kearnyirish2 wrote:
“I thought we were officially neutral as far as Cambodia was concerned (and they were officially neutral as far as Vietnam was concerned).”
Cambodia was NOT a Communist country, as was also SOUTH Vietnam, both being sovereign republics, after the French moved out of IndoChina, until the Khmer Rouge overran it, therefore, we respected the sovereignty of a free nation. We did supply Cambodia’s military, and did train them, but we did not have a formal presence there, as we did in its neighbor, Thailand.
Thailand and Cambodia share a long history of origin, over several hundred years worth. Although Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy after WW2, it was threatened by both Thai Communist operations in the north, and Malayan Mohammedan operations along the southern peninsula.
I’m familiar with the history; the legacy states of French Indochina had their own Communist insurgencies: Pathet Lao in Laos, Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and Viet Minh (later the Viet Cong) in South Vietnam (North Vietnam was already communist). Our operations in Cambodia (used as a sanctuary by the Viet Cong, and a supply line from North Vietnam) were a “secret war” because of the neutrality.
Like Thailand, Cambodia was also a monarchy; I believe the same kind formed part of the coalition government after “The Killing Fields”.