were consciously sacrificed to the interests of strategic design."4 Indeed, ousted Cambodian Prince Sihanouk accused American leaders Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger by saying, "Nixon and Kissinger killed lots of Americans, and many other people, they spent enormous sums of money . . .
and the results were the opposite of what they wanted. They
demoralized America, they lost all of Indochina to the
2 See Michael Vickery, Cambodia: 1975 1982, (Boston: South End Press, 1984), Chap. 3.
3 Craig Etcheson, The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984), 55 142.
4 William Shawcross, Sideshow, (London: Hogarth Press, 1986), 396. Communists, and they created the Khmer Rouge."5 In fact, the United States dropped at least three times the amount of explosives on Cambodia between 1970 and 1973 that it had dropped on Japan for the duration of World War II.6
Lon Nol, the elected Prime Minister of Cambodia, had a history of involvement with U.S. Security forces ostensibly to keep communist influence from spreading further into Southeast Asia.7 The CIA's involvement in Cambodia went back to the 1950s, when in 1954 the U.S. military attache from Bangkok helped fund CIA money into the Cambodian military.8
CIA ties with Lon Nol, really no more than a political opportunist who wanted to remain in power, were firmly entrenched by 1958. Further, the CIA's role in the assassination of Vietnamese Ngo Dihn Diem, caused many in the Cambodian government to openly speculate about U.S. reliability.9 Well into the next two decades, the CIA acted with Lon Nol, funnelling money and military support to further frustrate the activities of both the radical left and right.10
6 Anthony Lewis, "Out, Damned Spot!" The New York Times (24 September 1979).
10 Anthony Barnett and John Pilger, Aftermath, (London: New Statesmen, 1982), 84 9.
Revolutionary leader Pol Pot seized power in April, 1975, princip...