The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) decided to use conventional warfare to unify Vietnam. The United States military operation against the Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic began in 1959. The (PAVN) connected a series of old trails leading from North Vietnam to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. In the 1960s the network of trails was expanded. Trail traffic was interdicted by repeated CIA (Air America) and US Air Force (Operation Ranch Hand) tactical herbicide spraying and bombing missions. During the late 1960s, the Khmer Rouge Army slowly grew in eastern Cambodia during a time when America was spraying and bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On February 22, 1969, the PAVN launched a new offensive against American forces in South Vietnam from their sanctuaries in Cambodia. President Richard Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger, decided to spray and bomb Cambodia, a neutral country, to eliminate the PAVN sanctuary base camps. The damage and loss of life as a result of U.S. air campaign resulted in the insurgency (Khmer Rouge) being able to recruit civilian members. This created a dual effect of strengthening the popularity of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enabling him to overthrow the Khmer Republic in 1975. The primary objectives of this study are to determine the political impacts and consequences of: 1) the 1959 United States secret war on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia and 2) the 1969 President Nixon’s decision to destroy the PAVN bases hidden in the Cambodian jungles. These United States secret wars in Cambodia had long-lasting effects on Cambodian political, social, and economic stability.
KeywordsHo Chi Minh TrailKhmer RougeCambodiaSecret American WarPol PotKilling Fields
Olson, K.R. (2023) United States Secret War in Laos: Long-Term Environmental Impacts of the Use of Chemical Weapons. Open Journal of Soil Science, 13, 199-232. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojss.2023.134009
Olson, K.R. (2023) How Did Vinh Moc Village, Located near Vietnam DMZ, Protect Their Villagers from United States Air Force Bombardment during the Vietnam War? Open Journal of Soil Science, 13, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojss.2023.131001
Morris, V. and Hills, C.A. (2018) Ho Chi Minh’s Blueprint for Revolution: In the Words of Vietnamese Strategists and Operatives. McFarland.
Pribbenow, M.L. (2020) Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.
Owen, T. and Kiernan, B. (2007) Bombs over Cambodia: New Light on US Air War. The Asia-Pacific Journal, 5, Article No. 2420.
Chigas, G. (2000) Building a Case against the Khmer Rouge: Evidence from the Tuol Sleng and Santebal Archives. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 4, 44-49.
Khamboly (2013) Khmer Rouge History. Cambodia Tribunal Monitor.
Asian Development Bank (2012) Greater Mekong Sub Region Atlas of the Environment.
Campbell, I.C., Say, S. and Beardall, J. (2009) Chapter 2. Tonle Sap Lake, the Heart of the Lower Mekong. In: Campbell, I.C., Ed., The Mekong: Biophysical Environment of an International River Basin, Academic Press, New York, 251-272. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-374026-7.00010-3
Olson, K.R. and Morton, L.W. (2018) Tonle Sap Lake and River and Confluence with the Mekong River in Cambodia. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 73, 60A-66A. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.73.3.60A
Sanderson, D.C.W., Bishop, B.P., Stark, M., Alexander, S. and Penny, D. (2006) Luminescence Dating of Canal Sediments form Angkor Borei, Mekong Delta, Southern Cambodia. Quaternary Geochronology, 2, 322-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2006.05.032
Olson, K.R. (2023) Consequences of Agent Orange and Agent Blue Use on United States Military Base Perimeters in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Open Journal of Soil Science, 13, 233-261. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojss.2023.135010
Conboy, K.J. and Morrison, J. (1995) Shadow War: The CIA’s Secret War in Laos. Paladin Press, Boulder.
Buckingham, W.A. (2018) Operation Ranch Hand: The Air Force and Herbicides in South East Asia 1961-1971. Office of Air Force History, Washington DC, 132.
Stellman, J. and Stellman, S. (2003) The Extent and Patterns of Usage of Agent Orange and Other Herbicides in Vietnam. Nature, 422, 681-687. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01537
Dunst, C. (2019) The U.S.’s Toxic Agent Orange Legacy Agent Orange in Cambodia: The 1969 Defoliation in Kampong Cham.
