Cambodian-Vietnamese War
Encyclopedia
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea
. The war began with isolated clashes along the land and maritime boundaries of Vietnam
and Kampuchea between 1975 and 1977, occasionally involving division
-sized military formations. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea and subsequently occupied the country after the Khmer Rouge
was removed from power.
During the Vietnam War
, Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge communists had formed an alliance to fight U.S.-backed regimes in their respective countries. Despite their open display of cooperation with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge leadership feared that the Vietnamese communists were scheming to form an Indochinese federation with Vietnam as the dominant force in the region. In order to preempt an attempt by the Vietnamese to dominate them, the Khmer Rouge leadership began purging Vietnamese-trained personnel within their own ranks as the Lon Nol
regime capitulated in 1975. Then, in May 1975, the newly formed Democratic Kampuchea, dominated by the Khmer Rouge, began waging a war against Vietnam, which was marked by an attack on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. In spite of the fighting which had occurred between the two countries, the leaders of reunified Vietnam and Kampuchea made several public diplomatic exchanges throughout 1976 to highlight the supposedly strong relations between them. Behind the scenes, however, Kampuchean leaders continued to fear what they perceived as Vietnamese expansionism. As such, on 30 April 1977, they launched another major military attack on Vietnam. Shocked by the Kampuchean assault, Vietnam launched a retaliatory strike at the end of 1977 in an attempt to force the Kampuchean Government to negotiate. In January 1978, the Vietnamese military withdrew because their political objectives had not been achieved.
Small-scale fighting continued between the two countries throughout 1978, as China tried to mediate peace talks between the two sides. However, neither country could reach an acceptable compromise at the negotiation table. By the end of 1978, Vietnamese leaders decided to remove the Khmer Rouge-dominated regime of Democratic Kampuchea, perceiving it as being pro-Chinese and too hostile towards Vietnam. On 25 December 1978, 150,000 Vietnamese troops invaded Democratic Kampuchea and overran the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army
in just two weeks. On 8 January 1979, a pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea
(PRK) was established in Phnom Penh
, marking the beginning of a ten-year Vietnamese occupation. During that period, the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea continued to be recognised by the United Nations
as the legitimate government of Kampuchea, as several armed resistance groups were formed to fight the Vietnamese occupation. Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Hun Sen
of the PRK regime approached factions of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
(CGDK) to begin peace talks. Under heavy diplomatic and economic pressure from the international community, the Vietnamese Government implemented a series of economic and foreign policy reforms, which led to their withdrawal from Kampuchea in September 1989.
At the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting in 1990, under the Australian-sponsored Cambodian Peace Plan, representatives of the CGDK and the PRK agreed to a power-sharing arrangement by forming a unity government known as the Supreme National Council (SNC). The SNC's role was to represent Cambodian sovereignty on the international stage, while the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC) was tasked with supervising the country's domestic policies until a Cambodian government was elected by the people through a peaceful, democratic process. Cambodia's pathway to peace proved to be difficult, as Khmer Rouge leaders decided not to participate in the general elections, but instead, they chose to disrupt the electoral process by launching military attacks on UN peacekeepers and killing ethnic Vietnamese migrants. In May 1993, Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC
movement defeated the Cambodian People's Party
(CPP), formerly the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), to win the general elections. However, the CPP leadership refused to accept defeat and they announced the eastern provinces of Cambodia, where most of the CPP's votes were drawn from, would secede from Cambodia. To avoid such an outcome, Norodom Ranariddh
, the leader of FUNCINPEC agreed to form a coalition government with the CPP. Shortly afterwards, the constitutional monarchy
was restored and the Khmer Rouge was outlawed by the newly formed Cambodian Government.
, the seat of the Khmer Empire
was subjected to Vietnamese influence as early as the thirteenth century. Vietnamese influence spread gradually and indirectly, and it was not until the early nineteenth century that Vietnam exercised direct control. In 1813, Nak Ong Chan gained the Cambodian throne with the help of Vietnam, and under his rule Cambodia became a protectorate. Following his death in 1834, Vietnam colonised Cambodia; it was governed under a Vietnamese administration and termed a Vietnamese ‘province’. Throughout the 1830s, Vietnam attempted to erase Khmer culture, which had derived the basis of Cambodian society, dress and religion from India rather than China. The trend of Vietnamese dominance continued during French colonisation, under which Cambodia was forced to cede much of its southern cone (would later be Saigon, the Mekong delta
and Tay Ninh) to the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge later justified their incursions into Vietnam as an attempt to regain the territories which Cambodia lost during the previous centuries.
with the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party
(ICP), almost exclusively dominated by the Vietnamese, originally meant to fight French colonial rule in Indochina
. In 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc (commonly known by his alias Ho Chi Minh
) founded the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or the Viet Minh
. When the Japanese were defeated at the end of World War II, he initiated the first Indochinese war of independence
against the French. During this time, Vietnamese forces made extensive use of Cambodian territory to transport weapons, supplies, and troops. This relationship lasted throughout the Vietnam War
, when Vietnamese communists used Cambodia as a transport route and staging area for attacks on South Vietnam. In 1951, Vietnam guided the establishment of a separate Cambodian communist party, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), which allied with a nationalist separatist Cambodian movement, the Khmer Serei
(Free Khmers), in order to pursue independence. In accordance with the 1954 Geneva Accords negotiating the end of the French domination, newly created communist North Vietnam pulled all of its Viet Minh soldiers and cadres out of Cambodia; however, since the KPRP was staffed primarily by ethnic Vietnamese or Cambodians under its tutelage, approximately 5,000 Communist cadres went with them.
The power vacuum the Vietnamese communists left in its wake in Cambodia was soon filled by the return of a young group of Cambodian communist revolutionaries, many of whom received their communist education in France. In 1960, the KPRP changed its name to the Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP), and the name was later adopted by the majority coalition that formed around Saloth Sar (Pol Pot
), Ieng Sary
and Khieu Samphan
as the ‘true’ political institution memorialising the KCP. This clique became the genesis of the Khmer Rouge, and its doctrine was heavily influenced by the Maoist ideology.
, but the two men in control of the Party were Pol Pot and Ieng Sary
. The ultimate objective of the Khmer Rouge was to erase the structure of the Cambodian state, which they viewed as feudal, capitalist, and oriented around the agendas of both the landholding elite and imperialists. In its place, they hoped to create a classless society based entirely on worker-peasants. The radical ideologies and goals of the Khmer Rouge were alien concepts to the masses. In fact, the socialist revolution held very little popular appeal, which led Pol Pot and his cadres to use ultra-nationalist sentiment, repressive and murderous rule, and propaganda aimed at demonising the Vietnamese to maintain their tenuous control.
During the five years of the Khmer Rouge rebellion from 1970 to 1975, the support of North Vietnam
, in conjunction with China, was essential to its eventual triumph. However, even before the Vietnam War
ended, the relationship between the Khmer Rouge—which was in the process of seizing power from a US-backed regime headed by Lon Nol
—and Vietnam was strained. Clashes between Vietnamese communists and Khmer Rouge forces began as early as 1974, and the following year Pol Pot signed a treaty codifying the ‘friendship’ between the Khmer Rouge and China.
in 1975. In the first major clash between the two former allies, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army invaded the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc on 1 May 1975, which they claimed was part of Kampuchea’s territory.
Nine days later, on 10 May 1975, the Kampuchean military continued its incursion by capturing Tho Chu, where it executed 500 Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnamese military immediately responded to Kampuchean actions by launching a counter-attack and removing Kampuchean forces from Phu Quoc and Tho Chu, and then invading the Kampuchean island of Poulo Wai. In June 1975, while on a visit to Hanoi
, Kampuchean leader Pol Pot proposed that Vietnam and his country should sign a treaty of friendship and begin discussions on border disputes. However, those discussions never materialised, and the Kampucheans claimed that Vietnam turned down both offers. In August 1975, Vietnam returned the island of Poulo Wai to Kampuchea and formally recognised Kampuchean sovereignty over the island.
Following those incidents, both countries attempted to improve their diplomatic relations with a series of congratulatory messages and exchange visits. On 17 April 1976, Vietnamese leaders sent a message to congratulate Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea
and Pol Pot on their "elections" as President, President of the People’s Representatives and Premier of Kampuchea, respectively. Furthermore, the Vietnamese even denounced the alleged "U.S. bombing" of Siem Riep in February 1976, thereby reinforcing the Kampuchean’s fictitious claim over the incident. In response, in June 1976, the Kampuchean leadership sent a message to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, which had governed South Vietnam since the fall of the U.S.-backed regime, congratulating them on the seventh anniversary of their establishment.
In July 1976, following the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a reunified country, Phnom Penh Radio broadcast a commentary which proclaimed the "militant solidarity and friendship between peoples of Democratic Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam grow constantly greener and sturdier". However, during that same month, Premier Pol Pot publicly hinted at tensions between Vietnam and Kampuchea when he told a visiting Vietnamese media delegation that there were “obstacles and difficulties” in the relationship between the two countries. Nonetheless, on 21 September 1976, the first air service connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
with Phnom Penh was established. Then in December 1976, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Organisation sent greetings to the Vietnamese Communist Party during their Fourth Congress.
had done. However, their hopes were dashed as early as 1973, because North Vietnamese military formations operating in Khmer Rouge-occupied territories were occasionally subjected to armed attacks by their own allies. The Vietnamese position inside Kampuchea was further weakened after the end of the war, as there were no pro-Vietnamese elements left within the Kampuchean Communist Party.
Thus, when the pro-Chinese Pol Pot and his brother-in-law Ieng Sary
resigned from their respective positions as Premier and Foreign Minister in September 1976, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong
and General Secretary of the Communist Party Le Duan were optimistic that Vietnam could exercise greater influence on the Kampucheans. In a private meeting with the Soviet ambassador to Vietnam on 16 November 1976, Le Duan dismissed both Ieng Sary and Pol Pot as "bad people" for their pro-Chinese policies. Le Duan then asserted that Nuon Chea, who had ascended to the position of Premier of Democratic Kampuchea as Pol Pot’s replacement, was a person of pro-Vietnamese orientation, so Vietnam could exercise its influence through him. However, the events which developed over the next few months would prove Le Duan had been mistaken in his assessment of Nuon Chea.
Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh the Kampuchean leadership had developed a seething fear and hatred of the Vietnamese leadership as a result of Vietnam’s historical dominance over their country. From the Kampuchean perspective, the Vietnamese strategy to dominate Indochina involved infiltrating the communist parties of Kampuchea and Laos with Vietnamese-trained cadres. For that reason, when the first group of North Vietnamese-trained Khmer Rouge personnel returned to the country, they were immediately purged from the Party. During the months following the defeat of the Lon Nol regime, Pol Pot continued to purge his own party and the Government of Democratic Kampuchea of those who he believed to be Soviet and Vietnamese agents. Then, in the context of the triumphalism which prevailed over the Khmer Rouge leadership in a war which they claimed they single-handedly defeated the "American imperialist", Democratic Kampuchea began to embark on a war against Vietnam.
As the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army made preparations for its war against Vietnam, state-controlled media in Vietnam sent congratulatory messages to the Government of the Democratic Kampuchea on the second anniversary of its establishment, on 17 April 1977. On 30 April 1977, the second anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the Kampuchean reply came in the form of a military attack against the Vietnamese provinces of An Giang and Chau Doc
, killing hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnam People's Army
responded by moving its troops to areas attacked by Kampuchea and, on 7 June 1977, Vietnam proposed high-level talks to discuss outstanding issues. On 18 June 1977, the Kampuchean Government replied by demanding that Vietnam remove all of its military units from the disputed areas, and create a demilitarised zone between the opposing forces.
Both sides ignored each other’s proposals, and the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army continued sending soldiers across the border to attack Vietnamese towns and villages. In September 1977, Kampuchean artillery struck several Vietnamese villages along the border, and six villages in Dong Thap Province were overrun by Kampuchean infantry. Shortly afterwards, six divisions of the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army advanced about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) into Tay Ninh Province, where they killed more than 1,000 Vietnamese civilians. Angered by the scale of Kampuchean assaults, the Vietnam People’s Army assembled eight divisions, estimated at around 60,000 soldiers, to launch a retaliatory strike against Kampuchea. On 16 December 1977, Vietnamese divisions, with support from elements of the Vietnam People's Air Force
, crossed the border along several axes with the objective of forcing the Kampuchean Government to negotiate.
On the battlefield, the Kampucheans quickly lost ground as their combat units were pushed back by the Vietnamese. By the end of December 1977, Vietnam had won a clear military victory over Kampuchea, as Vietnamese formations marched through Svay Rieng Province and only stopped short of entering the provincial capital. Despite the ferocity of the Vietnamese retaliation, the Kampuchean Government remained defiant. On 31 December 1977, Khieu Sampham declared that the Kampuchean Government would "temporarily" sever diplomatic relations with Vietnam until the Vietnamese military withdraw from the "sacred territory of Democratic Kampuchea". On 6 January 1978, Vietnamese divisions were only 38 kilometres (23.6 mi) from Phnom Penh, but the Vietnamese Government decided to withdraw its forces from Kampuchea because they had failed to achieve Vietnam’s political objective. During the withdrawal, the Vietnamese military also evacuated thousands of prisoners and civilian refugees, including future leader Hun Sen
.
