Did Pol Pot plan to invade Vietnam?

Re: Danger on the Mekong [40% of voters in Cambodia are Vietnamese] 

Anonymous said...

To understand the situation and answer the question, one needs to ask: How could Pol Pot, an unarmed, untrained teacher from Battabang plan to invade Vietnam? Is he really responsible for the death of 2 million Khmer and responsible for invading Vietnam in 1970s?

1950

Pol Pot was forced to return to Cambodia in January 1953. He was the first member of the Cercle Marxiste to return to Cambodia. He was given the task of evaluating the various groups rebelling against the government. He recommended the Khmer Viet Minh, and in August 1954, Sar, along with Rath Samoeun, travelled to the Viet Minh Eastern Zone headquarters in the village of Krabao in the Kampong Cham (Hun Sen was said to be a Khmer Vietminh, also born in Kapong Cham, later joining the Khmer Rouge as a teen)

1954

Due to the 1954 Geneva peace accord, requiring all Viet Minh forces and insurgents be expelled, a group of Cambodians followed the Vietnamese back to Vietnam (as cadres Vietnam would use in a future war to liberate Cambodia). The rest, including Sar, returned to Cambodia.

1962

He fled to the Vietnamese border region and made contact with Vietnamese units fighting against South Vietnam.

1964

Sar convinced the Vietnamese to help the Cambodian communists set up their own base camp. The party's central committee met later that year and issued a declaration calling for armed struggle, emphasizing "self-reliance" in accordance with extreme Cambodians. In the border camps, the ideology of the Khmer Rouge was gradually developed.

1970

The Vietnamese had taken matters into their own hands and launched an offensive against the Cambodian army. A force of 50 Vietnamese quickly overran large parts of eastern Cambodia reaching to within 15 miles (24 km) of Phnom Penh before being pushed back. In these battles the Khmer Rouge and Sar played a very small role.

1971,

The Vietnamese (North Vietnamese and Viet Cong) did most of the fighting against the Cambodian government while Sar and the Khmer Rouge functioned almost as auxiliaries to their forces. Sar also put resources of Khmer Rouge organizations into political education and indoctrination.

1973

The orders led to futile attacks and wasted lives among the Khmer Rouge army. Vietnam realized that it no longer controlled the situation and began to treat Saloth as more of an equal leader than a junior partner.

1975

North Vietnam, as the rival socialist country in Indochina, was determined to take Saigon before the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh. Shipments of weapons from China were delayed, in one instance the Cambodians were forced to sign a humiliating document thanking Vietnam for shipments of Chinese weapons.

1975

Pol Pot tried to prevent border disputes by sending a team to Vietnam. The negotiations failed which resulted in even more border disputes. On April 30, the Cambodian army, backed by artillery, crossed over into Vietnam. In attempting to explain Pol Pot's behavior, one region-watcher

1976

Vietnam sent its air force into Cambodia in a series of raids. In July, Vietnam forced a Treaty of Friendship on Laos which gave Vietnam almost total control over the country. In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge commanders in the Eastern Zone began to tell their men that war with Vietnam.

My question is, did Pol Pot really invade Vietnam, in retaliation, did the Vietnamese kill 2.5 million Khmer?