Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The leaders of the new Khmer Republic faced a deteriorating political situation. In April
1970, US President Richard Nixon sent US troops over the border from South Vietnam to
root out communist base areas on Cambodian soil. The incursion failed, sweeping away
the last pretenses of Cambodian neutrality and pushing the Vietnamese communists deep-
er into the country. As Lon Nol's officials devoured US economic and military aid, the
Vietnamese and their restive apprentices—the Khmer Rouge—intensified their attacks on
the new government. Cambodia had tumbled headlong into the Vietnam War.
For the five years of its existence the Lon Nol government was plagued by political
and economic dysfunction. To maintain its grip on power the regime silenced critics, ar-
rested dissidents, and whipped up popular resentment against the Vietnamese. Lon Nol
put on farcical elections, appointing himself president of Cambodia and marshal of the
armed forces. The large influx of US aid fostered incandescent levels of corruption. This
was especially the case in the army, which, fertilized by American aid dollars, grew from
a force of 35,000 into an untrained and poorly led legion of more than 200,000. A com-
mon practice among commanders was to overreport the number of troops in their units,
siphoning the salaries of “phantom soldiers” into their own pockets.
In its early years, the regime drew on the deep well of opposition to Sihanouk and
an outpouring of patriotism. The common animosity toward Vietnam, inflamed by the
use of Cambodian territory by Vietnamese communist forces, prompted large numbers
of young men, many no more than teenagers, to enlist in the military. An enduring
image from the period was of the overladen Coca-Cola trucks filled with youths in
baggy army fatigues—later dubbed “24-hour soldiers” for the perfunctory training they
received—trundling off to the front.
Lon Nol saw the struggle against the communists as a holy war, a mission to defend
Cambodia against the
yuon
and
thmil
(unbelievers) who threatened the country from the
east. State propaganda posters showed Vietnamese communist soldiers, wearing conical
hats emblazoned with red stars, stealing rice and murdering Buddhist monks. Anti-Vi-
etnamese pogroms erupted. On one occasion in April 1970 Cambodian troops rounded
up some 800 Vietnamese Catholic laborers living across the river from the capital, shot
them, and dumped the bodies in the Tonlé Bassac. By 1975, around 250,000 Vietnamese
had fled the country.
Lon Nol's army was no match for the battle-hardened Vietnamese. By 1971 the repub-
lic had lost control of three-quarters of the country, and only a fierce US bombing cam-
paign, designed to wipe out communist supply lines in eastern Cambodia, prevented it
from collapse. The bombing had begun in earnest in 1969 with the launch of Operation
Breakfast and was followed in due course by a euphemistic “Menu” comprising “Lunch,”
“Snack,” “Dinner”, “Supper,” and “Dessert.” Over the next four years, this horrific repast,
conducted in secret and away from the scrutiny of the American public, devastated large
