During the Vietnam War, why did we invade Cambodia?

Question

Its a real question, i've been looking it up and haven't been able to find why, so please answer if you know.

Ruth, it says in my history book that the American government did.

What, are you gonna try and say the Holocaust never happened now?

Answer 1

We invaded Cambodia and Laos
Ever hear of Air America?
We by default of taking out the other government helped put Pol Pot in power

Answer 2

Richard Nixon was desperate for any edge he could get from a military diversion against North Vietnam, since he had promised during the 1968 election that he had a secret plan for ending the war. The American people were also desperate for an end to the war and fell for Nixon's 'plan', hook, line and sinker. The real secret was that Nixon was going to widen the war by bombing the hell out of everything. He started by secretly bombing Cambodia, a neutral country that the North used for sanctuary. When the news came out in 1970, there were massive protests across the US and during the Kent State protest four students were shot dead by the Ohio National Guard. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime. Nixon continued his 'stay the course' strategy[sound familiar] and increased the bombing. Strangely enough he was reelected in 1972, even after Watergate had been reported. Finally realizing his strategy had failed, he ceased the Cambodian invasion, mostly because Congress had called for withdrawal, and started serious negotiations to leave Vietnam. If Nixon had not resigned, he would have been impeached and convicted for his coverup and dirty tricks during the 1972 election, but not for his criminal conduct during the war, but that's another story. The Cambodians were just a pawn for both sides in the war and were not militarily strong enough to resist, just another example of how innocents suffer from war and man's inhumanity to man. Edit; The US installed Pol Pot in Cambodia. Excellent question on US history, those who fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it.

Answer 3

The Viet Cong were ducking across the border, the idea being that since Cambodia was not in this war, we couldn't pursue into another sovereign nation without it being an act of war.

A lot of their supply and logistics ran through the declared netural counties of Laos and Cambodia, and since both of those countries had pro-communist insurgencies of their own, the Viet Cong were getting aid and assistance, though not from the governments in charge.

The decision to go after them had a number of negative, unintended consequences, but you didn't really ask that, so I'll save that for another time.

Answer 4

Kissinger and Nixon had a theory that if we could invade Cambodia, the Vietminh would be denied access to bases from which they could operate just accross the border from Vietnam.
In order to do that Prince Sihanouk ( sp ) had to be deposed in a coup. A US Friendly puppet named Lon Nol was installed with the aid of the CIA. This led to the destruction of Cambodia, Pol Pot's siezure of the country, the killing fields and the deaths of millions of innocent Cambodians. I hold Kissinger accountable for this.

Answer 5

The Viet Cong had military camps inside of Cambodia and were using the Cambodian border as a buffer zone in the mistaken belief that we would not go into Cambodia and after them. Didn't work though.

Answer 6

The Vietnamese regime were actually not concerned by the genocidal policy of the Khmer Rouge, but rather with fulfilling their historical ambition of regional domination, as well as stopping the spread of the Chinese influence in Cambodia. Nguyen Co Thach, the then Vietnamese Foreign Minister, later said that, “Human rights were not a question" That was THEIR problem – we were concerned only with security.

Answer 7

Russ you are out in left field wearing a pink bra... Air America (CIA) operated all over S.E. Asia supplying indigenous civilians and local tribes with food and weapons so they could defend themselves against Pol Pot and the like... Get it right, only the U.S. liberal left put an end to that, It most assuredly wasn't the Hmong...
We sent troops into Cambodia (Op Phoenix) because several divisions of NVA (North Vietnamese Army) had infiltrated and were about to cut south Vietnam in half... and kill hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese (and U.S. soldiers).

Answer 8

During the Cold War, many people were fearful of communism. At the time, the US policy was containment of communism, which meant that the countries with communism, would stay with communism, and no new ones would become communist. The Cambodia was beginning to being over run by communists, so the US felt it was their obligation to help defend the state from communism. They also felt they had to help France keep somewhat control of the state

Answer 9

The bigger question is why didn't we.

After the US left Vietnam, Pol pot went on his killing rampage, and slaughtered 1/3 of all Cambodians. The US was war-weary and did nothing. It broke the hearts of many and put a permanent distaste of liberals in the mouths of conservatives.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Must be more liberal revisionist history.

Answer 10

I was always asking my lieutenant the same thing until the Viet Cong shot him,Blame Nixon.