In addition to the disparity in population, there was also a great disparity between the fighting capabilities of the armed forces of the two countries. In 1977, Vietnam was estimated to have 615,000 soldiers and 900 tanks, supported by a 12,000-member air force with 300 combat aircraft, including one squadron of light bombers. In comparison, Kampuchea had an army of 70,000, only few heavy tanks, 200 armoured vehicles, and limited air capability. Despite facing such heavy odds, Kampuchea showed no signs of hesitation as its military continued to assault Vietnam’s border regions. In January 1978, Kampuchean forces still held portions of Vietnamese territory and began overrunning Vietnamese outposts in Ha Tien
Province. On 27 January 1978, Vietnam started calling on the Kampuchean military along the border regions to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime.
Against the backdrop of military clashes, between 9 January and 20 February 1978, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Phan Hien made several trips to Beijing
to hold discussions with representatives of the Kampuchean Government, which ultimately proved to be fruitless. On 18 January 1978, China attempted to mediate further negotiations between Kampuchea and Vietnam when Vice Premier Deng Yingchao
travelled to Phnom Penh, where she was met with strong resistance by Kampuchean leaders. Meanwhile, Vietnamese government officials began conducting secret meetings with So Phim, the Khmer Rouge leader in Kampuchea’s Eastern Military Zone, to plan a military uprising backed by Vietnam. During that same period, military setbacks experienced by the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army in the Eastern Military Zone prompted Pol Pot to label the region as a "nest of traitors".
In order to purge the Eastern Military Zone of those he perceived to have been contaminated by the Vietnamese, Pol Pot ordered military units from the Southwest Zone to move into eastern Kampuchea and eliminate the "hidden traitors". Unable to withstand an attack from the Kampuchea Government, So Phim committed suicide while his deputy Heng Samrin
defected to Vietnam. On 12 April 1978, the Kampuchean Government declared they and Vietnam could negotiate again if the Vietnamese gave up their expansionist ambitions and recognised Kampuchea’s sovereignty. However, there was also a pre-condition requiring Vietnam to meet several obligations through a seven month trial ceasefire. The Vietnamese Government immediately rejected the demand and, in response, two Kampuchean divisions penetrated up to 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) into Vietnamese territory, and massacred
over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians in the village of Ba Chuc
in An Giang Province.
In June 1978, the Vietnamese Air Force started bombing Kampuchean positions along the border regions, flying about 30 bombing sorties per day and inflicting heavy casualties on the Kampucheans. By that stage in the conflict, most surviving leaders of the Eastern Military Zone had escaped into Vietnam, where they assembled at various secret camps with the purpose of forming a Vietnamese-backed "liberation army" to fight against Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo was meeting in Hanoi to discuss its strategy for Kampuchea. It concluded that the Khmer Rouge regime was a proxy of China, which had been trying to fill the power vacuum following the withdrawal of the United States. As such, China was identified as Vietnam’s main enemy, and its client regime in Phnom Penh had to be removed by conventional military force, because the Vietnamese adaptation of the Maoist "people’s war" doctrine had not been a success against the Khmer Rouge’s security apparatus.
To reflect the attitude of the country’s leaders, Vietnam’s state-controlled media stepped up its propaganda war against the Khmer Rouge, with the Vietnamese Communist Nhan Dan
Newspaper regularly calling for international intervention to save the Kampuchean people from domestic terror initiated by the Khmer Rouge regime. Furthermore, instead of sending congratulatory messages like they had done in the previous years, the Vietnamese media changed their tone and began referring to the Kampuchean Government as the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" as the Kampuchean military continued their campaign in Vietnam. By the end of June, the Vietnamese military assembled a multi-division task force to launch another limited-objective campaign against the Kampucheans. Again, the Vietnamese pushed the Kampuchean forces back into the provincial cities of Suong and Prey Veng and then pulled out. However, as they had done before, the Kampuchean Army moved its artillery towards the border and continued shelling Vietnamese villages as though nothing had happened.
During the second half of 1978, Vietnamese leaders devoted much of their energy towards the military campaign against the Khmer Rouge regime, by seeking political support from the Soviet Union. In a briefing with Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials on 25 July 1978, the Soviet charge d'affaires
in Hanoi was told that the Kampuchean Government had deployed 14 of its 17 regular army divisions and 16 local regiments along the border with Vietnam. Then, in early September 1978, Le Duan informed the Soviet ambassador that Vietnam aimed to "solve fully this question of Kampuchea by the beginning of 1979". While Vietnam was laying the political foundation for the military campaign against Kampuchea, Soviet ships were reported to be unloading military hardware and ammunition in Cam Ranh Bay
. In October 1978, Vietnamese radio broadcast what they claimed were accounts of uprisings against the Khmer Rouge regime, urging members of the Kampuchean military either to overthrow the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" or defect to Vietnam.
In a major turning point in the course of Soviet-Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations, and ultimately the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea, on 3 November 1978 a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed between Vietnam and the Soviet Union, guaranteeing the former of vital Soviet military aid in the scenario that China intervened in the conflict. Later, in November 1978, a command and control headquarters was established for the planned invasion of Kampuchea, with Senior General Le Duc Anh taking full control of Vietnamese military units along the border areas. The Vietnamese Government, to replace earlier losses and augment its units along the border, drafted 350,000 men into the military. While the new recruits were completing training, ten divisions were deployed to the border regions of Long An, Dong Thap and Tay Ninh Provinces. Vietnam also shifted three divisions based in Laos south towards the Laos-Kampuchea border. On 13 December 1978, the Chinese Government warned Vietnam that its patience was limited, and that Vietnam would be punished if it behaved in an "unbridled fashion".
Nonetheless, the final piece of the Vietnamese strategy emerged when Vietnam announced the formation of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation
(KUFNS) in the "liberation zones" of Kampuchea. Hanoi claimed that KUFNS was an independent Kampuchean communist movement, with members drawn from all walks of life. Heng Samrin, formerly a member of the Khmer Rouge and commander of the Kampuchean 4th Division, was the chairman of the KUFNS Central Committee. Previously, the KUFNS was known as the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Kampuchea (PRGK), which consisted of 300 former Khmer Rouge cadres who defected to Vietnam. The PRGK regularly sent representatives abroad in search of support, before Vietnam abandoned the ‘people’s war’ concept in favour of a conventional military campaign, similar to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Not to be outdone by the Vietnamese military build-up, the Government of Democratic Kampuchea was busy strengthening its armed forces with Chinese support. In previous years, China had only provided the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army with a limited amount of arms and ammunition, but as relations with Vietnam worsened in 1978, Beijing established additional supply routes through Kampuchea and increased the volume of military hardware which travelled down each route. On the eve of the Vietnamese invasion, Kampuchea had an estimated 73,000 soldiers in the Eastern Military Zone bordering Vietnam. At that time, all branches of the Kampuchean armed forces were significantly strengthened by large quantities of Chinese-made military equipment, which included fighter aircraft, patrol boats, heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, trucks and tanks. Additionally, there were between 10,000 and 20,000 Chinese advisers in both military and civilian capacities, providing their support to the Khmer Rouge regime.
(PRK), was established, with Heng Samrin
as the Chief of State and Pen Sovan as Secretary-General of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party.
The Khmer Rouge leadership, with much of its political and military structures shattered by the Vietnamese invasion, was forced to take refuge in Thailand
, where it was warmly welcomed by the Thai Government. Despite the overwhelming economic challenges brought by the Khmer Rouge and the accompanying refugees, the Thai Government sheltered and protected the Khmer Rouge at Khao Larn camp in Trat Province. Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh, the new Kampuchean regime tried to rebuild the country’s economic and social life, which was largely destroyed by decades of political upheavals and constant warfare. However, the new Kampuchean Government’s effort to rebuild the country was severely hampered by the lack of educated and qualified personnel, as most educated people had either fled the country or were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime during the previous four years. By the end of the year, the new regime’s attempts at nation-building were further challenged by several anti-Vietnamese resistance groups operating along the western regions of the country.
, so Prince Norodom Sihanouk
could present the deposed regime's case. Despite strong objections from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia
, the UN Security Council gave Sihanouk this chance. Although Sihanouk distanced himself from the human rights abuses of the Khmer Rouge, he accused Vietnam of using aggression to violate Kampuchea’s sovereignty. As such, he demanded all UN countries to suspend aid to Vietnam and not recognise the Vietnamese-installed regime. Subsequently, seven non-aligned members of the UN Security Council submitted a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea, which was endorsed by China, France
, Norway
, Portugal
, the United States
and the United Kingdom
. However, the resolution was not approved due to strong opposition from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
Between 16–19 February 1979 Vietnam and the new Kampuchean regime held a summit meeting which concluded with the two countries signing the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation. Article 2 of the treaty stated that the security of Vietnam and Kampuchea were interrelated; thus they would help defend each other “against schemes and acts of sabotage by the imperialist and international reactionary forces”, thereby legitimising the presence of Vietnamese troops on Kampuchean soil. Soon afterwards, the Soviet Union, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and India immediately recognised the Vietnamese-installed People’s Republic of Kampuchea. The Soviet Government praised the PRK’s "remarkable victory" and expressed its full support for the regime’s advance towards socialism. Furthermore, the Soviets harshly criticised the Khmer Rouge regime’s record of terror, which they implied had been imposed by China.
At the 34th Session of the UN General Assembly, representatives of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and Democratic Kampuchea both claimed the right to represent their country. The former also notified the member nations of the UN Security Council that it was the sole legitimate representative of Kampuchea and its people. In response, the UN Credential’s Committee decided to recognise Democratic Kampuchea by a vote of six to three, despite the Khmer Rouge’s blood-stained record while in power. Accordingly, representatives of Democratic Kampuchea were allowed to be seated in the General Assembly, with strong support from China. By January 1980, 29 countries had established diplomatic relations with the People Republic of Kampuchea, yet nearly 80 countries still recognised the legitimacy of the deposed Democratic Kampuchea. At the same time, the Western powers and the member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) also voiced strong condemnation of Vietnam’s use of force to remove the Khmer Rouge regime.
Thailand, which shares an 800 kilometres (497.1 mi) border with Kampuchea and has historically feared Vietnam’s expansionism, demanded that Vietnam immediately remove its troops from Kampuchea so its people could elect a government free from foreign intervention. Indonesia
, Malaysia, the Philippines
and Singapore
showed their support for Thailand’s position. Furthermore, ASEAN viewed Vietnam’s invasion and subsequent occupation of Kampuchea, which received strong Soviet support, as an intolerable threat to the region’s security and stability. That view was shared by China, which went as far as accusing Vietnam of forcing Kampuchea into an Indochinese federation to serve as an outpost of Soviet global hegemony. The United States, which never maintained any form of diplomatic ties with the Khmer Rouge’s Democratic Kampuchea, showed strong support for the membership of their former enemy in the UN General Assembly, and echoed ASEAN’s call for an immediate withdrawal of Vietnamese military forces from Kampuchea.
on 4 March, reportedly advancing towards Hanoi at a high speed, though not on good terms with its supply lines. The following day, however, the Beijing regime announced that it would not move deeper into Vietnam, apparently after meeting fierce and unexpectedly harsh resistance by the well trained and experienced Vietnamese forces, supplied with American technology left behind from the Vietnam War. Confident that the threat of invasion had been a success, the Chinese retreated, leaving a path of destruction spanning 500 kilometres (310.7 mi) in their wake. With Chinese support lost after Vietnamese recapitulation, Kampuchea was left to fend for itself. Although Chinese total losses were estimated higher than those of the Vietnamese (12–50,000 compared to the Vietnamese death toll of approximately 10,000), the diversion of troops from Kampuchea facilitated a strong resurgence in Khmer Rouge
insurgent operations, making it unavoidable for the young PRK regime in Kampuchea to implement conscription and require Vietnam to station a large portion of its army along the Sino-Vietnamese border.
To resist the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea and the regime which they installed, the Khmer Rouge called on the Kampuchean people to unite and fight the Vietnamese. However, due to the brutality which they had experienced under the deposed regime, many Kampucheans believed that any political movement aimed at restoring national freedom must oppose both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese. In response to such preconditions, two non-communist movements were formed to fight the Vietnamese occupation. The first group, a right-wing and pro-Western organisation, was formed in October 1979 by former Prime Minister Son Sann and was called the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (KPNLF). The KPNLF operated from several refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, where it controlled thousands of civilians. At its peak, the armed branch of the KPNLF were estimated to have between 12,000 and 15,000 fighters, but a third of that number were lost through fighting and desertions during the Vietnamese dry season offensive of 1984-85. Nonetheless, the KPNLF continued to operate in small groups, harassing the Vietnamese and their Kampuchean allies using guerrilla tactics.
The other non-communist organisation was the National United Front for an Independent, Peaceful, Neutral, and Cooperative Cambodia, formed by Sihanouk and known by its French acronym FUNCINPEC
. The organisation was formed after Sihanouk had severed ties with the Khmer Rouge following his representation on its behalf at the UN Security Council. As the leader of FUNCINPEC, Sihanouk called on the UN General Assembly to expel Khmer Rouge representatives for their crimes while in power and to keep Kampuchea’s seat at the UN vacant on the basis that neither the Khmer Rouge nor the Vietnamese-installed PRK had the mandate to represent the Kampuchean people. He also criticised ASEAN for its continued recognition of the Khmer Rouge, and specifically Thailand for enabling Chinese arms shipments to travel through its territory to supply the notorious communist group. Despite the strength, effectiveness and popularity of the KPNLF and the FUNCINPEC, both resistance groups were plagued by internal divisions caused by the lack of unity, leadership struggles, corruption and alleged abuses of human rights.
