Sep 04 2007
Bush’s False Analogies Between Vietnam and Iraq!
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Rather than assisting the Cambodian people in recovering from the nightmare that was Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the US sided with the mass murderers and gave them aid. In addition, Reagan demanded that the KR represent Cambodia in the UN.
By Brian McAfee
9/4/07
With President Bush recently bringing up the killing fields of South East Asia as justification for the US continuing the war in Iraq [1], I could not help but think of John Pilger’s 1991 film “Cambodia: The Betrayal.” This documentary investigates and outlines the West’s, particularly the US’s, behind the scenes and ongoing support for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Indeed, this backing began during the Carter administration and it continued throughout both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.
After Pol Pot’s incursions into Vietnam and the slaughter of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in villages just over the border from Cambodia, Vietnam retaliated and managed to expel the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh. Hanoi then put in place a government in Cambodia that was no longer a threat to the Vietnamese. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge then retreated back into the rural areas and, subsequently, carried out actions over the western border into Thailand.