The US Role In Cambodia Essay Research

The U.S. Role In Cambodia Essay, Research Paper

A demonstration of American impotence in Asia cannot fail to lessen the credibility of American pledges in other fields We are no longer fighting in Vietnam only for the Vietnamese; we are also fighting for ourselves.

-Henry Kissinger (Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs)

In John T. Rourke s International Politics on the World Stage, a distinction is made between two kinds of power, coercive and persuasive. Coercive power is the power to make another country do something through military force and economic sanctions while persuasive power uses moral authority and technological excellence, which enhance a country s image of leadership. Rourke argues that the latter is growing in importance while the former is declining because it is more costly and less effective. The United States is the premier power in the world and with that power comes the obligation to use that power responsibly, and hence, know when it is better to use coercive power and when persuasive power is needed. When the Americans extended the Vietnamese war into the borders of Cambodia, this was a prime example of coercive power. The use of an extensive B-52 campaign without the full knowledge of important Cambodian and American officials, the killing of innocent Cambodian civilians, and the falsification of documents and lying to the public about the bombings, are all examples of the coercive power used in the bombing of Cambodia. These misuses of power show a lack of responsibility as well as a lack of morality. Not only was this misuse of power immoral, but it was to ultimately fail.

In 1954, the Geneva Conference on peace in Southeast Asia recognized Cambodia as a neutral country. This neutrality meant that Cambodia was not supposed to get involved in the war in Vietnam. On March 18, 1969, two months after Richard Nixon took office as President of the United States, the bombing of COSVN HQ-Central Office for Vietnam headquarters- began. This bombing was a request by General Creighton Abrams, commander of US forces in South Vietnam, based on the information obtained from photo reconnaissance and a rallier. Richard Nixon decided to go thorough with the bombing but only with the utmost secrecy. Only a few key officials were told and he did not bother to use the usual measure of asking congress before starting an extensive bombing campaign. This illegal use of force was to become major part of Nixon s Watergate trials later, though he would not be convicted of the offence. To maintain this secrecy, the falsification of documents and the misstating of facts to Americans were necessary. Some bombing missions in Cambodia were entered in the records as having taken place in Vietnam (Shawcross).

The bombing in Cambodia paid absolutely no attention to human life. When the bombing was finally discovered in 1973, the President and Henry Kissinger, National Security Adviser (1969) and Secretary of State (1973), maintained that they paid a close watch on human life and kept casualties at a minimum and only bombed areas that were not populated. But history tells a different story: not only did they know that some of these areas were populated, but they even ignored suggestions about which areas should not be bombed because of heavy population. The first bombing campaign against area 353, COSVN HQ, called Operation Breakfast, covered 25 square kilometers and had a total population of approximately 1,640 Cambodians, 1,000 of which were said by the Joint Chiefs to be peasants. The Cambodians, unlike the Vietnamese, were not used to bombing in their country, so they were not as prepared. The secret nature of these attacks put the Cambodians at an even greater risk because they were surprised by the attacks and, unlike Vietnamese, had no reason for protective shelters in or around the villages. Three of the fifteen sanctuaries bombed during this campaign, collectively called Menu, were said to have sizeable concentrations of Cambodian civilian or military population, and were not recommended for attack at all. (The definition of sizeable is not known, although it is presumed to be more than the 1,640 Cambodians living in the Breakfast site, which was approved.) It seems that these reports were ignored because bombing of these sanctuaries went ahead. One of the three, Base Area 704, had 247 B-52 missiles flown against it (Shawcross). In total, there were 3,630 B-52 raids on sanctuaries in the neutral country of Cambodia.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia until 1970, could only sit and watch as his country was being bombed as the result of a war that he was not even supposed to be part of in the first place. Prince Sihanouk had no control over what was happening to his country. Just as he had no control over the Vietnamese coming into his country and building sanctuaries, he also had no control over the bombing. Sihanouk s aide, Charles Meyer, maintained that although he was happy that the Vietnamese were being bombed, the prince was never asked to approve the use of B-52 missiles. These missiles cause great damage and Sihanouk knew that these areas were heavily populated so There was no question of B-52s (Charles Meyer). By cooperating with both the Vietnamese and the Americans, Sihanouk was trying to protect his people from the war by confining it to the borders. This plan was soon to blow up in his face as t