In the early days of the Vietnamese occupation, the Kampuchean resistance groups had limited contact with each other due to their differences. Even though the Khmer Rouge enjoyed widespread international support, by 1980 the organisation was under pressure to reform itself from the international community. ASEAN, which had backed the Khmer Rouge throughout their diplomatic confrontations with the PRK regime at the UN General Assembly in 1979, urged the Khmer Rouge leadership to put its blood-stained image behind it in order to join forces with other non-communist movements. However, the idea of forming an alliance with the Khmer Rouge initially caused a certain degree of uneasiness within the leadership circles of the FUNCINPEC and the KPNLF, because both groups were weary about joining with a communist organisation well known for its brutality. Nonetheless, early in 1981 Sihanouk and Son Sann began engaging in talks with Khieu Samphan, President of the deposed Democratic Kampuchea, to discuss the prospect of forming an alliance.
In August 1981 unity talks between the three organisations appeared to have collapsed as a result of conflicting interests. Sihanouk, who feared the resurgence of the Khmer Rouge, proposed that all resistance groups disarm themselves following the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea. Meanwhile, Son Sann demanded that the KPNLF be the lead organisation within the proposed alliance, and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge "most compromised" by the atrocities in Kampuchea be exiled to China. Against these preconditions, Khieu Samphan reminded his rivals that the autonomy of the Khmer Rouge and Democratic Kampuchea should not be undermined. On 22 November 1982 Singapore, with the backing of ASEAN, proposed that three organisations form a coalition government with equal decision-making powers within the alliance. Singapore’s proposal was welcomed by Sihanouk, who believed it was a fair deal for the non-communist movements.
Khieu Samphan, on the other hand, rejected that idea, viewing it as an attempt by Sihanouk and Son Sann to isolate the Khmer Rouge. However, Sihanouk knew that Chinese support would not be made available to the FUNCINPEC unless he made some compromises and joined the Khmer Rouge on their terms. So, in February 1982, Sihanouk met with Khieu Samphan in Beijing to work out their differences. In what he described as "another concession", Khieu Samphan proposed forming a coalition government without integrating the other resistance groups into institutions associated with Democratic Kampuchea. But he emphasised, however, that all parties must defend the legal status of Democratic Kampuchea as the legitimate state representing Kampuchea on the world stage. In May 1982, with the urging of Sihanouk, Son Sann decided to form a coalition government with the Khmer Rouge.
On 22 June 1982, leaders of the three organisations formalised the formation of their coalition government by signing a Thai-sponsored agreement which established the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
(CGDK). Accordingly, the CGDK’s Inner Cabinet consisted of Sihanouk as the President of Democratic Kampuchea, Khieu Samphan as the Vice-President in charge of foreign affairs and Son Sann as Prime Minister. Below the Inner Cabinet were six separate committees responsible for national defence, economy and finance, social affairs and public health, military affairs and the media. By 1987, Democratic Kampuchea still held its membership at the UN General Assembly, even though it lacked four criterion of statehood which included people, territory, government and supreme authority within the borders of a country. In spite of those limitations, forces of the three armed factions within the CGDK continued to fight the Vietnamese Army to achieve their objective of “bring about the implementation of the International Conference on Cambodia and other relevant UN General Assembly resolutions”.
The international community’s political stance towards Kampuchea had a severe impact on the Vietnamese economy, already wrecked by decades of continuous conflicts. The United States, which already had sanctions in place against Vietnam, convinced other countries of the United Nations to deprive Vietnam and the People’s Republic of Kampuchea of much-needed funds by denying them membership to major international organisations such as the World Bank
, the Asian Development Bank
and the International Monetary Fund
. In 1979 Japan
stepped up the pressure by suspending all economic aid to Vietnam, and warned Vietnamese leaders that economic aid will only resume when Vietnam amends its policies towards Kampuchea, the Sino-Soviet rivalry and the problem of the boat people
. Sweden
, which was considered the staunchest supporter of Vietnam in the West, also considered reducing its commitments to the communist country as virtually every other country cancelled its aid.
In addition to external pressure, domestic policies implemented by the Vietnamese Government since 1975 had proven to be largely ineffective in stimulating the country’s economic growth. By building on the Soviet model of central economic planning, Vietnam placed most emphasis on the development of heavy industries, while production in agriculture and light manufacturing sectors stagnated. Furthermore, attempts to nationalise the economy of southern Vietnam after reunification only resulted in chaos, as economic output were driven down by dislocation of the general population. In addition to those failed economic policies, Vietnam maintained the fifth largest armed forces in the world, with 1.26 million regular soldiers under arms. Consequently, the Vietnamese Government had to spend one-third of its budget on the military and the campaign in Kampuchea, despite receiving $1.2 billion in military aid annually from the Soviet Union, thus further hampering Vietnam’s economic rebuilding efforts.
To avoid engaging in a debilitating conflict with various local armed resistance groups within the context of international pressure, Vietnam began withdrawing its military forces from Kampuchea as early as 1982. But the withdrawal process conducted by Vietnam lacked international verification, so foreign observers simply dismissed Vietnam’s movement of troops as mere rotations. In order to disengage from Kampuchea, Vietnam unveiled a five-phase strategy known as the K5 Plan
in 1984, which was authored by General Le Duc Anh, who led the Vietnamese campaign in Kampuchea. The first phase required the Vietnamese military to capture the bases of armed groups in western Kampuchea and along the border with Thailand. The next phases included sealing off the border with Thailand, destroying local resistance groups, providing security for the population, and building-up the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. Foreign observers believed that the Vietnamese Army completed the first phase of the K5 Plan during the dry season offensive of 1984-85, when the base camps of several anti-Vietnamese resistance groups were overrun. Afterwards, the majority of ten Vietnamese divisions were assigned to operations on the frontiers, with the remaining staying in major provinces to protect the local population and to train the Kampuchean armed forces.
By 1985, international isolation and economic hardships had forced Vietnam to rely more and more on the Soviet Union for help. During the Chinese invasion in February 1979, the Soviet Union provided $1.4 billion worth of military aid to Vietnam, a figure that peaked at $1.7 billion in the period between 1981 and 1985. Then, to help Vietnam implement its third Five Year Plan (1981–1985), the Soviet Union provided a sum of $5.4 billion to the Vietnamese Government for its expenditures, and economic aid ultimately reached $1.8 billion annually. The Soviet Union also provided 90 percent of Vietnam’s demand for raw materials and 70 percent of its grain imports. Even though the figures suggest the Soviet Union was a reliable ally, privately Soviet leaders were dissatisfied with Hanoi’s handling of the stalemate in Kampuchea and resented the burden of their aid program to Vietnam as their own country was undergoing economic reforms. In 1986, the Soviet Government announced that it would reduce aid to friendly nations; for Vietnam those reductions meant the loss of 20 percent of its economic aid and one-third of its military aid.
To reengage with the international community, and to deal with the economic challenges brought by the changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
, Vietnamese leaders decided to embark on a series of reforms. At the 6th National Party Congress in December 1986, newly appointed General Secretary of the VCP Nguyen Van Linh
introduced a major reform known as Doi Moi, the Vietnamese term for "renovation", in order to fix Vietnam’s economic problems. However, Vietnamese leaders concluded that Vietnam’s dire economic situation came as a result of the international isolation which followed its invasion of Kampuchea in 1978, and that for Doi Moi to be successful it needed radical changes in defence and foreign policy. Subsequently, in June 1987, the Vietnamese Politburo adopted a new defence strategy in Resolution No. 2, calling for the complete withdrawal of Vietnamese soldiers from international duties, a reduction in the size of the army through a discharge of 600,000 soldiers and the establishment of a set ratio for military expenditures.
Then, on 13 May 1988, the Vietnamese Politburo adopted Resolution No.13 on foreign policy, which aimed to achieve diversification and multilateralisation of Vietnam’s foreign relations. Its main objectives were to end the embargoes imposed by UN members, integrate Vietnam with the regional and international community and ultimately attract foreign investment and development aid. As part of this change, Vietnam ceased to regard the United States as a long-term foe and China as an imminent and dangerous enemy. In addition, official Vietnamese propaganda stopped labelling ASEAN as a "NATO-type" organisation. To implement the new reforms, Vietnam, with support from the Soviet Union, started transferring several years' worth of military equipment to the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces
(KPRAF), which numbered more than 70,000 soldiers. The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense’s International Relations Department then advised its Kampuchean counterparts to only use the available equipment to maintain their current level of operations, and not to engage in major operations which could exhaust those supplies.
In 1988 Vietnam was estimated to have about 100,000 troops in Kampuchea, but, sensing that a diplomatic settlement was within reach, the Vietnamese Government began withdrawing forces in earnest. Between April and July 1989, 24,000 Vietnamese soldiers returned home. Then, between 21 and 26 September 1989, after 15,000 soldiers were killed and another 30,000 wounded during the 10-year occupation, Vietnam’s commitment to Kampuchea was officially over, when the remaining 26,000 Vietnamese soldiers were pulled out. However, armed resistance groups opposed to the Vietnamese-installed PRK regime claimed that Vietnamese troops were still operating on Kampuchean soil long after September 1989. For example, non-communist groups engaging in land-grab operations in western Kampuchea after the withdrawal reported clashes with elite Vietnamese Special Forces near Tamar Puok along Route 69. Then, in March 1991, Vietnamese units were reported to have re-entered Kampot Province to defeat a Khmer Rouge offensive. Despite such claims, on 23 October 1991 the Vietnamese Government signed the Paris Peace Agreement, which aimed to restore peace in Kampuchea.
in France to discuss the future of Kampuchea. Further talks occurred between 20–21 January 1988, and Hun Sen offered Sihanouk a position within the Kampuchean Government on the condition that he returned to Kampuchea straightaway. However, Sihanouk did not accept the offer, even as preparations were made in Phnom Penh to receive him. Despite that failure, Hun Sen’s Kampuchean Government was able to persuade Cheng Heng
and In Tam
, both ministers in Lon Nol’s regime, to return to Kampuchea. In the first major step towards restoring peace in Kampuchea, representatives of the CGDK and the PRK met for the first time at the First Jakarta Informal Meeting on 25 July 1988. In that meeting, Sihanouk proposed a three-stage plan, which called for a cease-fire, a UN peacekeeping force to supervise the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and the integration of all Kampuchean armed factions into a single army.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach urged all parties involved to separate Kampuchean problems into internal and external aspects. Therefore, to begin the process of restoring peace, the Vietnamese delegation proposed a two-stage plan that begins with internal discussions among the Kampuchean factions, followed by a roundtable discussion with all involved countries. The Vietnamese proposal won out at the meeting, but no agreements were reached. At the Second Jakarta Meeting on 19 February 1989, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
forwarded the Cambodian Peace Plan to bring about a ceasefire, a peacekeeping force and the establishment of a national unity government to maintain Kampuchea’s sovereignty until elections were held. To facilitate a peace agreement on the eve of the Vietnamese withdrawal, between 29–30 April 1989, Hun Sen convened a meeting of the National Assembly to adopt a new constitution, and the country was renamed the State of Cambodia to reflect the state of ambiguity of the country’s sovereignty. Furthermore, Buddhism
was re-established as the state religion, and citizens were guaranteed the right to hold private property.
In the meantime, however, peace talks between the warring factions continued, with the First Paris Peace Conference on Cambodia held in Paris
in 1989. On 26 February 1990, following the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops, the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting was held, at which the Supreme National Council was established to safeguard Cambodian sovereignty. Initially, the Supreme National Council was to have 12 members, with three seats allocated to each faction of the CGDK, and three to the pro-Vietnam Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party. However, Hun Sen objected to the proposed arrangement, calling instead for each faction of the CGDK to be given two seats for a total of six, and the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party to have six seats. In 1991 the Supreme National Council began representing Cambodia at the UN General Assembly. Then, in a bold move, Hun Sen renamed the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party to the Cambodian People’s Party in an effort to portray his party as a democratic institution and renounce its revolutionary struggle.
On 23 October 1991, the Cambodian factions of the Supreme National Council, along with Vietnam and 15 member nations of the International Peace Conference on Cambodia, signed the Paris Peace Agreement. For the Cambodian people, two decades of continuous warfare and 13 years of civil war seemed to be over, although an atmosphere of uneasiness amongst the leaders of the Cambodian factions remained. In order to include the Khmer Rouge in the agreement, the major powers agreed to avoid using the word "genocide" to describe the actions of the Government of Democratic Kampuchea in the period between 1975 and 1979. As a result, Hun Sen criticised the Paris Agreement as being far from perfect, as it failed to remind the Cambodian people of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime. Nonetheless, the Paris Agreement established the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC), in accordance with the UN Security Council’s Resolution 745, and gave UNTAC a broad mandate to supervise main policies and administration works until a Cambodian government was democratically elected.
