Cambodia News, (Battambang Province): On March 23, 2021, at the point of Wat Boran Nives (called Wat Koas Kralor) in Muk Wat village, Koas Kralor commune, Koas Kralor district, Battambang province, monks from the pagoda, who were digging up the ground to install some toilets, found unexploded bullets buried in the ground.

Upon seeing this, the monks at the monastery provided information to the district police, who reported the discovery to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) to go to the scene and inspect the find. They counted the equivalent to 4,000 bullets (made in the United States) buried during the war, which are now about 90 percent defective.


After inspection, CMAC removed all the bullets and took them away to be destroyed.

I'll take a guess that Cambodians may not like US veterans so much? Do people have sore feelings?

KTabi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:21 pm I'll take a guess that Cambodians may not like US veterans so much? Do people have sore feelings?

They don't. The US military had a very limited ground involvement in Cambodia. These are just munitions that were likely supplied to the Republican government in the 1970-75 war period.
The US gave vital support, otherwise Cambodia would have been overrun by PAVN/ NLF and the burgeoning "FUNK " very early on.
The only thing that stopped that was USAAF fire power, called in by local commanders through a tiny staff of US advisors. Most of the population moved to urban areas, so the countryside was just a battleground by then.
Talk to any Cambodian, many might remember some serious bombardments, my family have described B52s whacking out parts of Kien Svay district, just down the road. Another is from Oudong which was seriously damaged in the war, but he knows both sides did damage, it was a war and he just had to leave, to other battles at Phnom Baset etc. Locals often get upset talking about the deprivations of the Pol Pot regime but I have never heard them blame Americans. They have families in the US and France who have been treated well so they have no bad feelings for those refuges.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:49 pm

KTabi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:21 pm I'll take a guess that Cambodians may not like US veterans so much? Do people have sore feelings?

They don't.
Locals often get upset talking about the deprivations of the Pol Pot regime but I have never heard them blame Americans. They have families in the US and France who have been treated well so they have no bad feelings for those refuges.

That's surprising like when I went to Vietnam and they weren't really angry at American veterans for the most part. I guess one could go to Cambodia and be known to be a veteran without a problem.

KTabi wrote:

John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:49 pm

KTabi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:21 pm I'll take a guess that Cambodians may not like US veterans so much? Do people have sore feelings?

They don't.
Locals often get upset talking about the deprivations of the Pol Pot regime but I have never heard them blame Americans. They have families in the US and France who have been treated well so they have no bad feelings for those refuges.

That's surprising like when I went to Vietnam and they weren't really angry at American veterans for the most part. I guess one could go to Cambodia and be known to be a veteran without a problem.

Although the Vietnam War is deep in the American/Western psyche, you have to remember that US veterans are now 70+. Most of the Vietnamese generals of that era are long gone.

The median age in Cambodia is 24 years old, and it's similar in Vietnam. A relatively small portion of the population actually has any direct experience with the war in Vietnam, the KR or even K5 and other more recent developments. To have a recollection of the Khmer Republic, or even the PRK, you need to be quite a bit older.

This stash was probably buried by a bunch of guys as they were deserting or something.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 1:16 pm The median age in Cambodia is 24 years old, and it's similar in Vietnam. A relatively small portion of the population actually has any direct experience with the war in Vietnam, the KR or even K5 and other more recent developments. To have a recollection of the Khmer Republic, or even the PRK, you need to be quite a bit older.

This stash was probably buried by a bunch of guys as they were deserting or something.

More than fair, I've known that in northern vietnam there is more anti-Americanism anti American military for obvious reasons, didn't mean to imply it was necessarily American GIs who buried it.

I didn't mean you had implied it, just that with the weapons being found in a pagoda, I'm guessing deserters from the Republic. A lot of them just dropped their weapons and changed into civilian clothes/tried to get back to their village or something to blend in.

I personally never sensed anger towards Americans in any part of Vietnam. Overall, I find them colder than Cambodians, but that's just a cultural trait. For sure the war is deeply engrained in their psyche as well, but for the average 22 year old Viet with an iPhone, there's really no need for animosity towards Americans, regardless of their age. They know full well that the guys making the decisions in the 60s and 70s are for the most part long gone. A 17 year old Vietnamese probably had more in common with a 17 year old American than they do with an 80 year old, be they Vietnamese or American.