Cambodia's Anguish: Made in the USA
By Robert Scheer
Published July 8, 1997 in the Los Angeles Times
As I write this, the Phnom Penh airport remains closed, and reports of intense if sporadic fighting are a bloody reminder that Cambodia is once again torn by civil war. Crowded streets I strolled down two weeks ago are now battle zones, and a population that has suffered unspeakable crimes is once again forced to flee the capital in terror.
A country saturated with 7 million land mines, whose people lived through Pol Pot's reign of terror, will now be subjected to even more torn limbs and senseless death while the world powers that created this nightmare feign horror.
Optimism born of the reported capture of Pol Pot by dissident Khmer Rouge troops has given way to the dread thought that this genocidal maniac retains an unyielding hold on the political imagination of the country he tortured. Dead or alive, free or captured, Pol Pot is the main source of contention in the disintegration of the fragile coalition that has ruled Cambodia since the 1993 U.N.-supervised election.
First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, the less-than-savvy son of ailing nominal leader Norodom Sihanouk, thought he could negotiate with Pol Pot's captors to surrender their infamous prisoner while recruiting them as allies in the battle for power. His chief rival in the ruling coalition, Hun Sen, the second prime minister, resisted, insisting that the remaining Khmer Rouge leadership be treated as war criminals. He cited infiltration by Khmer Rouge troops into the capital as justification for this week's fighting.
It's convenient to dismiss all of this as the crazy antics of politics as practiced in a small very poor Asian nation, which has been the tenor of most U.S. media coverage. Convenient, but false, since the plight of the Cambodians is the direct consequence of three decades of U.S. policy.
It did not have to be this way. The Cambodia I first visited in 1965 was peaceful in a storybook sense: A royal kingdom carved out of the lush jungle, it was led by a then young and popular saxophone-playing Prince Sihanouk, who naively presumed that his country could remain neutral while the U.S. waged war next door in Vietnam.
Well, Kissinger and Nixon showed him. In 1969, they unleashed the awesome might of B-52 carpet bombing against a people still tilling the soil with water buffalo. Fourteen months and 3,500 sorties later, "Operation Breakfast," the secret code name for the bombing, had totally destabilized Cambodia.
Sihanouk was overthrown with the connivance of the CIA, which had long resented his independent if quirky spirit. But as in Vietnam with the CIA coup against Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. could not come up with a viable Cambodian ruler to suit its purposes. Sihanouk was replaced by an inept Lon Nol, a U.S. puppet who could not hold power. The legacy of U.S. policy, including the 600,000 dead and many more maimed and homeless as a result of the bombing, created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge's seizure of power in 1975. Over the next four years, Pol Pot's leadership left one out of five Cambodians dead.
But Pol Pot made the mistake of repeatedly attacking Vietnam, by then united under Hanoi's rule, and the Vietnamese army invaded in 1979, putting Hun Sen into power. Instead of applauding the Vietnamese for ending the genocide, the Carter administration followed the lead of the Chinese Communists, who continued to back their protege, Pol Pot. For the next 13 years, the U.S. and China insisted that Pol Pot, who killed 2 million Cambodians, had the right to name Cambodia's legitimate representative at the U.N.
It was during this period that the Hun Sen government dug up the "killing fields," exposing to a shocked world Pol Pot's heinous crimes. Yet the man himself was being protected and financed by the U.S. and China as a leader of an anti-Hun Sen coalition based in Thailand.
The U.S. only broke with the Khmer Rouge when Pol Pot refused to participate in the 1993 election, which created the coalition government that is now falling apart. But it was too late. Too much damage had already been done to the fabric of Cambodian political life.
The current chaos is the direct result of policies pursued by foreigners who this summer are probably observing the consequences of their meddling from the safe distance of their vacation homes.
What does corporate consultant Henry Kissinger think when he watches the pictures of dead children on the streets of Phnom Penh paying the price of a civil war that he initiated three decades ago? Or is Cambodia not one of the countries that he is paid millions of dollars to think about these days?
Copyright © 1999 Robert Scheer
http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/97...umns/070897.htm
===========
I'm sorry, this was in 1997. I would like to ask what your resentments are, as of today?
(I don't post here often, but my nieces have Cambodian friends, and they are not very talkative about the situation in the country although they regularly visit their families and relatives.)