On 14 November 1991, Sihanouk returned to Cambodia to participate in the elections, followed by Son Senn, a Khmer Rouge official, who arrived a few days later to set up the organisation’s electoral campaign office in Phnom Penh. On 27 November 1991, Khieu Samphan also returned to Cambodia on a flight from Bangkok
; initially he had expected his arrival to be uneventful, but as soon as Khieu Samphan’s flight landed at Pochentong Airport, he was met by an angry crowd which shouted insults and abuses at him. As Khieu Samphan was driven into the city, another crowd lined the route towards his office and threw objects at his car. As soon as he arrived at his office, Khieu Samphan entered and immediately telephoned the Chinese Government to save him. Shortly afterwards, an angry mob forced its way into the building, chased Khieu Samphan up the second floor and tried to hang him from a ceiling fan. Eventually, Khieu Samphan was able to escape from the building by a ladder with his face bloodied, and was immediately taken to Pochentong Airport, where he flew out of Cambodia. Thus, with the departure of Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge’s participation in the election seemed doubtful.
In March 1992, the start of the UNTAC mission in Cambodia was marked by the arrival of 22,000 UN peacekeepers, which included troops from 22 countries, 6,000 officials, 3,500 police and 1,700 civilian employees and electoral volunteers. The mission was led by Yasushi Akashi
. In June 1992, the Khmer Rouge formally established the National Union Party of Kampuchea, and announced that it would not register to participate in the upcoming elections. Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge also refused to disarm its forces in accordance with the Paris agreement. Then, to prevent ethnic Vietnamese from taking part in the elections, the Khmer Rouge started massacring Vietnamese civilian communities, causing hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese to flee Cambodia. Towards the end of 1992, Khmer Rouge forces advanced into Kompong Thom in order to gain a strategic foothold, before UN peacekeeping forces were fully deployed there. In the months leading up to the elections, several UN military patrols were attacked as they entered Khmer Rouge-held territory.
Despite ongoing threats from the Khmer Rouge during the elections, on 28 May 1993, FUNCINPEC won 45.47 percent of the vote, against 38.23 percent for the Cambodian People’s Party. Though clearly defeated, Hun Sen refused to accept the results of the election, so his Defense Minister, Sin Song, announced the secession of the eastern provinces of Cambodia, which had supported the Cambodian People’s Party. Prince Norodom Ranariddh
, leader of FUNCINPEC and son of Sihanouk, agreed to form a coalition government with the Cambodian People’s Party so the country would not break up. On 21 September 1993, the Cambodian Constituent Assembly approved a new Constitution and Ranariddh became First Prime Minister, and he appointed Hun Sen as the Second Prime Minister. On 23 September 1993, the constitutional monarchy
was restored with Norodom Sihanouk as the head of state. In July 1994, the Cambodian Government outlawed the Khmer Rouge for its continuous violations of the Paris Agreement. Most significantly, the Cambodian Government also specifically recognised the genocide and atrocities which occurred under Democratic Kampuchea. By 1998, the Khmer Rouge was completely dissolved.
In light of the decline experienced by the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, the Vietnamese Government began repairing diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries as part of a greater effort to rejuvenate Vietnam’s shattered economy. Since its invasion in 1979, China had placed sustained pressure on the northern borders of Vietnam, with the province of Ha Tuyen regularly shelled by Chinese artillery. In September 1985, Chinese bombardment of Ha Tuyen reached a peak when 2,000 rounds were fired. To reduce the state of hostility along the border region, and ultimately normalise relations with China, the Vietnamese Government dropped all hostile references to China at the 6th National Party Congress in December 1986, and also adopted the Doi Moi policy. In August 1990, as the Cambodian Peace Plan, authored by Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
, was being endorsed by the UN Security Council, both China and Vietnam moved towards accommodation.
Early in September 1990, Vietnamese Prime Minister Do Muoi, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh and former Prime Minister Pham Van Dong travelled to Chengdu
, China, where they held a secret meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng
and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin
. On 17 September 1990, General Vo Nguyen Giap
also made a trip to China and thanked the Chinese Government for its past assistance. Despite outwards signs of improvement in Vietnam's diplomatic relations with China, Vietnamese leaders were reluctant to endorse any peace plan which could weaken their client regime in Phnom Penh. However, as the four Cambodian factions reached an agreement on the power-sharing arrangement outlined at the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting in February 1990, Vietnam and China rapidly moved to re-establish formal diplomatic relations. In November 1991, newly elected Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet
travelled to Beijing
and met his Chinese counterpart, Li Peng, and they issued an 11-point communiqué re-establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries after 10 years without formal relations.
The end of the Cambodian conflict also brought an end the ASEAN-imposed trade and aid embargo which had been in place since 1979. In January 1990, Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan
publicly voiced his support for Vietnam, and the rest of Indochina
, to gain admission into ASEAN. In the period between late 1991 and early 1992, Vietnam restored relations with several member nations of ASEAN. As a result, between 1991 and 1994, investments from ASEAN countries made up 15 percent of direct foreign investment in Vietnam. Aside from the obvious economic benefits, ASEAN also provided a peaceful environment that guaranteed Vietnam’s national security against foreign threats in the post-Cold War
era, when Soviet aid was no longer available. Thus, on 28 July 1995, Vietnam officially became the seventh member of ASEAN, after leading ASEAN officials invited Vietnam to join at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok in 1994. Then, in August 1995, the U.S. Liaison Office in Hanoi was upgraded to Embassy status, after U.S. President Bill Clinton
announced a formal normalisation of diplomatic relations with Vietnam on 11 July 1995, thereby ending Vietnam’s isolation from the world.
Democratic Kampuchea
The Khmer Rouge period refers to the rule of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouge Communist party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea....
. The war began with isolated clashes along the land and maritime boundaries of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and Kampuchea between 1975 and 1977, occasionally involving division
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
-sized military formations. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea and subsequently occupied the country after the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
was removed from power.
During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge communists had formed an alliance to fight U.S.-backed regimes in their respective countries. Despite their open display of cooperation with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge leadership feared that the Vietnamese communists were scheming to form an Indochinese federation with Vietnam as the dominant force in the region. In order to preempt an attempt by the Vietnamese to dominate them, the Khmer Rouge leadership began purging Vietnamese-trained personnel within their own ranks as the Lon Nol
Lon Nol
Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister...
regime capitulated in 1975. Then, in May 1975, the newly formed Democratic Kampuchea, dominated by the Khmer Rouge, began waging a war against Vietnam, which was marked by an attack on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. In spite of the fighting which had occurred between the two countries, the leaders of reunified Vietnam and Kampuchea made several public diplomatic exchanges throughout 1976 to highlight the supposedly strong relations between them. Behind the scenes, however, Kampuchean leaders continued to fear what they perceived as Vietnamese expansionism. As such, on 30 April 1977, they launched another major military attack on Vietnam. Shocked by the Kampuchean assault, Vietnam launched a retaliatory strike at the end of 1977 in an attempt to force the Kampuchean Government to negotiate. In January 1978, the Vietnamese military withdrew because their political objectives had not been achieved.
Small-scale fighting continued between the two countries throughout 1978, as China tried to mediate peace talks between the two sides. However, neither country could reach an acceptable compromise at the negotiation table. By the end of 1978, Vietnamese leaders decided to remove the Khmer Rouge-dominated regime of Democratic Kampuchea, perceiving it as being pro-Chinese and too hostile towards Vietnam. On 25 December 1978, 150,000 Vietnamese troops invaded Democratic Kampuchea and overran the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army
Kampuchean Revolutionary Army
The Kampuchean Revolutionary Army was the official name of the armed forces of Democratic Kampuchea during Pol Pot's regime, mainly consisting of Khmer Rouge operatives. It was effectively abolished after the unsuccessful Cambodian-Vietnamese war....
in just two weeks. On 8 January 1979, a pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea
People's Republic of Kampuchea
The People's Republic of Kampuchea , , was founded in Cambodia by the Salvation Front, a group of Cambodian leftists dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge, after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot's government...
(PRK) was established in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
, marking the beginning of a ten-year Vietnamese occupation. During that period, the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea continued to be recognised by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
as the legitimate government of Kampuchea, as several armed resistance groups were formed to fight the Vietnamese occupation. Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Hun Sen
Hun Sen
Hun Sen is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia.He has been the sole leader of the Cambodian People's Party , which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979...
of the PRK regime approached factions of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions: Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Funcinpec party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front formed in 1982, broadening the de...
(CGDK) to begin peace talks. Under heavy diplomatic and economic pressure from the international community, the Vietnamese Government implemented a series of economic and foreign policy reforms, which led to their withdrawal from Kampuchea in September 1989.
At the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting in 1990, under the Australian-sponsored Cambodian Peace Plan, representatives of the CGDK and the PRK agreed to a power-sharing arrangement by forming a unity government known as the Supreme National Council (SNC). The SNC's role was to represent Cambodian sovereignty on the international stage, while the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992–93. It was also the first occasion on which the UN had taken over the administration of an independent state, organized and run an election , had its own radio station and jail,...
(UNTAC) was tasked with supervising the country's domestic policies until a Cambodian government was elected by the people through a peaceful, democratic process. Cambodia's pathway to peace proved to be difficult, as Khmer Rouge leaders decided not to participate in the general elections, but instead, they chose to disrupt the electoral process by launching military attacks on UN peacekeepers and killing ethnic Vietnamese migrants. In May 1993, Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC
Funcinpec
FUNCINPEC is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Before the 2008 election, FUNCINPEC and the Cambodian People's Party formed a coalition government, although FUNCINPEC's significance has decreased steadily since 1998, when it had an equal relationship with the CPP in the coalition.FUNCINPEC is...
movement defeated the Cambodian People's Party
Cambodian People's Party
The Cambodian People's Party is the current ruling party of Cambodia.This party was formerly known as Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party...
(CPP), formerly the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), to win the general elections. However, the CPP leadership refused to accept defeat and they announced the eastern provinces of Cambodia, where most of the CPP's votes were drawn from, would secede from Cambodia. To avoid such an outcome, Norodom Ranariddh
Norodom Ranariddh
Prince Norodom Ranariddh is the second son of former king Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and a half brother of the current king, Norodom Sihamoni.-Biography:...
, the leader of FUNCINPEC agreed to form a coalition government with the CPP. Shortly afterwards, the constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
was restored and the Khmer Rouge was outlawed by the newly formed Cambodian Government.
Cambodian-Vietnamese history
AngkorAngkor
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara , meaning "city"...
, the seat of the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
was subjected to Vietnamese influence as early as the thirteenth century. Vietnamese influence spread gradually and indirectly, and it was not until the early nineteenth century that Vietnam exercised direct control. In 1813, Nak Ong Chan gained the Cambodian throne with the help of Vietnam, and under his rule Cambodia became a protectorate. Following his death in 1834, Vietnam colonised Cambodia; it was governed under a Vietnamese administration and termed a Vietnamese ‘province’. Throughout the 1830s, Vietnam attempted to erase Khmer culture, which had derived the basis of Cambodian society, dress and religion from India rather than China. The trend of Vietnamese dominance continued during French colonisation, under which Cambodia was forced to cede much of its southern cone (would later be Saigon, the Mekong delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
and Tay Ninh) to the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge later justified their incursions into Vietnam as an attempt to regain the territories which Cambodia lost during the previous centuries.
Rise of communism
The communist movement in Cambodia and Vietnam began before World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
with the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party
Indochinese Communist Party
The Indochinese Communist Party was a political party which was transformed from old Vietnamese Communist Party in October 1930...
(ICP), almost exclusively dominated by the Vietnamese, originally meant to fight French colonial rule in Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
. In 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc (commonly known by his alias Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
) founded the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or the Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
. When the Japanese were defeated at the end of World War II, he initiated the first Indochinese war of independence
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
against the French. During this time, Vietnamese forces made extensive use of Cambodian territory to transport weapons, supplies, and troops. This relationship lasted throughout the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, when Vietnamese communists used Cambodia as a transport route and staging area for attacks on South Vietnam. In 1951, Vietnam guided the establishment of a separate Cambodian communist party, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), which allied with a nationalist separatist Cambodian movement, the Khmer Serei
Khmer Serei
The Khmer Serei, or "Free Khmer", were an anti-communist and anti-monarchist guerrilla force founded by Cambodian nationalist Son Ngoc Thanh.-Origin:...
(Free Khmers), in order to pursue independence. In accordance with the 1954 Geneva Accords negotiating the end of the French domination, newly created communist North Vietnam pulled all of its Viet Minh soldiers and cadres out of Cambodia; however, since the KPRP was staffed primarily by ethnic Vietnamese or Cambodians under its tutelage, approximately 5,000 Communist cadres went with them.
The power vacuum the Vietnamese communists left in its wake in Cambodia was soon filled by the return of a young group of Cambodian communist revolutionaries, many of whom received their communist education in France. In 1960, the KPRP changed its name to the Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP), and the name was later adopted by the majority coalition that formed around Saloth Sar (Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
), Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
and Khieu Samphan
Khieu Samphan
Khieu Samphan was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, though Pol Pot was the group's true political leader and held the most...
as the ‘true’ political institution memorialising the KCP. This clique became the genesis of the Khmer Rouge, and its doctrine was heavily influenced by the Maoist ideology.
Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge government adopted the mysterious term Angkar, or "the organisation", and until 1977 the identities of its leaders remained confidential. The official head of state was Khieu SamphanKhieu Samphan
Khieu Samphan was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, though Pol Pot was the group's true political leader and held the most...
