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In-Depth Information
pursuing communist sanctuaries with greater intensity in the hope that South Vietnam could
hold its own against the North.
The first major test of this strategy was the US'
invasionofCambodia
, which lay at the end
of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Until 1970, Cambodia, under the leadership of Prince Norodom Si-
hanouk, had stayed neutral in the war. Neutrality for Sihanouk, however, meant allowing the
North Vietnamese to operate on Cambodian soil and the US to bomb the North Vietnamese
with B-52s. On March 18, 1970, a right-wing pro-US general named Lon Nol replaced Si-
hanouk in a coup and, two weeks later, US and South Vietnamese troops invaded the regions
of the country nearest South Vietnam.
The operation set off a political uproar in the US, and massive
anti-war demonstrations
spread across the country. Politically, the Cambodian “incursion”, as it was termed, and sub-
sequent protests prompted the US Congress to pass a measure forbidding the use of American
ground troops in Cambodia and Laos. Had they not, US ground troops might have taken part
in
Lam Son 719
- one of the most disastrous operations undertaken by the US in the whole
of the war. Backed by American air power, 20,000 South Vietnamese troops drove across
the Annamite Mountains in the hope of cutting North Vietnamese supply lines near Xepon.
The move proved catastrophic. Five thousand South Vietnamese were killed or wounded, 176
Americans died and more than one hundred US army helicopters were shot down, with an
estimated six hundred more damaged. It became clear that even with massive US support, the
South Vietnamese didn't stand a chance, pushing US policymakers closer to the realization
that the war was a lost cause.
The US realized that as long as it fought in Indochina, it would continue to give the Soviet
Union and China reason to cooperate. By July 1971, Nixon seemed ready to sacrifice South
Vietnam - and by extension Laos and Cambodia - in order to create an opening with China.
On January 27, 1973, the US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong at last
signed the
Paris Accords
, under the terms of which a ceasefire was established and all re-
maining American troops were to be repatriated by April. In reality the accords would ac-
complish little more than smoothing the US withdrawal from Indochina.