Full Version: Made in the USA -- Cambodia's Anguish -- Made in the USA
QUOTE(Johannjs @ Dec 30 2006, 11:56 PM) [snapback]2613445[/snapback]
Cambodia's Anguish: Made in the USA
By Robert Scheer
Published July 8, 1997 in the Los Angeles Times
As I write this, the Phnom Penh airport remains closed, and reports of intense if sporadic fighting are a bloody reminder that Cambodia is once again torn by civil war. Crowded streets I strolled down two weeks ago are now battle zones, and a population that has suffered unspeakable crimes is once again forced to flee the capital in terror.
A country saturated with 7 million land mines, whose people lived through Pol Pot's reign of terror, will now be subjected to even more torn limbs and senseless death while the world powers that created this nightmare feign horror.
Optimism born of the reported capture of Pol Pot by dissident Khmer Rouge troops has given way to the dread thought that this genocidal maniac retains an unyielding hold on the political imagination of the country he tortured. Dead or alive, free or captured, Pol Pot is the main source of contention in the disintegration of the fragile coalition that has ruled Cambodia since the 1993 U.N.-supervised election.
First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, the less-than-savvy son of ailing nominal leader Norodom Sihanouk, thought he could negotiate with Pol Pot's captors to surrender their infamous prisoner while recruiting them as allies in the battle for power. His chief rival in the ruling coalition, Hun Sen, the second prime minister, resisted, insisting that the remaining Khmer Rouge leadership be treated as war criminals. He cited infiltration by Khmer Rouge troops into the capital as justification for this week's fighting.
It's convenient to dismiss all of this as the crazy antics of politics as practiced in a small very poor Asian nation, which has been the tenor of most U.S. media coverage. Convenient, but false, since the plight of the Cambodians is the direct consequence of three decades of U.S. policy.
It did not have to be this way. The Cambodia I first visited in 1965 was peaceful in a storybook sense: A royal kingdom carved out of the lush jungle, it was led by a then young and popular saxophone-playing Prince Sihanouk, who naively presumed that his country could remain neutral while the U.S. waged war next door in Vietnam.
Well, Kissinger and Nixon showed him. In 1969, they unleashed the awesome might of B-52 carpet bombing against a people still tilling the soil with water buffalo. Fourteen months and 3,500 sorties later, "Operation Breakfast," the secret code name for the bombing, had totally destabilized Cambodia.
Sihanouk was overthrown with the connivance of the CIA, which had long resented his independent if quirky spirit. But as in Vietnam with the CIA coup against Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. could not come up with a viable Cambodian ruler to suit its purposes. Sihanouk was replaced by an inept Lon Nol, a U.S. puppet who could not hold power. The legacy of U.S. policy, including the 600,000 dead and many more maimed and homeless as a result of the bombing, created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge's seizure of power in 1975. Over the next four years, Pol Pot's leadership left one out of five Cambodians dead.
But Pol Pot made the mistake of repeatedly attacking Vietnam, by then united under Hanoi's rule, and the Vietnamese army invaded in 1979, putting Hun Sen into power. Instead of applauding the Vietnamese for ending the genocide, the Carter administration followed the lead of the Chinese Communists, who continued to back their protege, Pol Pot. For the next 13 years, the U.S. and China insisted that Pol Pot, who killed 2 million Cambodians, had the right to name Cambodia's legitimate representative at the U.N.
It was during this period that the Hun Sen government dug up the "killing fields," exposing to a shocked world Pol Pot's heinous crimes. Yet the man himself was being protected and financed by the U.S. and China as a leader of an anti-Hun Sen coalition based in Thailand.
The U.S. only broke with the Khmer Rouge when Pol Pot refused to participate in the 1993 election, which created the coalition government that is now falling apart. But it was too late. Too much damage had already been done to the fabric of Cambodian political life.
The current chaos is the direct result of policies pursued by foreigners who this summer are probably observing the consequences of their meddling from the safe distance of their vacation homes.
What does corporate consultant Henry Kissinger think when he watches the pictures of dead children on the streets of Phnom Penh paying the price of a civil war that he initiated three decades ago? Or is Cambodia not one of the countries that he is paid millions of dollars to think about these days?
Copyright © 1999 Robert Scheer
http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/97...umns/070897.htm
===========
I'm sorry, this was in 1997. I would like to ask what your resentments are, as of today?
(I don't post here often, but my nieces have Cambodian friends, and they are not very talkative about the situation in the country although they regularly visit their families and relatives.)
I hear its still terrible over there.....still war torn.
QUOTE(ABC in NYC @ Dec 31 2006, 12:11 AM) [snapback]2613485[/snapback]
I hear its still terrible over there.....still war torn.