, but the two men in control of the Party were Pol Pot and Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
. The ultimate objective of the Khmer Rouge was to erase the structure of the Cambodian state, which they viewed as feudal, capitalist, and oriented around the agendas of both the landholding elite and imperialists. In its place, they hoped to create a classless society based entirely on worker-peasants. The radical ideologies and goals of the Khmer Rouge were alien concepts to the masses. In fact, the socialist revolution held very little popular appeal, which led Pol Pot and his cadres to use ultra-nationalist sentiment, repressive and murderous rule, and propaganda aimed at demonising the Vietnamese to maintain their tenuous control.
During the five years of the Khmer Rouge rebellion from 1970 to 1975, the support of North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
, in conjunction with China, was essential to its eventual triumph. However, even before the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
ended, the relationship between the Khmer Rouge—which was in the process of seizing power from a US-backed regime headed by Lon Nol
Lon Nol
Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister...
—and Vietnam was strained. Clashes between Vietnamese communists and Khmer Rouge forces began as early as 1974, and the following year Pol Pot signed a treaty codifying the ‘friendship’ between the Khmer Rouge and China.
1975–76, from fighting to building friendly relations
The conclusion of the Indochina conflict in April 1975 immediately brought a new conflict between Vietnam and Kampuchea. Although both the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge had previously fought side by side, the leaders of the newly created Democratic Kampuchea continued to view North Vietnam with great suspicion, because they believed the Vietnamese Communist had never given up their dream of creating an Indochinese federation with Vietnam as the leader. For that reason, the Kampuchean Government decided to remove all North Vietnamese military forces from Kampuchean territory shortly after their capture of Phnom PenhPhnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
in 1975. In the first major clash between the two former allies, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army invaded the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc on 1 May 1975, which they claimed was part of Kampuchea’s territory.
Nine days later, on 10 May 1975, the Kampuchean military continued its incursion by capturing Tho Chu, where it executed 500 Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnamese military immediately responded to Kampuchean actions by launching a counter-attack and removing Kampuchean forces from Phu Quoc and Tho Chu, and then invading the Kampuchean island of Poulo Wai. In June 1975, while on a visit to Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, Kampuchean leader Pol Pot proposed that Vietnam and his country should sign a treaty of friendship and begin discussions on border disputes. However, those discussions never materialised, and the Kampucheans claimed that Vietnam turned down both offers. In August 1975, Vietnam returned the island of Poulo Wai to Kampuchea and formally recognised Kampuchean sovereignty over the island.
Following those incidents, both countries attempted to improve their diplomatic relations with a series of congratulatory messages and exchange visits. On 17 April 1976, Vietnamese leaders sent a message to congratulate Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea , also known as Long Bunruot , is a Cambodian former communist politician and former chief ideologist of Khmer Rouge. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" second in command to Pol Pot who was leader during the Cambodian Genocide 1975-1979...
and Pol Pot on their "elections" as President, President of the People’s Representatives and Premier of Kampuchea, respectively. Furthermore, the Vietnamese even denounced the alleged "U.S. bombing" of Siem Riep in February 1976, thereby reinforcing the Kampuchean’s fictitious claim over the incident. In response, in June 1976, the Kampuchean leadership sent a message to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, which had governed South Vietnam since the fall of the U.S.-backed regime, congratulating them on the seventh anniversary of their establishment.
In July 1976, following the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a reunified country, Phnom Penh Radio broadcast a commentary which proclaimed the "militant solidarity and friendship between peoples of Democratic Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam grow constantly greener and sturdier". However, during that same month, Premier Pol Pot publicly hinted at tensions between Vietnam and Kampuchea when he told a visiting Vietnamese media delegation that there were “obstacles and difficulties” in the relationship between the two countries. Nonetheless, on 21 September 1976, the first air service connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
with Phnom Penh was established. Then in December 1976, the Kampuchean Revolutionary Organisation sent greetings to the Vietnamese Communist Party during their Fourth Congress.
1977, build-up to war
Towards the end of 1976, while Vietnam and Kampuchea publicly appeared to be improving their relationships, the private suspicions of both countries' leadership grew. From the Vietnamese perspective, they were the patron of genuine Marxist-Leninist revolutions in South East Asia, so it was vital for them to exercise control over the Kampucheans and the Laotians. Indeed, that was the reason North Vietnam supported the Khmer Rouge during their fight against the Lon Nol regime, in the hope that the Kampuchean communists would adopt a pro-Vietnamese line upon their victory in the same way the Pathet LaoPathet Lao
The Pathet Lao was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists...
had done. However, their hopes were dashed as early as 1973, because North Vietnamese military formations operating in Khmer Rouge-occupied territories were occasionally subjected to armed attacks by their own allies. The Vietnamese position inside Kampuchea was further weakened after the end of the war, as there were no pro-Vietnamese elements left within the Kampuchean Communist Party.
Thus, when the pro-Chinese Pol Pot and his brother-in-law Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
resigned from their respective positions as Premier and Foreign Minister in September 1976, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong
Pham Van Dong
Phạm Văn Đồng was an associate of Ho Chi Minh. He served as prime minister of North Vietnam from 1955 through 1976, and was prime minister of a unified Vietnam from 1976 until he retired in 1987.- Early life :...
and General Secretary of the Communist Party Le Duan were optimistic that Vietnam could exercise greater influence on the Kampucheans. In a private meeting with the Soviet ambassador to Vietnam on 16 November 1976, Le Duan dismissed both Ieng Sary and Pol Pot as "bad people" for their pro-Chinese policies. Le Duan then asserted that Nuon Chea, who had ascended to the position of Premier of Democratic Kampuchea as Pol Pot’s replacement, was a person of pro-Vietnamese orientation, so Vietnam could exercise its influence through him. However, the events which developed over the next few months would prove Le Duan had been mistaken in his assessment of Nuon Chea.
Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh the Kampuchean leadership had developed a seething fear and hatred of the Vietnamese leadership as a result of Vietnam’s historical dominance over their country. From the Kampuchean perspective, the Vietnamese strategy to dominate Indochina involved infiltrating the communist parties of Kampuchea and Laos with Vietnamese-trained cadres. For that reason, when the first group of North Vietnamese-trained Khmer Rouge personnel returned to the country, they were immediately purged from the Party. During the months following the defeat of the Lon Nol regime, Pol Pot continued to purge his own party and the Government of Democratic Kampuchea of those who he believed to be Soviet and Vietnamese agents. Then, in the context of the triumphalism which prevailed over the Khmer Rouge leadership in a war which they claimed they single-handedly defeated the "American imperialist", Democratic Kampuchea began to embark on a war against Vietnam.
As the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army made preparations for its war against Vietnam, state-controlled media in Vietnam sent congratulatory messages to the Government of the Democratic Kampuchea on the second anniversary of its establishment, on 17 April 1977. On 30 April 1977, the second anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the Kampuchean reply came in the form of a military attack against the Vietnamese provinces of An Giang and Chau Doc
Chau Doc
Châu Đốc is a district and town in An Giang Province, bordering Cambodia, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. As of 2003 the district had a population of 112,155. The district covers an area of 100 km²....
, killing hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnam People's Army
Vietnam People's Army
The Vietnam People's Army is the armed forces of Vietnam. The VPA includes: the Vietnamese People's Ground Forces , the Vietnam People's Navy , the Vietnam People's Air Force, and the Vietnam Marine Police.During the French Indochina War , the VPA was often referred to as the Việt...
responded by moving its troops to areas attacked by Kampuchea and, on 7 June 1977, Vietnam proposed high-level talks to discuss outstanding issues. On 18 June 1977, the Kampuchean Government replied by demanding that Vietnam remove all of its military units from the disputed areas, and create a demilitarised zone between the opposing forces.
Both sides ignored each other’s proposals, and the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army continued sending soldiers across the border to attack Vietnamese towns and villages. In September 1977, Kampuchean artillery struck several Vietnamese villages along the border, and six villages in Dong Thap Province were overrun by Kampuchean infantry. Shortly afterwards, six divisions of the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army advanced about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) into Tay Ninh Province, where they killed more than 1,000 Vietnamese civilians. Angered by the scale of Kampuchean assaults, the Vietnam People’s Army assembled eight divisions, estimated at around 60,000 soldiers, to launch a retaliatory strike against Kampuchea. On 16 December 1977, Vietnamese divisions, with support from elements of the Vietnam People's Air Force
Vietnam People's Air Force
The Vietnam People's Air Force is the air force of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North Vietnamese Air Force and the absorbed Republic of Vietnam Air Force following the re-unification of Vietnam in 1975.-Beginning-1964 :The first Vietnamese aircraft were two trainers, a de Havilland...
, crossed the border along several axes with the objective of forcing the Kampuchean Government to negotiate.
On the battlefield, the Kampucheans quickly lost ground as their combat units were pushed back by the Vietnamese. By the end of December 1977, Vietnam had won a clear military victory over Kampuchea, as Vietnamese formations marched through Svay Rieng Province and only stopped short of entering the provincial capital. Despite the ferocity of the Vietnamese retaliation, the Kampuchean Government remained defiant. On 31 December 1977, Khieu Sampham declared that the Kampuchean Government would "temporarily" sever diplomatic relations with Vietnam until the Vietnamese military withdraw from the "sacred territory of Democratic Kampuchea". On 6 January 1978, Vietnamese divisions were only 38 kilometres (23.6 mi) from Phnom Penh, but the Vietnamese Government decided to withdraw its forces from Kampuchea because they had failed to achieve Vietnam’s political objective. During the withdrawal, the Vietnamese military also evacuated thousands of prisoners and civilian refugees, including future leader Hun Sen
Hun Sen
Hun Sen is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia.He has been the sole leader of the Cambodian People's Party , which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979...
.
1978, preparations for regime change
Instead of being sobered by the Vietnamese show of force, the Kampuchean Government boasted that the Vietnamese withdrawal was a major victory for Democratic Kampuchea, comparing it to the “defeat of U.S. imperialism” on 17 April 1975. The Kampucheans went on further to proclaim that "our 6 January victory over the annexationist, Vietnamese aggressor enemy has given all of us greater confidence in the forces of our people and nation, in our Kampuchean Communist Party and our Kampuchean Revolutionary Army, and in our Party’s line of people’s war". The Kampuchean leadership claimed that one Kampuchean soldier was equal to 30 Vietnamese soldiers, so if Kampuchea could raise two million soldiers from a population of eight million, it could wipe out Vietnam’s population of 50 million and still have six million people left. In reality, Kampuchean leaders simply ignored the condition of the population in their own country and Vietnam; the Vietnamese, though poor, were in good physical condition, while Kampuchea’s population was physically and mentally exhausted from years of hard labour, starvation and disease.In addition to the disparity in population, there was also a great disparity between the fighting capabilities of the armed forces of the two countries. In 1977, Vietnam was estimated to have 615,000 soldiers and 900 tanks, supported by a 12,000-member air force with 300 combat aircraft, including one squadron of light bombers. In comparison, Kampuchea had an army of 70,000, only few heavy tanks, 200 armoured vehicles, and limited air capability. Despite facing such heavy odds, Kampuchea showed no signs of hesitation as its military continued to assault Vietnam’s border regions. In January 1978, Kampuchean forces still held portions of Vietnamese territory and began overrunning Vietnamese outposts in Ha Tien
Hà Tiên
Hà Tiên or Ha Tien is a town in Kien Giang Province, Tay Nam Bo of Vietnam. Area: 8,851.5 ha, population : 39,957. The town borders Cambodia to the west....
Province. On 27 January 1978, Vietnam started calling on the Kampuchean military along the border regions to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime.
Against the backdrop of military clashes, between 9 January and 20 February 1978, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Phan Hien made several trips to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to hold discussions with representatives of the Kampuchean Government, which ultimately proved to be fruitless. On 18 January 1978, China attempted to mediate further negotiations between Kampuchea and Vietnam when Vice Premier Deng Yingchao
Deng Yingchao
Deng Yingchao , was the wife of the first Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai, Chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and a member of the Communist Party of China.-Biography:...
travelled to Phnom Penh, where she was met with strong resistance by Kampuchean leaders. Meanwhile, Vietnamese government officials began conducting secret meetings with So Phim, the Khmer Rouge leader in Kampuchea’s Eastern Military Zone, to plan a military uprising backed by Vietnam. During that same period, military setbacks experienced by the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army in the Eastern Military Zone prompted Pol Pot to label the region as a "nest of traitors".
In order to purge the Eastern Military Zone of those he perceived to have been contaminated by the Vietnamese, Pol Pot ordered military units from the Southwest Zone to move into eastern Kampuchea and eliminate the "hidden traitors". Unable to withstand an attack from the Kampuchea Government, So Phim committed suicide while his deputy Heng Samrin
Heng Samrin
Heng Samrin is a Cambodian politician. He was the chairman of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia , and later vice chairman and chairman of the National Assembly of Cambodia since 2006....
defected to Vietnam. On 12 April 1978, the Kampuchean Government declared they and Vietnam could negotiate again if the Vietnamese gave up their expansionist ambitions and recognised Kampuchea’s sovereignty. However, there was also a pre-condition requiring Vietnam to meet several obligations through a seven month trial ceasefire. The Vietnamese Government immediately rejected the demand and, in response, two Kampuchean divisions penetrated up to 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) into Vietnamese territory, and massacred
Ba Chúc Massacre
The Ba Chuc Massacre was carried out by the regular army of Democratic Kampuchea's army, the Khmer Rouge, on April 18, 1978 in Ba Chúc, Tri Tôn, An Giang province, southern Vietnam. Of those who had lived in Ba Chúc, 3,157 civilians were killed, only two survived the massacre. The attack was one of...
over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians in the village of Ba Chuc
Ba Chúc
Ba Chúc is a commune and village of the Tri Tôn District of An Giang Province, Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, the village came to the attention of Americans when it was revealed in the New York Times that civilians there had been forced by ARVN officers and their American advisers to remove...
in An Giang Province.