Quinn-Judge, S. and Westad, O.A. (2006) The Third Indochina War: Conflict between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-79. Routledge, London, 189.
Glasser, J.D. (1998) The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand, 1961-1975. McFarland & Company, Jefferson.
Hanyok, R.J. (2002) Spartans in Darkness. Center for Cryptographic History, NSA, Washington DC, 94.
Short, P. (2007) Initiation to the Maquis. Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. Macmillan, New York, 95.
Frey, R.J. (2009) Genocide and International Justice. Infobase Publishing, New York, 266-267.
Khmer Rouge. Encyclopedia.com.
Wilson Center (2018, December 13) The Chinese Communist Party’s Relationship with the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s: An Ideological Victory and a Strategic Failure.
Sutsakhan, S. (1987) The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse. United States Army Center of Military History, Washington DC, 32.
Karlsson, K.G. (2008) Cambodia. In: Karlsson, K. and Schoenhals, M., Eds., Crimes against Humanity under Communist Regimes—Research Review, Forum for Living History, Stockholm, 88-102.
Hood, S.J. (1990) Cambodia Gamble and the Prospects for Peace in Indochina: The Khmer Rouge or Sihanouk? Asian Survey, 30, 977-991. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644784
McLellan, J. (1999) Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 137. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442676992
Chandler, D. (2007) A History of Cambodia. Routledge, London.
Ratner, S.R. and Abrams, J.S. (2001) Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 272.
Parkinson, C., Cuddy, A. and Pye, D. (2015) The Pol Pot Dilemma. The Phnom Penh Post, Phnom Penh.
Becker, E. (1998) When the War Was over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. PublicAffairs, New York.
Taylor, A. (2014) Why the World Should Not Forget Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The Washington Post.
Isaacs, A. and Hardy, G. (1987) The Vietnam Experience Pawns of War: Cambodia and Laos. Boston Publishing Company, Boston, 54.
Lipsman, S. and Doyle, E. (1983) The Vietnam Experience Fighting for Time. Boston Publishing Company, Boston.
Military History Institute of Vietnam (2002) Victory in Vietnam: A History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975. Pribbenow, M., Trans., University of Kansas Press, Kansas.
Nalty, B.C. (1997) Air War over South Vietnam, 1968-1975 (PDF). Air Force History and Museums Program.
Karnow, S. (1983) Vietnam A History. Viking.
Langguth, A.J. (2000) Our Vietnam the War 1954-1975. Simon & Schuster, New York.
Stanton, S. (1985) The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963-1973. Presidio Press, Novato.
Morocco, J. (1988) The Vietnam Experience: Rain of Fire: Air War, 1968-1975. Boston Publishing Company, Boston, 146.
Hartsook, E. and Slade, S. (2012) Air War Vietnam Plans and Operations 1969-1975. Lion Publications, Oxford, 238.
Shaw, J. (2005) The Cambodian Campaign: The 1970 Offensive and America’s Vietnam War. University of Kansas Press, Kansas.
Prados, J. (1998) The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, 191.
Fulghum, D. and Maitland, T. (1984) The Vietnam Experience: South Vietnam on Trial: Mid-1970-1972. Boston Publishing Company, Boston, 9.
Sorley, L. (1999) A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam. Harvest Books, Eugene.
International Herald Tribune. Meanwhile (2000) When the Khmer Rouge Came to Kill in Vietnam.
Morris, S.J. (1999) Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 25, 32, 93-97, 102-04, 107, 111, 159. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503616745
Bultmann, D. (2015) Inside Cambodian Insurgency. A Sociological Perspective on Civil Wars and Conflict. Ashgate, Burlington.
Fawthrop, T. and Jarvis, H. (2014) Getting Away With Genocide?
Schanberg, S. (1985) The Death and Life of Dith Pran. Penguin Books, London.
Heuveline, P. (2002) The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970-1979. Forced Migration and Mortality. National Academies Press, Washington DC.
Seybolt, T.B., Aronson, J.D. and Fischoff, B. (2013) Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 238. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199977307.001.0001