NVM this fool guys, He comes and attack us cause he's insecure. All I said was Yao Ming is overated and now he's attacking us.
And he's fat too....PM for his pic.
QUOTE(DisneyLandGangsta @ Dec 31 2006, 12:15 AM) [snapback]2613495[/snapback]
NVM this fool guys, He comes and attack us cause he's insecure. All I said was Yao Ming is overated and now he's attacking us.
And he's fat too....PM for his pic.
I've seen documentaries of families selling there children to oldmen for sex. Gross.
Johannjs,
Tell me your ethnic origin/s then I will respond accordingly to your curiousity. France must be very nice.
Tell me your ethnic origin/s then I will respond accordingly to your curiousity. France must be very nice.
QUOTE(ABC in NYC @ Dec 31 2006, 12:16 AM) [snapback]2613498[/snapback]
I've seen documentaries of families selling there children to oldmen for sex. Gross.
And you Chinese are those losers that come to SEA for sex. Can't you fools get girls? you have to pay for sex.
You guys are weak in the dating game. I don't have to tell you that.
published date july 8, 1997 
QUOTE(Goombaking209 @ Dec 31 2006, 12:31 AM) [snapback]2613531[/snapback]
published date july 8, 1997
Thats an old news. This not a history class, it an internet chat line.
QUOTE(lemongrass @ Dec 30 2006, 10:06 PM) [snapback]2613646[/snapback]
Thats an old news. This not a history class, it an internet chat line.
I dont know how i shall take that, but since the Thread starter ask for resentments i would have to say i have none. but since the time this article was publish to this day, cambodia has done many things to rebuild. i dont know the exact situation or state of cambodia right now, but what i can say is they are catching up and digitalizing to the 21 century and with given a little more time, i expect to see cambodia's economics and politics to become nothing more but better. though change may be slow, it's forever persistant.
QUOTE(Goombaking209 @ Dec 31 2006, 02:45 AM) [snapback]2613930[/snapback]
I dont know how i shall take that, but since the Thread starter ask for resentments i would have to say i have none. but since the time this article was publish to this day, cambodia has done many things to rebuild. i dont know the exact situation or state of cambodia right now, but what i can say is they are catching up and digitalizing to the 21 century and with given a little more time, i expect to see cambodia's economics and politics to become nothing more but better. though change may be slow, it's forever persistant.
I have nothing but optimism for Cambodia. Thats right, "it's forever persistent".
QUOTE(Goombaking209 @ Dec 31 2006, 09:45 AM) [snapback]2613930[/snapback]
I dont know how i shall take that, but since the Thread starter ask for resentments i would have to say i have none. but since the time this article was publish to this day, cambodia has done many things to rebuild. i dont know the exact situation or state of cambodia right now, but what i can say is they are catching up and digitalizing to the 21 century and with given a little more time, i expect to see cambodia's economics and politics to become nothing more but better. though change may be slow, it's forever persistant.
I hope all the best for Cambodia. I wish in he coming years to accompany my nieces to visit their friends in a village in the South of Tonle Sap (from the photos, it seems very beautiful).
QUOTE(lemongrass @ Dec 31 2006, 07:19 AM) [snapback]2613503[/snapback]
Johannjs,
Tell me your ethnic origin/s then I will respond accordingly to your curiousity. France must be very nice.
Tell me your ethnic origin/s then I will respond accordingly to your curiousity. France must be very nice.
I'm French, I live in Paris, and on AF I post mainly in the Vietnamese Chat forum, or the Debate/Philosophy/Religion forum, sometimes in other forums. Right now, I'm often in Vietnamese Serious Talk forum.
Please, visit this thread:
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=102022
***
When one deals with coups, mass-murders and genocides committed by the USA, we are at such a loss, because they are too many and they are everywhere you look.
Even ordinary Americans don't remember why their country fights?
Here's a video: Why We US Fight ?
But we will always remember American Wars of Genocide in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
QUOTE(Johannjs @ Dec 30 2006, 10:03 PM) [snapback]2612130[/snapback]
1945 - 1974
American Genocide of the Vietnamese People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : 2,500,000 - 3,500,000 people.
The slippery slope began with the US siding with the French, the former colonizers, and with collaborators with the Japanese, against Ho Chi Minh and his followers, who had worked closely with the Allied war effort and admired all things American.
Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of "communist" (one of those bad-for-you label warnings).
