002. Print.

<span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">TASK III: How did United States' Public view this conflict? <span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">Due Tuesday, Noevmber 29th <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The small war in Cambodia during the 1970s was extremely controversial among the American population. Since U.S. involvement in Vietnam was to protect the world by containing communism, many Americans felt that the deaths resulting from the war could have been prevented. The most prominent dilemma was the United States' decision of participating in the conflict and bombing Cambodia, due to the magnitude of the crimes and killings performed by Pol Pot’s followers in the Khmer Rouge and inclusions of communist bases. Tim Watts, author for ABC-CLIO database, wrote in an article, " the use of secrecy during the administration of Richard Nixon between 1969 and 1974 helped foster a sense of distrust towards the government. Nixon ordered secret bombings of North Vietnamese bases in Cambodia, which led to widespread demonstrations when revealed" (Watts 1). Not only did Americans feel distanced from the government, organizations and groups were created to end the war as a whole. Lawrence LeBlanc, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa, stated “The war had become so unpopular in the United States and elsewhere that it would have been impossible for anyone to argue in favor of U.S military intervention, even if it was motivated by a desire to stop the slaughter. In fact, there were some who argued that U.S policies during the Vietnam war--the bombing raids on Cambodia, the “incursion” in 1970, and the financial and military support of the Lon Nol government--had all actually contributed to the Khmer Rouge victory”(LeBlanc 1112). Along with most Americans, veterans of the Vietnam War were also very opposed to it. After America pulled out of the Vietnam war, veterans formed an anti-war organization that attracted other veterans scared by their experiences from the war. Laura Calkins, a holder of an undergraduate degree in international relations from The Honors College and James Madison College at Michigan State University, described “The organization still had only a few hundred members, however, until the late spring of 1970, when anti-war protests accelerated nationwide following the deployment of U.S combat forces into Cambodia. The subsequent shooting of students by National Guard troops during and anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio drew more middle-of-the-road Americans to the anti-war movement" (Calkins 876). Altogether, Americans influenced the military to pull aid out of Vietnam because of their hate and distrust of the reasoning for war and the government.

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Works Cited:

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Watts, Tim J. "government secrecy." // Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LeBlanc, Lawrence J. "United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 1107-1116. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Calkins, Laura M. "Vietnam Veterans Against the War." //Encyclopedia of War and American Society//. Ed. Peter Karsten. Vol. 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2005. 876-877. //Gale Virtual Reference Library//. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">Task IV: Did the U.S. achieve its goals? -- <span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">Due Friday, December 2nd <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The conflict in Cambodia was put on the back burner after troops were pulled out of Vietnam which allowed the infamous Pol Pot to take power and perform a cruel genocide, but was brought back up when Vietnam invaded in 1979. Vietnam, although now a united communist country, believed what the neighboring country, Cambodia, was doing to their own people was morally wrong, so they chose to move in to the government and seize the genocide. The United States’ government with Carter as president had to make a decision as a world power to support the communist Russia-supported Vietnam or their alliance with China. Samantha Power, originally an Irish American academic and official writer and now President Obama’s Assistant that runs <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, wrote in her book, “with the policy decided and the tilt toward China firm, Secretary of Sate Vance called immediately for the Vietnamese to ‘remove their forces from Cambodia.’... the Carter administration chose what it thought to be the lesser evil...” (Power 147). Although, the United states did not achieve their goal of containing communism (beginning with Vietnam), they remained true to their relationship with China and stopped communist Vietnam’s attempt to get rid of Cambodia’s government under Pot.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The United States decision to seize control over the communist breakout in Cambodia was greatly respected by the American public and our allies. Due to the fact that the U.S. did not participate much during the genocide, being involved in the aftermath was an honorable decision. Military historian, Erik Villard, claimed that “The United States participation in the invasion of Cambodia re-energized the antiwar movement, stiffened congressional opposition to Nixon's White House, and widened the breech of trust between the media and the military”(Villard 17). Steve Bell, a reporter and new correspondent for ABC news, traveled to Cambodia after the US troops had pulled out of the fight between the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. During the time he was there, he explained “ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121917; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I am a great admirer of the military and most people I've known in the military. But there was a period there when military people, in order to have a career, were under enormous pressure to go with the flow”(Bell). Even though the U.S. withdrew from Cambodia early on, we continued to provide the country with the aid it needed. The military was greatly respected for their decisions and actions throughout the war.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Works Cited:

Villard, Erik B. "Cambodia Incursion." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 16-17. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Power, Samantha. "A Problem from Hell" America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Print.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121917; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Vietnam Panel Discussion: Media and the Role of Public Opinion (excerpt)." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">** Rubric for Small War Wiki: **•Answers to project questions are accurate and complete. •Information and expert opinion are selected from the **required** LC resources and are cited accurately with the credibility precisely stated. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">·Maps, banners and photos are caption and cited. •Project questions are answered fully in extended power paragraphs.spelling •Writing is edited for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. *Works cited follow each task