In June 1978, the Vietnamese Air Force started bombing Kampuchean positions along the border regions, flying about 30 bombing sorties per day and inflicting heavy casualties on the Kampucheans. By that stage in the conflict, most surviving leaders of the Eastern Military Zone had escaped into Vietnam, where they assembled at various secret camps with the purpose of forming a Vietnamese-backed "liberation army" to fight against Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo was meeting in Hanoi to discuss its strategy for Kampuchea. It concluded that the Khmer Rouge regime was a proxy of China, which had been trying to fill the power vacuum following the withdrawal of the United States. As such, China was identified as Vietnam’s main enemy, and its client regime in Phnom Penh had to be removed by conventional military force, because the Vietnamese adaptation of the Maoist "people’s war" doctrine had not been a success against the Khmer Rouge’s security apparatus.
To reflect the attitude of the country’s leaders, Vietnam’s state-controlled media stepped up its propaganda war against the Khmer Rouge, with the Vietnamese Communist Nhan Dan
Nhân Dân
Nhân Dân is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam. According to the newspaper, it is “the voice of the Party, State and people of Vietnam.”...
Newspaper regularly calling for international intervention to save the Kampuchean people from domestic terror initiated by the Khmer Rouge regime. Furthermore, instead of sending congratulatory messages like they had done in the previous years, the Vietnamese media changed their tone and began referring to the Kampuchean Government as the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" as the Kampuchean military continued their campaign in Vietnam. By the end of June, the Vietnamese military assembled a multi-division task force to launch another limited-objective campaign against the Kampucheans. Again, the Vietnamese pushed the Kampuchean forces back into the provincial cities of Suong and Prey Veng and then pulled out. However, as they had done before, the Kampuchean Army moved its artillery towards the border and continued shelling Vietnamese villages as though nothing had happened.
During the second half of 1978, Vietnamese leaders devoted much of their energy towards the military campaign against the Khmer Rouge regime, by seeking political support from the Soviet Union. In a briefing with Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials on 25 July 1978, the Soviet charge d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
in Hanoi was told that the Kampuchean Government had deployed 14 of its 17 regular army divisions and 16 local regiments along the border with Vietnam. Then, in early September 1978, Le Duan informed the Soviet ambassador that Vietnam aimed to "solve fully this question of Kampuchea by the beginning of 1979". While Vietnam was laying the political foundation for the military campaign against Kampuchea, Soviet ships were reported to be unloading military hardware and ammunition in Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay is a deep-water bay in Vietnam in the province of Khánh Hòa. It is located at an inlet of the South China Sea situated on the southeastern coast of Vietnam, between Phan Rang and Nha Trang, approximately 290 kilometers / 180 miles northeast of Hồ Chí Minh City / Saigon.Cam Ranh is...
. In October 1978, Vietnamese radio broadcast what they claimed were accounts of uprisings against the Khmer Rouge regime, urging members of the Kampuchean military either to overthrow the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique" or defect to Vietnam.
In a major turning point in the course of Soviet-Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations, and ultimately the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea, on 3 November 1978 a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed between Vietnam and the Soviet Union, guaranteeing the former of vital Soviet military aid in the scenario that China intervened in the conflict. Later, in November 1978, a command and control headquarters was established for the planned invasion of Kampuchea, with Senior General Le Duc Anh taking full control of Vietnamese military units along the border areas. The Vietnamese Government, to replace earlier losses and augment its units along the border, drafted 350,000 men into the military. While the new recruits were completing training, ten divisions were deployed to the border regions of Long An, Dong Thap and Tay Ninh Provinces. Vietnam also shifted three divisions based in Laos south towards the Laos-Kampuchea border. On 13 December 1978, the Chinese Government warned Vietnam that its patience was limited, and that Vietnam would be punished if it behaved in an "unbridled fashion".
Nonetheless, the final piece of the Vietnamese strategy emerged when Vietnam announced the formation of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation
Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation
The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation , often simply referred to as Salvation Front or by its French acronym FUNSK , was the nucleus of a new Cambodian regime, that would later establish the People's Republic of Kampuchea .Its foundation took place in 1978 in Vietnam by...
(KUFNS) in the "liberation zones" of Kampuchea. Hanoi claimed that KUFNS was an independent Kampuchean communist movement, with members drawn from all walks of life. Heng Samrin, formerly a member of the Khmer Rouge and commander of the Kampuchean 4th Division, was the chairman of the KUFNS Central Committee. Previously, the KUFNS was known as the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Kampuchea (PRGK), which consisted of 300 former Khmer Rouge cadres who defected to Vietnam. The PRGK regularly sent representatives abroad in search of support, before Vietnam abandoned the ‘people’s war’ concept in favour of a conventional military campaign, similar to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Not to be outdone by the Vietnamese military build-up, the Government of Democratic Kampuchea was busy strengthening its armed forces with Chinese support. In previous years, China had only provided the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army with a limited amount of arms and ammunition, but as relations with Vietnam worsened in 1978, Beijing established additional supply routes through Kampuchea and increased the volume of military hardware which travelled down each route. On the eve of the Vietnamese invasion, Kampuchea had an estimated 73,000 soldiers in the Eastern Military Zone bordering Vietnam. At that time, all branches of the Kampuchean armed forces were significantly strengthened by large quantities of Chinese-made military equipment, which included fighter aircraft, patrol boats, heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, trucks and tanks. Additionally, there were between 10,000 and 20,000 Chinese advisers in both military and civilian capacities, providing their support to the Khmer Rouge regime.
Invasion of Kampuchea
Early in December 1978, Kampuchea’s new found strength was tested when a Vietnamese offensive, consisting of two divisions, crossed the border and moved towards the town of Kratie, while other support divisions were deployed along local routes to cut off the logistical tail of Kampuchean units. Despite enjoying generous support from China, the Kampuchean military could not withstand the Vietnamese offensive and suffered heavy casualties. Finally, on 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion using 13 divisions, estimated at 150,000 soldiers well-supported by heavy artillery and air power. Initially, Kampuchea directly challenged Vietnam’s military might through conventional fighting methods, but this tactic resulted in the loss of half of the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army within two weeks. Heavy defeats on the battlefield prompted much of the Kampuchean leadership to evacuate towards the western region of the country. On 7 January 1979, the Vietnamese Army entered Phnom Penh along with members of the KUFNS. On the following day, a pro-Vietnamese Kampuchean state, known as the People's Republic of KampucheaPeople's Republic of Kampuchea
The People's Republic of Kampuchea , , was founded in Cambodia by the Salvation Front, a group of Cambodian leftists dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge, after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot's government...
(PRK), was established, with Heng Samrin
Heng Samrin
Heng Samrin is a Cambodian politician. He was the chairman of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia , and later vice chairman and chairman of the National Assembly of Cambodia since 2006....
as the Chief of State and Pen Sovan as Secretary-General of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party.
The Khmer Rouge leadership, with much of its political and military structures shattered by the Vietnamese invasion, was forced to take refuge in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, where it was warmly welcomed by the Thai Government. Despite the overwhelming economic challenges brought by the Khmer Rouge and the accompanying refugees, the Thai Government sheltered and protected the Khmer Rouge at Khao Larn camp in Trat Province. Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh, the new Kampuchean regime tried to rebuild the country’s economic and social life, which was largely destroyed by decades of political upheavals and constant warfare. However, the new Kampuchean Government’s effort to rebuild the country was severely hampered by the lack of educated and qualified personnel, as most educated people had either fled the country or were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime during the previous four years. By the end of the year, the new regime’s attempts at nation-building were further challenged by several anti-Vietnamese resistance groups operating along the western regions of the country.
Response from the international community
Shortly after the fall of Phnom Penh to Vietnamese forces and their Kampuchean allies in January 1979, representatives of Democratic Kampuchea called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security CouncilUnited Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
, so Prince Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
could present the deposed regime's case. Despite strong objections from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, the UN Security Council gave Sihanouk this chance. Although Sihanouk distanced himself from the human rights abuses of the Khmer Rouge, he accused Vietnam of using aggression to violate Kampuchea’s sovereignty. As such, he demanded all UN countries to suspend aid to Vietnam and not recognise the Vietnamese-installed regime. Subsequently, seven non-aligned members of the UN Security Council submitted a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea, which was endorsed by China, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. However, the resolution was not approved due to strong opposition from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
Between 16–19 February 1979 Vietnam and the new Kampuchean regime held a summit meeting which concluded with the two countries signing the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation. Article 2 of the treaty stated that the security of Vietnam and Kampuchea were interrelated; thus they would help defend each other “against schemes and acts of sabotage by the imperialist and international reactionary forces”, thereby legitimising the presence of Vietnamese troops on Kampuchean soil. Soon afterwards, the Soviet Union, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and India immediately recognised the Vietnamese-installed People’s Republic of Kampuchea. The Soviet Government praised the PRK’s "remarkable victory" and expressed its full support for the regime’s advance towards socialism. Furthermore, the Soviets harshly criticised the Khmer Rouge regime’s record of terror, which they implied had been imposed by China.
At the 34th Session of the UN General Assembly, representatives of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and Democratic Kampuchea both claimed the right to represent their country. The former also notified the member nations of the UN Security Council that it was the sole legitimate representative of Kampuchea and its people. In response, the UN Credential’s Committee decided to recognise Democratic Kampuchea by a vote of six to three, despite the Khmer Rouge’s blood-stained record while in power. Accordingly, representatives of Democratic Kampuchea were allowed to be seated in the General Assembly, with strong support from China. By January 1980, 29 countries had established diplomatic relations with the People Republic of Kampuchea, yet nearly 80 countries still recognised the legitimacy of the deposed Democratic Kampuchea. At the same time, the Western powers and the member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) also voiced strong condemnation of Vietnam’s use of force to remove the Khmer Rouge regime.
Thailand, which shares an 800 kilometres (497.1 mi) border with Kampuchea and has historically feared Vietnam’s expansionism, demanded that Vietnam immediately remove its troops from Kampuchea so its people could elect a government free from foreign intervention. Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Malaysia, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
showed their support for Thailand’s position. Furthermore, ASEAN viewed Vietnam’s invasion and subsequent occupation of Kampuchea, which received strong Soviet support, as an intolerable threat to the region’s security and stability. That view was shared by China, which went as far as accusing Vietnam of forcing Kampuchea into an Indochinese federation to serve as an outpost of Soviet global hegemony. The United States, which never maintained any form of diplomatic ties with the Khmer Rouge’s Democratic Kampuchea, showed strong support for the membership of their former enemy in the UN General Assembly, and echoed ASEAN’s call for an immediate withdrawal of Vietnamese military forces from Kampuchea.
China invades Vietnam
In February 1979, China retaliated against Vietnam's invasion of Kampuchea by dispatching troops along the Sino-Vietnam border, and within ten days had reached the provincial capitals. Fighting bogged down due to the maze of tunnels the Chinese encountered; nevertheless, the Chinese army captured Cao Bang on 2 March and Lang SonLang Son
Lạng Sơn , sometimes Langson, is a city in far northern Vietnam, is the capital of Lang Son province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Road 1A.-History:...
on 4 March, reportedly advancing towards Hanoi at a high speed, though not on good terms with its supply lines. The following day, however, the Beijing regime announced that it would not move deeper into Vietnam, apparently after meeting fierce and unexpectedly harsh resistance by the well trained and experienced Vietnamese forces, supplied with American technology left behind from the Vietnam War. Confident that the threat of invasion had been a success, the Chinese retreated, leaving a path of destruction spanning 500 kilometres (310.7 mi) in their wake. With Chinese support lost after Vietnamese recapitulation, Kampuchea was left to fend for itself. Although Chinese total losses were estimated higher than those of the Vietnamese (12–50,000 compared to the Vietnamese death toll of approximately 10,000), the diversion of troops from Kampuchea facilitated a strong resurgence in Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
insurgent operations, making it unavoidable for the young PRK regime in Kampuchea to implement conscription and require Vietnam to station a large portion of its army along the Sino-Vietnamese border.