He had written numerous letters to President Truman and the State Department asking for America's help in winning Vietnamese independence from the French and finding a peaceful solution for his country. All his entreaties were ignored. For he was some kind of communist.
Ho Chi Minh modeled the new Vietnamese declaration of independence on the American, beginning it with "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with..." But this would count for nothing in Washington. Ho Chi Minh was some kind of communist.
More than twenty years and more than 3 million dead later, the United States withdrew its military forces from Vietnam. Most people believe that the US lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, by poisoning the earth, the water and the gene pool for generations, Washington had in fact achieved its primary purpose: preventing what might have been the rise of a good development option for Asia. Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of communist.
1955 - 1973
American Genocide of the Cambodian People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 people.
Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American client. After many years of hostility toward his regime, including assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret "carpet bombings" of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in a coup in 1970. This was all that was needed to impel Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces to enter the fray. Five years later, they took power. But the years of American bombing had caused Cambodia's traditional economy to vanish. The old Cambodia had been destroyed forever.
Incredibly, the Khmer Rouge were to inflict even greater misery upon this unhappy land. And to multiply the irony, the United States supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge after their subsequent defeat by the Vietnamese.
1957 - 1973
American Genocide of the Laotian People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : over 500,000 people.
The Laotian left, led by the Pathet Lao, tried to effect social change peacefully, making significant electoral gains and taking part in coalition governments. But the United States would have none of that.
The CIA and the State Department, through force, bribery and other pressures, engineered coups in 1958, 1959 and 1960. Eventually, the only option left for the Pathet Lao was armed force.
The CIA created its famous "Arme Clandestine" – totaling 30,000, from every corner of Asia – to do battle, while the US Air Force, between 1965 and 1973, rained down more than two million tons of bombs upon the people of Laos, many of whom were forced to live in caves for years in a desperate attempt to escape the monsters falling from the sky.
After hundreds of thousands had been killed, many more maimed, and countless bombed villages with hardly stone standing upon stone, the Pathet Lao took control of the country, following on the heels of events in Vietnam.
American Genocide of the Vietnamese People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : 2,500,000 - 3,500,000 people.
The slippery slope began with the US siding with the French, the former colonizers, and with collaborators with the Japanese, against Ho Chi Minh and his followers, who had worked closely with the Allied war effort and admired all things American.
Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of "communist" (one of those bad-for-you label warnings).
He had written numerous letters to President Truman and the State Department asking for America's help in winning Vietnamese independence from the French and finding a peaceful solution for his country. All his entreaties were ignored. For he was some kind of communist.
Ho Chi Minh modeled the new Vietnamese declaration of independence on the American, beginning it with "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with..." But this would count for nothing in Washington. Ho Chi Minh was some kind of communist.
More than twenty years and more than 3 million dead later, the United States withdrew its military forces from Vietnam. Most people believe that the US lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, by poisoning the earth, the water and the gene pool for generations, Washington had in fact achieved its primary purpose: preventing what might have been the rise of a good development option for Asia. Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of communist.
1955 - 1973
American Genocide of the Cambodian People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 people.
Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American client. After many years of hostility toward his regime, including assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret "carpet bombings" of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in a coup in 1970. This was all that was needed to impel Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces to enter the fray. Five years later, they took power. But the years of American bombing had caused Cambodia's traditional economy to vanish. The old Cambodia had been destroyed forever.
Incredibly, the Khmer Rouge were to inflict even greater misery upon this unhappy land. And to multiply the irony, the United States supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge after their subsequent defeat by the Vietnamese.
1957 - 1973
American Genocide of the Laotian People
Estimated total civilian deaths (conservative figrures) : over 500,000 people.
The Laotian left, led by the Pathet Lao, tried to effect social change peacefully, making significant electoral gains and taking part in coalition governments. But the United States would have none of that.
The CIA and the State Department, through force, bribery and other pressures, engineered coups in 1958, 1959 and 1960. Eventually, the only option left for the Pathet Lao was armed force.
The CIA created its famous "Arme Clandestine" – totaling 30,000, from every corner of Asia – to do battle, while the US Air Force, between 1965 and 1973, rained down more than two million tons of bombs upon the people of Laos, many of whom were forced to live in caves for years in a desperate attempt to escape the monsters falling from the sky.
After hundreds of thousands had been killed, many more maimed, and countless bombed villages with hardly stone standing upon stone, the Pathet Lao took control of the country, following on the heels of events in Vietnam.
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