Sideshow - Kissinger, Nixon and The Destruction of Cambodia
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:02 am
I've read about the first 75 pages of this and it's a really good read. Rather than doing a review, I'm just going to update this thread with random little excerpts that I found interesting.
Note:The reference to Prince Sihanouk is actually the King, he gave up the throne when Cambodia had elections so he could run for government.
p.22
In the event press inquiries are received following the executino of the Breakfast Plan as to whether or not US B-52's have struck in Cambodia, US spokesman will confirm that B-52's did strike on routine missions adjacent to the Cambodian border but state that he has no details and will into this question. Should the press persist in its inquiries or in the event of a Cambodian protest concerning US strikes in Cambodia, US spokesman will neither confirm nor deny reports of attacks on Cambodia but state it will be investigated. After delivering a reply to any Cambodian protest, Washington will inform the press that we have apologized and offered compensation.
p.37
Water has fashioned Cambodia. In prehistory the central plain of the country was under sea, and waves broke against the Dangrek mountains of souther Laos. The Mekong river fell through the narrow Laotian ranges and over the Khong Falls into the sea. Gradually the river built up the soial and filled the gulf to form present-day Cambodia and souther Vietnam. Today only the Great Lake (Tonle Sap) in the center of Cambodia marks the original line of the seacoast.
Henry Mouhot discovering Ongcorp.42
"He could not understand how the temples could possibly have been built, and no one in Cambodia was able to explain. He heard, "It is the work of giants"; "It was built by the leprous king"; "It made itself"; "Is is the work of Pra-wun, the king of the angles".
He was startled by the contrast between the traces of splendid civilization and the deplorable state of the country he was visiting.
p.53
At the opening of an American-equipped maternity clinic the Ambassador, according to Sihanouk, strutted about praising the material and said, "Ah, Prince Sihanouk, this should particularly interest you as a great one-man manufacturer of babies.
Note:The reference to Prince Sihanouk is actually the King, he gave up the throne when Cambodia had elections so he could run for government.
p.55
Of the country as a whole, the report noted that almost all Cambodians were fishermen or farmers, whose prowess did not impress their neighbors. "Fro the French, Chinese and Vietnamese points of view, Khmer are indfifferent farmers, incapable traders, uninspired fishermen, unreliable laborers." Soldiers were little better; they lacked stamina, did not understand machinery, behaved arrogantly and had poor officers. The police were untrained, under equipped, extortionists, "the most corrupt group in Cambodia"
The report shared the conventional belief that the Cambodians were "by and large a docile passive people". As such they were disappointing material from the American point of view. They could not be easily panicked, their horizons were limited to village, pagoda and forest, they respecte their government, they knew of no other countries, they feared ghosts and, in short, "they cannot be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of the US aims and policies."
p.61
He orderd the police and army brutally to supress the tiny groups of Khmer Rouge in the countryside. At the same time he was edging toward Hanoi. in 1965, after Newsweek had published an article that scorned him and accused his family of running the profitable Phnom Pneh brothel business, he broke off all diplomatic relations with Washington altogether.
He cited the article as an intolerable intrusion – but a more important reason for the break was that the first American combat troops had just splashed ashore at Danang in South Vietnam.
p.67
From now on, Sihanouk's control over domestic politics diminished. He spent more and more time playing jazz and making melodramatic films; stories about the corruption of his wife, Monique, and her rapacious mother became increasingly scandalous, and the Phnom Penh court degenerated. Sihanouk stated a casino to raise money and to pander to the nation's obsession with gambling; he seemed unaware of the extent of the domestic crisis.
p.69
When Bowles met Sihanouk, the Prince immediately began to criticize America's prescence in Vietnam. He could not understand why the US was attacking North Vietnam and other small countries while avoiding confrontation with Moscow and Peking, who were really to blame for the conflict. Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist, yet American intervention was pushing him into China's arms. He asserted that Cambodia had to maintain good relations with the Vietnamese Communists because the future of South East Asia was "red".