Internal resistance to the new regime
When the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in January 1979, the Kampuchean people believed that peace and liberty would return to their country. Their beliefs were reinforced by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Kampuchean, proclaimed in 1981, which specifically stated that Kampuchea is an independent, peaceful state where power belongs to the people. However, there was a deep contrast between what was written within the Kampuchean constitution and reality, because the Kampuchean people began to despair at what they viewed as the Vietnamese occupation of their country, rather than a liberation that had freed them from the brutality of Democratic Kampuchea. That perception was reinforced by the presence of Vietnamese advisers who worked at every level of Heng Samrin’s Kampuchean Government. In 1986, for example, there was one Vietnamese adviser for every Kampuchean cabinet minister and one adviser for each one of their three deputy ministers. Furthermore, it was reported that final decisions made by a Kampuchean minister had to receive final approval from the Vietnamese adviser, who usually dictated policies.To resist the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea and the regime which they installed, the Khmer Rouge called on the Kampuchean people to unite and fight the Vietnamese. However, due to the brutality which they had experienced under the deposed regime, many Kampucheans believed that any political movement aimed at restoring national freedom must oppose both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese. In response to such preconditions, two non-communist movements were formed to fight the Vietnamese occupation. The first group, a right-wing and pro-Western organisation, was formed in October 1979 by former Prime Minister Son Sann and was called the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (KPNLF). The KPNLF operated from several refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, where it controlled thousands of civilians. At its peak, the armed branch of the KPNLF were estimated to have between 12,000 and 15,000 fighters, but a third of that number were lost through fighting and desertions during the Vietnamese dry season offensive of 1984-85. Nonetheless, the KPNLF continued to operate in small groups, harassing the Vietnamese and their Kampuchean allies using guerrilla tactics.
The other non-communist organisation was the National United Front for an Independent, Peaceful, Neutral, and Cooperative Cambodia, formed by Sihanouk and known by its French acronym FUNCINPEC
Funcinpec
FUNCINPEC is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Before the 2008 election, FUNCINPEC and the Cambodian People's Party formed a coalition government, although FUNCINPEC's significance has decreased steadily since 1998, when it had an equal relationship with the CPP in the coalition.FUNCINPEC is...
. The organisation was formed after Sihanouk had severed ties with the Khmer Rouge following his representation on its behalf at the UN Security Council. As the leader of FUNCINPEC, Sihanouk called on the UN General Assembly to expel Khmer Rouge representatives for their crimes while in power and to keep Kampuchea’s seat at the UN vacant on the basis that neither the Khmer Rouge nor the Vietnamese-installed PRK had the mandate to represent the Kampuchean people. He also criticised ASEAN for its continued recognition of the Khmer Rouge, and specifically Thailand for enabling Chinese arms shipments to travel through its territory to supply the notorious communist group. Despite the strength, effectiveness and popularity of the KPNLF and the FUNCINPEC, both resistance groups were plagued by internal divisions caused by the lack of unity, leadership struggles, corruption and alleged abuses of human rights.
In the early days of the Vietnamese occupation, the Kampuchean resistance groups had limited contact with each other due to their differences. Even though the Khmer Rouge enjoyed widespread international support, by 1980 the organisation was under pressure to reform itself from the international community. ASEAN, which had backed the Khmer Rouge throughout their diplomatic confrontations with the PRK regime at the UN General Assembly in 1979, urged the Khmer Rouge leadership to put its blood-stained image behind it in order to join forces with other non-communist movements. However, the idea of forming an alliance with the Khmer Rouge initially caused a certain degree of uneasiness within the leadership circles of the FUNCINPEC and the KPNLF, because both groups were weary about joining with a communist organisation well known for its brutality. Nonetheless, early in 1981 Sihanouk and Son Sann began engaging in talks with Khieu Samphan, President of the deposed Democratic Kampuchea, to discuss the prospect of forming an alliance.
In August 1981 unity talks between the three organisations appeared to have collapsed as a result of conflicting interests. Sihanouk, who feared the resurgence of the Khmer Rouge, proposed that all resistance groups disarm themselves following the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea. Meanwhile, Son Sann demanded that the KPNLF be the lead organisation within the proposed alliance, and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge "most compromised" by the atrocities in Kampuchea be exiled to China. Against these preconditions, Khieu Samphan reminded his rivals that the autonomy of the Khmer Rouge and Democratic Kampuchea should not be undermined. On 22 November 1982 Singapore, with the backing of ASEAN, proposed that three organisations form a coalition government with equal decision-making powers within the alliance. Singapore’s proposal was welcomed by Sihanouk, who believed it was a fair deal for the non-communist movements.
Khieu Samphan, on the other hand, rejected that idea, viewing it as an attempt by Sihanouk and Son Sann to isolate the Khmer Rouge. However, Sihanouk knew that Chinese support would not be made available to the FUNCINPEC unless he made some compromises and joined the Khmer Rouge on their terms. So, in February 1982, Sihanouk met with Khieu Samphan in Beijing to work out their differences. In what he described as "another concession", Khieu Samphan proposed forming a coalition government without integrating the other resistance groups into institutions associated with Democratic Kampuchea. But he emphasised, however, that all parties must defend the legal status of Democratic Kampuchea as the legitimate state representing Kampuchea on the world stage. In May 1982, with the urging of Sihanouk, Son Sann decided to form a coalition government with the Khmer Rouge.
On 22 June 1982, leaders of the three organisations formalised the formation of their coalition government by signing a Thai-sponsored agreement which established the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions: Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Funcinpec party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front formed in 1982, broadening the de...
(CGDK). Accordingly, the CGDK’s Inner Cabinet consisted of Sihanouk as the President of Democratic Kampuchea, Khieu Samphan as the Vice-President in charge of foreign affairs and Son Sann as Prime Minister. Below the Inner Cabinet were six separate committees responsible for national defence, economy and finance, social affairs and public health, military affairs and the media. By 1987, Democratic Kampuchea still held its membership at the UN General Assembly, even though it lacked four criterion of statehood which included people, territory, government and supreme authority within the borders of a country. In spite of those limitations, forces of the three armed factions within the CGDK continued to fight the Vietnamese Army to achieve their objective of “bring about the implementation of the International Conference on Cambodia and other relevant UN General Assembly resolutions”.
Vietnamese reform and withdrawal
In 1978, when Vietnamese leaders launched their invasion of Kampuchea to remove the Khmer Rouge regime, they did not expect a negative reaction from the international community. However, the events that followed the invasion showed that Vietnamese leaders had severely miscalculated international sympathies towards their cause. Instead of backing Vietnam, most member countries of the United Nations denounced the Vietnamese use of force against Kampuchea, and even moved to revive the battered Khmer Rouge organisation that once governed the country with such brutality. Thus, more than just a military problem, Kampuchea quickly evolved into an economic and diplomatic problem for Vietnam on the international arena. Throughout the decade in which Vietnam occupied neighbouring Kampuchea, the Vietnamese Government and the PRK regime which it installed were placed on the periphery of the international community.The international community’s political stance towards Kampuchea had a severe impact on the Vietnamese economy, already wrecked by decades of continuous conflicts. The United States, which already had sanctions in place against Vietnam, convinced other countries of the United Nations to deprive Vietnam and the People’s Republic of Kampuchea of much-needed funds by denying them membership to major international organisations such as the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the Asian Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...
and the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
. In 1979 Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
stepped up the pressure by suspending all economic aid to Vietnam, and warned Vietnamese leaders that economic aid will only resume when Vietnam amends its policies towards Kampuchea, the Sino-Soviet rivalry and the problem of the boat people
Boat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
. Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, which was considered the staunchest supporter of Vietnam in the West, also considered reducing its commitments to the communist country as virtually every other country cancelled its aid.
In addition to external pressure, domestic policies implemented by the Vietnamese Government since 1975 had proven to be largely ineffective in stimulating the country’s economic growth. By building on the Soviet model of central economic planning, Vietnam placed most emphasis on the development of heavy industries, while production in agriculture and light manufacturing sectors stagnated. Furthermore, attempts to nationalise the economy of southern Vietnam after reunification only resulted in chaos, as economic output were driven down by dislocation of the general population. In addition to those failed economic policies, Vietnam maintained the fifth largest armed forces in the world, with 1.26 million regular soldiers under arms. Consequently, the Vietnamese Government had to spend one-third of its budget on the military and the campaign in Kampuchea, despite receiving $1.2 billion in military aid annually from the Soviet Union, thus further hampering Vietnam’s economic rebuilding efforts.
To avoid engaging in a debilitating conflict with various local armed resistance groups within the context of international pressure, Vietnam began withdrawing its military forces from Kampuchea as early as 1982. But the withdrawal process conducted by Vietnam lacked international verification, so foreign observers simply dismissed Vietnam’s movement of troops as mere rotations. In order to disengage from Kampuchea, Vietnam unveiled a five-phase strategy known as the K5 Plan
K5 Plan
The K5 Plan, K5 Belt or K5 Project, also known as Bamboo Curtain, was an attempt between 1985 and 1989 by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea to seal Khmer Rouge guerrilla infiltration routes into Cambodia by means of trenches, wire fences, and minefields along virtually the entire...
in 1984, which was authored by General Le Duc Anh, who led the Vietnamese campaign in Kampuchea. The first phase required the Vietnamese military to capture the bases of armed groups in western Kampuchea and along the border with Thailand. The next phases included sealing off the border with Thailand, destroying local resistance groups, providing security for the population, and building-up the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. Foreign observers believed that the Vietnamese Army completed the first phase of the K5 Plan during the dry season offensive of 1984-85, when the base camps of several anti-Vietnamese resistance groups were overrun. Afterwards, the majority of ten Vietnamese divisions were assigned to operations on the frontiers, with the remaining staying in major provinces to protect the local population and to train the Kampuchean armed forces.
By 1985, international isolation and economic hardships had forced Vietnam to rely more and more on the Soviet Union for help. During the Chinese invasion in February 1979, the Soviet Union provided $1.4 billion worth of military aid to Vietnam, a figure that peaked at $1.7 billion in the period between 1981 and 1985. Then, to help Vietnam implement its third Five Year Plan (1981–1985), the Soviet Union provided a sum of $5.4 billion to the Vietnamese Government for its expenditures, and economic aid ultimately reached $1.8 billion annually. The Soviet Union also provided 90 percent of Vietnam’s demand for raw materials and 70 percent of its grain imports. Even though the figures suggest the Soviet Union was a reliable ally, privately Soviet leaders were dissatisfied with Hanoi’s handling of the stalemate in Kampuchea and resented the burden of their aid program to Vietnam as their own country was undergoing economic reforms. In 1986, the Soviet Government announced that it would reduce aid to friendly nations; for Vietnam those reductions meant the loss of 20 percent of its economic aid and one-third of its military aid.
To reengage with the international community, and to deal with the economic challenges brought by the changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Vietnamese leaders decided to embark on a series of reforms. At the 6th National Party Congress in December 1986, newly appointed General Secretary of the VCP Nguyen Van Linh
Nguyen Van Linh
Nguyễn Văn Linh was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1986 to 1991 and a political leader of the Vietcong during the Vietnam War...
introduced a major reform known as Doi Moi, the Vietnamese term for "renovation", in order to fix Vietnam’s economic problems. However, Vietnamese leaders concluded that Vietnam’s dire economic situation came as a result of the international isolation which followed its invasion of Kampuchea in 1978, and that for Doi Moi to be successful it needed radical changes in defence and foreign policy. Subsequently, in June 1987, the Vietnamese Politburo adopted a new defence strategy in Resolution No. 2, calling for the complete withdrawal of Vietnamese soldiers from international duties, a reduction in the size of the army through a discharge of 600,000 soldiers and the establishment of a set ratio for military expenditures.
Then, on 13 May 1988, the Vietnamese Politburo adopted Resolution No.13 on foreign policy, which aimed to achieve diversification and multilateralisation of Vietnam’s foreign relations. Its main objectives were to end the embargoes imposed by UN members, integrate Vietnam with the regional and international community and ultimately attract foreign investment and development aid. As part of this change, Vietnam ceased to regard the United States as a long-term foe and China as an imminent and dangerous enemy. In addition, official Vietnamese propaganda stopped labelling ASEAN as a "NATO-type" organisation. To implement the new reforms, Vietnam, with support from the Soviet Union, started transferring several years' worth of military equipment to the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces
Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces
The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, or Khmer People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, was the formal title given to the armed forces of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the de facto government of Cambodia 1979-1990....
(KPRAF), which numbered more than 70,000 soldiers. The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense’s International Relations Department then advised its Kampuchean counterparts to only use the available equipment to maintain their current level of operations, and not to engage in major operations which could exhaust those supplies.
In 1988 Vietnam was estimated to have about 100,000 troops in Kampuchea, but, sensing that a diplomatic settlement was within reach, the Vietnamese Government began withdrawing forces in earnest. Between April and July 1989, 24,000 Vietnamese soldiers returned home. Then, between 21 and 26 September 1989, after 15,000 soldiers were killed and another 30,000 wounded during the 10-year occupation, Vietnam’s commitment to Kampuchea was officially over, when the remaining 26,000 Vietnamese soldiers were pulled out. However, armed resistance groups opposed to the Vietnamese-installed PRK regime claimed that Vietnamese troops were still operating on Kampuchean soil long after September 1989. For example, non-communist groups engaging in land-grab operations in western Kampuchea after the withdrawal reported clashes with elite Vietnamese Special Forces near Tamar Puok along Route 69. Then, in March 1991, Vietnamese units were reported to have re-entered Kampot Province to defeat a Khmer Rouge offensive. Despite such claims, on 23 October 1991 the Vietnamese Government signed the Paris Peace Agreement, which aimed to restore peace in Kampuchea.
