John Pilger-Cambodia, The Betrayal part 2-5

The US not only helped create conditions that brought Cambodia's Khmer Rouge to power in 1975, but actively supported the genocidal force, politically and financially. By January 1980, the US was secretly funding Pol Pots exiled forces on the Thai border. The extent of this support-$85 million from 1980 to 1986-was revealed six years later in correspondence between congressional lawyer Jonathan Winer, then counsel to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Winer said the information had come from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). When copies of his letter were circulated, the Reagan administration was furious. Then, without adequately explaining why, Winer repudiated the statistics, while not disputing that they had come from the CRS. In a second letter to Noam Chomsky, however, Winer repeated the original charge, which, he confirmed to me, was "absolutely correct." Washington also backed the Khmer Rouge through the United Nations, which provided Pol Pot's vehicle of return. Although the Khmer Rouge government ceased to exist in January 1979, when the Vietnamese army drove it out, its representatives continued to occupy Cambodia's UN seat. Their right to do so was defended and promoted by Washington as an extension of the Cold War, as a mechanism for US revenge on Vietnam, and as part of its new alliance with China (Pol Pot's principal underwriter and Vietnam's ancient foe). In 1981, President Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, said, "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot." The US, he added, "winked publicly" as China sent arms to the Khmer Rouge through Thailand.

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• Khmer
• Cambodia
• Betrayal
• US
• terrorism
• Vietnam
• War
• Culture
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[RadioFreeWisconsin]

These Lefties only turned against the Khmer Rouge after Communist Vietnam invaded and "liberated" Cambodia. Prior to that, they praised and defended Pol Pot. At this time, anyone challenging the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia was accussed of working with the Khmer Rouge by the Lefties.

[ha38bb1]

@jimbaba16 yes its very sad. The powers that be are ruthless, and will stop at nothing to install a one world government. Not to mention the mass depopulization they have been carrying out for decades. When WW3 comes thats when real hell starts for all of us.

[jimbaba16]

@skinz703 Even IF Vietnam did aid Khmer Rouge its bad that they did do and its bad what the Western forces and China did, and after he was in exile they were trying to put him back into power? afetr he had killed more than 1.5 Million people?

[commissarusa]

@skinz703

no, it really wasn't. The Khmer Rouge was a homegrown pack of crazy primitivists (not communists) who only used the communist label to get funding from China. Vietnam had other things to worry about when the Khmer Rouge were being created, such as resisting an imperialist invasion.

[skinz703]

@commissarusa ..The Communist Khmer Rouge insurgency was armed,organized and sponsored by Hanoi ..It was Hanoi, therefore,if it was anyone, that made possible the genocide of the Khmer Rouge..Vietnam created a monster that they themselves had to invade and topple in 1979......Isn't the truth fun?

[skinz703]

@commissarusa ..A fair statement would be--The North Vietnamese supported the Khmer Rouge and the supporters of King Sihanouk against Lon Nol, but their interests remained confined to regaining their influence within the Cambodian territory.However, the Khmer Rouge went further in their insurgencies to remove Lon Nol from power and to take control of the entire country. The Pol Pot regime actually ended up straining relations with neighboring Vietnam, which actually led to their fall.

[skinz703]

@commissarusa ..in 1974 Vietnam granted military aid to Pol Pot with no strings attached..which he needed to take Phnom Pehh...Vietnamese leaders confessed to this blunder later.Pol Pot offered ritual phrases like “without the help and support of the Vietnam we could not achieve victory”; expressed gratitude to “brothers in North and South Vietnam”; took special note of the Vietnamese support in “the final major attack during the dry season of 1975, when we faced considerable difficulties”

[skinz703]

@commissarusa ..looks like you just got chewed up and spit out, .North Vietnam supported the Khmer Rouge in their rise to power..,but don't feel bad, alot of people have been tricked by the leftist propaganda....see the Vietnamese commies envisioned a greater Vietnam that included laos and cambodia , that's why Lao and Cambodian communists had issues with the Vietnamese...that's why the west helped pol pot guerilla's fight back, because vietnam refused to end the occupation of cambodia..

[skinz703]

@commissarusa... In April-May 1970, significant North-Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea...At that time relations between Pol Pot and the North Vietnamese leaders were especially warm, though one could not tell that the Vietnamese aroused obvious hostility among the communist Cambodian leadership by their frank “elder brother” policy towards the Khmers.

[skinz703]

@commissarusa ..the north vietnamese helped the khmer rouge , because Lon Nol didn't want the north vietnamese using cambodia as a base to attack south vietnam..it was mutual interest..then the khmer rouge turned on the vietnamese