The United States, apprehensive about Southeast Asia becoming part of the
Soviet sphere of influence, were willing to commit whatever resources were
needed to incorporate it into the American Empire. American military leaders
believed that Cambodian territory was providing a transportation route from
North to South Vietnam and a haven where North Vietnam established its
headquarters. Despite the fact that in the 1960s and early 1970s, Cambodia was
safely in the American camp, its use by North Vietnam was becoming a problem.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry A..
Kissinger, unleashed B-52 carpet bombing for over fourteen months against a
people who still tilled the soil with water buffalo. The 3,500 bombing sorties
resulted in 600,000 deaths. The American bombing of Cambodia was a closely
guarded secret primarily because the U.S. was not at war with Cambodia.
Not only did Nixon and Kissinger not seek the necessary approval from Congress
to bomb Cambodia, they tried to conceal the bombing not only from the American
public but Congress as well. Nixon and Kissinger believed that these hideous
lies were imperative to hold on to South Vietnam as part of the American
Empire.Following the bombing, many peasants were so outraged at the United
States and their puppet leader in Cambodia that they chose to join the Khmer
Rouge, a marginal revolutionary communist group whose ranks swelled to a major
force. After taking power, the Khmer Rouge unleashed a reign of terror killing
over one million people.
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