Paris Peace Agreement
On 14 January 1985, Hun Sen was appointed Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and began peace talks with the factions of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. Between 2–4 December 1987, Hun Sen met with Sihanouk at Fere-en-TardenoisFère-en-Tardenois
Fère-en-Tardenois is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, .-Population:-Personalities:It was the birthplace of Camille Claudel , sculptor and graphic artist.-Sights:...
in France to discuss the future of Kampuchea. Further talks occurred between 20–21 January 1988, and Hun Sen offered Sihanouk a position within the Kampuchean Government on the condition that he returned to Kampuchea straightaway. However, Sihanouk did not accept the offer, even as preparations were made in Phnom Penh to receive him. Despite that failure, Hun Sen’s Kampuchean Government was able to persuade Cheng Heng
Cheng Heng
Cheng Heng was a Cambodian politician, who acted as the country's Head of State from 1970–1971, and was a relatively prominent political figure during the Khmer Republic period ....
and In Tam
In Tam
In Tam was a former Prime Minister of Cambodia. He served in that position from May 6, 1973 to December 9 1973, and had a long career in Cambodian politics.-Political career:...
, both ministers in Lon Nol’s regime, to return to Kampuchea. In the first major step towards restoring peace in Kampuchea, representatives of the CGDK and the PRK met for the first time at the First Jakarta Informal Meeting on 25 July 1988. In that meeting, Sihanouk proposed a three-stage plan, which called for a cease-fire, a UN peacekeeping force to supervise the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and the integration of all Kampuchean armed factions into a single army.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach urged all parties involved to separate Kampuchean problems into internal and external aspects. Therefore, to begin the process of restoring peace, the Vietnamese delegation proposed a two-stage plan that begins with internal discussions among the Kampuchean factions, followed by a roundtable discussion with all involved countries. The Vietnamese proposal won out at the meeting, but no agreements were reached. At the Second Jakarta Meeting on 19 February 1989, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans (politician)
Gareth John Evans, AO, QC , is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive...
forwarded the Cambodian Peace Plan to bring about a ceasefire, a peacekeeping force and the establishment of a national unity government to maintain Kampuchea’s sovereignty until elections were held. To facilitate a peace agreement on the eve of the Vietnamese withdrawal, between 29–30 April 1989, Hun Sen convened a meeting of the National Assembly to adopt a new constitution, and the country was renamed the State of Cambodia to reflect the state of ambiguity of the country’s sovereignty. Furthermore, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
was re-established as the state religion, and citizens were guaranteed the right to hold private property.
In the meantime, however, peace talks between the warring factions continued, with the First Paris Peace Conference on Cambodia held in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1989. On 26 February 1990, following the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops, the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting was held, at which the Supreme National Council was established to safeguard Cambodian sovereignty. Initially, the Supreme National Council was to have 12 members, with three seats allocated to each faction of the CGDK, and three to the pro-Vietnam Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party. However, Hun Sen objected to the proposed arrangement, calling instead for each faction of the CGDK to be given two seats for a total of six, and the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party to have six seats. In 1991 the Supreme National Council began representing Cambodia at the UN General Assembly. Then, in a bold move, Hun Sen renamed the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party to the Cambodian People’s Party in an effort to portray his party as a democratic institution and renounce its revolutionary struggle.
On 23 October 1991, the Cambodian factions of the Supreme National Council, along with Vietnam and 15 member nations of the International Peace Conference on Cambodia, signed the Paris Peace Agreement. For the Cambodian people, two decades of continuous warfare and 13 years of civil war seemed to be over, although an atmosphere of uneasiness amongst the leaders of the Cambodian factions remained. In order to include the Khmer Rouge in the agreement, the major powers agreed to avoid using the word "genocide" to describe the actions of the Government of Democratic Kampuchea in the period between 1975 and 1979. As a result, Hun Sen criticised the Paris Agreement as being far from perfect, as it failed to remind the Cambodian people of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime. Nonetheless, the Paris Agreement established the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992–93. It was also the first occasion on which the UN had taken over the administration of an independent state, organized and run an election , had its own radio station and jail,...
(UNTAC), in accordance with the UN Security Council’s Resolution 745, and gave UNTAC a broad mandate to supervise main policies and administration works until a Cambodian government was democratically elected.
On 14 November 1991, Sihanouk returned to Cambodia to participate in the elections, followed by Son Senn, a Khmer Rouge official, who arrived a few days later to set up the organisation’s electoral campaign office in Phnom Penh. On 27 November 1991, Khieu Samphan also returned to Cambodia on a flight from Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
; initially he had expected his arrival to be uneventful, but as soon as Khieu Samphan’s flight landed at Pochentong Airport, he was met by an angry crowd which shouted insults and abuses at him. As Khieu Samphan was driven into the city, another crowd lined the route towards his office and threw objects at his car. As soon as he arrived at his office, Khieu Samphan entered and immediately telephoned the Chinese Government to save him. Shortly afterwards, an angry mob forced its way into the building, chased Khieu Samphan up the second floor and tried to hang him from a ceiling fan. Eventually, Khieu Samphan was able to escape from the building by a ladder with his face bloodied, and was immediately taken to Pochentong Airport, where he flew out of Cambodia. Thus, with the departure of Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge’s participation in the election seemed doubtful.
In March 1992, the start of the UNTAC mission in Cambodia was marked by the arrival of 22,000 UN peacekeepers, which included troops from 22 countries, 6,000 officials, 3,500 police and 1,700 civilian employees and electoral volunteers. The mission was led by Yasushi Akashi
Yasushi Akashi
Yasushi Akashi is a senior Japanese diplomat and United Nations administrator. Akashi graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tokyo in 1954, studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Virginia, and later at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University...
. In June 1992, the Khmer Rouge formally established the National Union Party of Kampuchea, and announced that it would not register to participate in the upcoming elections. Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge also refused to disarm its forces in accordance with the Paris agreement. Then, to prevent ethnic Vietnamese from taking part in the elections, the Khmer Rouge started massacring Vietnamese civilian communities, causing hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese to flee Cambodia. Towards the end of 1992, Khmer Rouge forces advanced into Kompong Thom in order to gain a strategic foothold, before UN peacekeeping forces were fully deployed there. In the months leading up to the elections, several UN military patrols were attacked as they entered Khmer Rouge-held territory.
Despite ongoing threats from the Khmer Rouge during the elections, on 28 May 1993, FUNCINPEC won 45.47 percent of the vote, against 38.23 percent for the Cambodian People’s Party. Though clearly defeated, Hun Sen refused to accept the results of the election, so his Defense Minister, Sin Song, announced the secession of the eastern provinces of Cambodia, which had supported the Cambodian People’s Party. Prince Norodom Ranariddh
Norodom Ranariddh
Prince Norodom Ranariddh is the second son of former king Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and a half brother of the current king, Norodom Sihamoni.-Biography:...
, leader of FUNCINPEC and son of Sihanouk, agreed to form a coalition government with the Cambodian People’s Party so the country would not break up. On 21 September 1993, the Cambodian Constituent Assembly approved a new Constitution and Ranariddh became First Prime Minister, and he appointed Hun Sen as the Second Prime Minister. On 23 September 1993, the constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
was restored with Norodom Sihanouk as the head of state. In July 1994, the Cambodian Government outlawed the Khmer Rouge for its continuous violations of the Paris Agreement. Most significantly, the Cambodian Government also specifically recognised the genocide and atrocities which occurred under Democratic Kampuchea. By 1998, the Khmer Rouge was completely dissolved.
Vietnam rejoins the world
The military occupation of Kampuchea had profound consequences for Vietnamese foreign policy. Since gaining independence in 1954, the Vietnamese communist perspective on foreign policy had been dominated by the need to maintain a world order of two camps, communist and non-communist. Indeed, the treaty of friendship that Vietnam signed with the Soviet Union, Laos and the People’s Republic of Kampuchea was consistent with that view. However, the ideological motivations of the Vietnamese communist leadership was proven to be limited and heavily flawed, as demonstrated by the 1979 condemnation of Vietnam after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime. In the years that followed, the Vietnamese Government was left isolated from the world and its efforts to rebuild the country were handicapped by the lack of aid from the capitalist Western nations. Furthermore, the presence of Vietnamese military forces in Cambodia became an obstacle which prevented the normalisation of diplomatic ties with China, the United States and the member nations of ASEAN.In light of the decline experienced by the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, the Vietnamese Government began repairing diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries as part of a greater effort to rejuvenate Vietnam’s shattered economy. Since its invasion in 1979, China had placed sustained pressure on the northern borders of Vietnam, with the province of Ha Tuyen regularly shelled by Chinese artillery. In September 1985, Chinese bombardment of Ha Tuyen reached a peak when 2,000 rounds were fired. To reduce the state of hostility along the border region, and ultimately normalise relations with China, the Vietnamese Government dropped all hostile references to China at the 6th National Party Congress in December 1986, and also adopted the Doi Moi policy. In August 1990, as the Cambodian Peace Plan, authored by Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans (politician)
Gareth John Evans, AO, QC , is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive...
, was being endorsed by the UN Security Council, both China and Vietnam moved towards accommodation.
Early in September 1990, Vietnamese Prime Minister Do Muoi, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh and former Prime Minister Pham Van Dong travelled to Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
, China, where they held a secret meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng
Li Peng
Li Peng served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China, between 1987 and 1998, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Communist Party of China ...
and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...
. On 17 September 1990, General Vo Nguyen Giap
Vo Nguyen Giap
Võ Nguyên Giáp is a retired Vietnamese officer in the Vietnam People’s Army and a politician. He was a principal commander in two wars: the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War...
also made a trip to China and thanked the Chinese Government for its past assistance. Despite outwards signs of improvement in Vietnam's diplomatic relations with China, Vietnamese leaders were reluctant to endorse any peace plan which could weaken their client regime in Phnom Penh. However, as the four Cambodian factions reached an agreement on the power-sharing arrangement outlined at the Third Jakarta Informal Meeting in February 1990, Vietnam and China rapidly moved to re-establish formal diplomatic relations. In November 1991, newly elected Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet
Vo Van Kiet
Võ Văn Kiệt was a Vietnamese politician and statesman. He was a veteran fighter in the long war against French and then American military forces in South Vietnam, and lost his first wife and two children to US bombing...
travelled to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and met his Chinese counterpart, Li Peng, and they issued an 11-point communiqué re-establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries after 10 years without formal relations.
The end of the Cambodian conflict also brought an end the ASEAN-imposed trade and aid embargo which had been in place since 1979. In January 1990, Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan
Chatichai Choonhavan
General Chatichai Choonhavan was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 1988 to 1991. He was the only son of Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan, and is of Thai Chinese descent with ancestry from Chenghai District...
publicly voiced his support for Vietnam, and the rest of Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
, to gain admission into ASEAN. In the period between late 1991 and early 1992, Vietnam restored relations with several member nations of ASEAN. As a result, between 1991 and 1994, investments from ASEAN countries made up 15 percent of direct foreign investment in Vietnam. Aside from the obvious economic benefits, ASEAN also provided a peaceful environment that guaranteed Vietnam’s national security against foreign threats in the post-Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era, when Soviet aid was no longer available. Thus, on 28 July 1995, Vietnam officially became the seventh member of ASEAN, after leading ASEAN officials invited Vietnam to join at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok in 1994. Then, in August 1995, the U.S. Liaison Office in Hanoi was upgraded to Embassy status, after U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
announced a formal normalisation of diplomatic relations with Vietnam on 11 July 1995, thereby ending Vietnam’s isolation from the world.
See also
- Ba Chuc MassacreBa Chúc MassacreThe Ba Chuc Massacre was carried out by the regular army of Democratic Kampuchea's army, the Khmer Rouge, on April 18, 1978 in Ba Chúc, Tri Tôn, An Giang province, southern Vietnam. Of those who had lived in Ba Chúc, 3,157 civilians were killed, only two survived the massacre. The attack was one of...
- Khmer KromKhmer KromThe Khmer Krom are Khmer people living in the Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong River area. Under the Khmer Rouge regime- according to the conservative estimates are that 150,000. Under the rule of Vietnam from 1979-93, Cambodia may have lost 20,000 Khmer Krom...
- Nong Chan Refugee CampNong Chan Refugee CampNong Chan Refugee Camp was one of the earliest organized refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, where thousands of Khmer refugees sought food and health care after fleeing the Vietnamese invasion of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979...
- Nong Samet Refugee CampNong Samet Refugee CampNong Samet Refugee Camp, also known as 007, Rithisen or Rithysen was one of the largest refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and served as a power base for the KPNLF until its destruction by the Vietnamese military in late 1984....
- Sino-Vietnamese WarSino-Vietnamese WarThe Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, known in the PRC as and in Vietnam as Chiến tranh chống bành trướng Trung Hoa , was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam...
- Vietnamese border raids in ThailandVietnamese border raids in ThailandAfter the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and defeat of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979, the Khmer Rouge fled to the border regions of Thailand, and with assistance from China Pol Pot's troops managed to regroup and reorganize in forested and mountainous zones on the Thai-Cambodian border...
External links
- The Khmer Rouge National Army: Order of Battle, January 1976
- The Fall of the Khmer Rouge
- From Sideshow To Genocide: The Khmer Rouge Years
- 1979: Vietnam forces Khmer Rouge retreat
- Meanwhile: When the Khmer Rouge came to kill in Vietnam
- Second Life, Second Death: The Khmer Rouge After 1978
- Slocomb M. "The K5 Gamble: National Defence and Nation Building under the People's Republic of Kampuchea." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2001;32(02):195–210