2024-07-2916:31 Status:Complete Tags: Vietnam War
During the Cold War, Cambodia’s neutrality made it the prime target for building anti-communist support near Vietnam. As it was technically neutral, it still allowed communists to use it as a route to support Northern Vietnam. Nixon, and former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, were committed to prolonging the war to eliminate the communist ‘threat.’ Because they did not want to fight in Vietnam (controversial), they moved to covertly end the war in Cambodia. This would take the form of bombing Vietnamese communists residing in Cambodia
Operation Menu was the first covert (not even congress knew, they used a specially designated furnace to burn evidence, made fake plans etc.) set of bombings: Led by the 7th Air Force, sub-operations in the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, were Operation Freedom Deal and Operation Menu from May 19th, 1970 to August 15th 1973. These bombings were in support of the Cambodian government under Lon Nol against the communist Khmer Rouge. The bombing of the eastern half of Cambodia expanded under Operation Menu which had the same aim. The US Air force’s (USAF) B-52 bombers were directly responsible for the tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
500,000 tons of bombs dropped killing at least 100,000 civilians. In Southeast Asia, 6,000,000 tons of bombs were dropped, this created a power vacuum and resentment against anti-communist forces. This was the precursor to the Khmer Rouge authoritarian ruling. This led to North Vietnamese forces committing the Cambodian genocide: killing 1.5-3 million civilians ~ 25% of the local population.