Vietnam Overthrows the Brutal Khmer Rouge

The fanatical Maoist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot, was responsible for the deaths of up to a quarter of Cambodia’s population through execution, overwork, starvation and disease. Their attempt to rapidly transform Cambodia into an agrarian socialist utopia based on extreme interpretations of Marxism was a catastrophe for the Cambodian people. By 1978, tensions along the Vietnamese-Cambodian border were rising as Khmer Rouge incursions and atrocities against ethnic Vietnamese residents escalated. These events set the stage for war between Cambodia and its historical enemy – Vietnam.

Skirmishes between Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces began soon after the victory in 1975. However, the scale of attacks intensified by 1977 as the paranoid Pol Pot regime targeted Cambodian citizens of Vietnamese ancestry in bloody purges. Khmer Rouge forces also conducted large-scale raids into Vietnamese territory, killing over 3000 Vietnamese civilians in numerous gruesome attacks across the border. As Cambodian provocations threatened southern Vietnamese towns, Vietnam responded with limited counterattacks. Attempts to negotiate a peaceful solution failed to halt Khmer Rouge border assaults.

Meanwhile, dentro Vietnamese relations with the Khmer Rouge were also collapsing. Fairly good ties during their mutual war against the Lon Nol regime and America soon frayed over disputed historic border territories and islands. The Khmer Rouge also rejected Vietnam’s model of Marxism-Leninism in favor of its radically severe Maoist-inspired ideology and autarkic stance. As fears grew of worsening relations with the erratic and violent Khmer Rouge, Vietnam soon found casus belli for decisive intervention. When Khmer Rouge forces launched a major offensive across the border in April 1977, killing hundreds of Vietnamese civilians, Vietnam’s patience was exhausted.

After 20 months of provocations and failed negotiations, Vietnam finally responded militarily on December 25, 1978. Vietnamese armed forces supported by heavy artillery, armor and airpower quickly ruptured Khmer Rouge defenses along the border. Within two weeks, Vietnamese soldiers and tanks roared into Phnom Penh meeting little resistance from the weakened, demoralized Khmer Rouge. The ease of their lightning campaign took the Vietnamese by surprise as they rapidly secured the major towns and communication routes after a decade long struggle against the U.S. military. By January 7, 1979, the Vietnamese had full control of Cambodia, toppling the them from power.

While the Vietnamese People’s Army defeated the Khmer Rouge’s conventional armed forces with relative ease, they now faced years of counter-insurgency fighting against stubborn remnants of Khmer Rouge fighters. Well-versed in guerilla warfare from their years of jungle fighting before their 1970s victory, the Khmer Rouge faded away before the Vietnamese advance. From hidden jungle and mountain redoubts near the Thai border, they continued a war of attrition. The Vietnamese soon found themselves immersed in a bitter, grinding conflict against an elusive foe that refused to quit.

By propping up a new Cambodian government under Hun Sen, Vietnam hoped to extricate itself from Cambodia while leaving a stable regime in place. However, persistent Khmer Rouge insurgencies compelled Vietnam to deploy over 200,000 troops in Cambodia throughout the 1980s to eliminate remnants of Khmer resistance. Casualties slowly mounted in endless small-unit actions against defiant Khmer Rouge die-hards. The unpopular Vietnamese occupation soon faced growing international pressure as the Cambodian quagmire drained Vietnamese resources needed for domestic economic development.

The Vietnamese People’s Army finally withdrew from Cambodia in September 1989 as Soviet aid dried up with the Cold War winding down. Evaluating their intervention against them as costly but necessary for self-defense, Vietnam demonstrated realpolitik decisiveness by quickly toppling the hostile Pol Pot regime in days. However, residual Khmer Rouge forces kept fighting on for years until final surrender in the late 1990s. Vietnam’s ties with Cambodia today have overcome past animosities through deepening economic partnership and trade links. The fearsome legacy of fanatic rule has gradually faded after Vietnam overthrew one of Asia’s most brutal regimes.
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