By Kevin Doyle
Vietnamese veterans like Nguyen Thanh Nhan (Bottom, second from left) are still haunted by the war
On 30 April 1975, the last American helicopters beat an ignominious retreat from Saigon as the tanks of the North Vietnamese Army rumbled into the capital of defeated South Vietnam.
Victory over the US military is remembered each year in Vietnam as a triumph over foreign aggression in a war of national liberation.
Less celebrated is Vietnam's quiet retreat from its own deeply unpopular foreign war that ended 25 years ago this month. A war where Vietnamese troops, sent as saviours but soon seen as invaders, paid a steep price in lives and limbs during a gruelling decade-long guerilla conflict.
On the 25th anniversary of their withdrawal from Cambodia, Vietnamese veterans are still haunted by their memories of war with Pol Pot's army.
Some wonder why Cambodians are not more grateful to the troops who freed them from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
"Anyone who came back from Cambodia intact was a lucky person," said Nguyen Thanh Nhan, 50, a veteran of the war and author of the autobiographical book "Away from Home Season - The Story of a Vietnamese Volunteer Veteran in Cambodia".
Sent to Cambodia at the age of 20, Mr Nhan served from 1984 to 1987 in a frontline combat unit near the Thai-Cambodian border where some of the bloodiest confrontations with Khmer Rouge fighters took place.
Mr Nhan has kept detailed accounts of the war, including this diary entry recounting a 1986 battle
Though the Vietnamese government has never officially confirmed casualty numbers, some 30,000 Vietnamese troops were believed to have been killed before the final withdrawal in September 1989.
Banned in its original form by the Vietnamese government, Mr Nhan's book recounts the hardships of the Vietnamese soldiers and their camaraderie while trying to survive among a population who played host to them by day, and their enemy by night.
Much like the young Americans who fought in Vietnam, Mr Nhan's years in Cambodia have left indelible psychological marks. He still suffers from nightmares, and their daytime equivalent that drag him back into the terror of battle.
"When your companions die in battle, it is a very great loss," Mr Nhan said. "During the war, the battle does not stop. We have no time to reflect. We must be strong to continue. Later, more than 30 years later, memories come back - over and over again."
"The injury in the body is not so heavy but our injury was mental. Many soldiers, one or two years later, when they came back, they went mad."
His experience parallels the disillusionment of American troops, a generation before who arrived in Vietnam believing they were coming to save a nation, only to find that many ordinary people considered them the enemy.
"American soldiers thought they helped Vietnam. Then their illusion was broken," Mr Nhan said. "We were the same in Cambodia."
Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge in a wave of killing
The Khmer Rouge forced millions of Cambodians out of the city and into the countryside
Up to two million people are believed to have died under the Khmer Rouge
Vietnam launched an invasion of Cambodia in late December 1978 to remove Pol Pot. Two million Cambodians had died at the hands of his Khmer Rouge regime and Pol Pot's troops had conducted bloody cross-border raids into Vietnam, Cambodia's historic enemy, massacring civilians and torching villages.
Pol Pot fled ahead of the onslaught and Phnom Penh was placed under Vietnamese control in a little over a week.
Those that survived the Khmer Rouge regime initially greeted the Vietnamese as liberators. Years later, however, Vietnamese troops were still in Cambodia and by then, many Cambodians considered them occupiers.
Cambodia was an unpopular war for Vietnam, said Carlyle Thayer, an expert on Vietnam and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
"The Vietnamese military had been trained and experienced in overthrowing an occupying power and all of a sudden, the shoe was on the other foot. They had to invade Cambodia and occupy it, and succeed in setting up a government and engineer a withdrawal."
Unlike Vietnam's wars against the French and Americans, the intervention in Cambodia was "downplayed" to the Vietnamese public, Mr Thayer said. When soldiers returned from Cambodia without the fanfare of previous wars, veterans felt that they had been "forgotten".
Gratitude was also not forthcoming from Cambodia, where hostility towards the Vietnamese remains ubiquitous. It is an enmity borne of conflicts between ancient emperors and kings, of lost territory and a much smaller Cambodia fairing poorly through history to a far more populous Vietnam.
Today, many in Cambodia would like to forget that it was Vietnam that saved their country from Pol Pot's vicious revolution.
A propaganda poster from the 1980s depicts Cambodian-Vietnamese relations
The Friendship Monument in Phnom Penh commemorates Vietnam's role in defeating Pol Pot
Following Vietnam's withdrawal from Cambodia, soldiers' remains were removed from this war cemetery
Every few months, a group of veterans from the war in Cambodia meet in Ho Chi Minh City. On a recent Sunday morning, their get-together started early with short welcome speeches followed by swift toasts of strong rice wine.
Asked about the war, their mood shifted perceptibly. What happened in Cambodia is not something they discuss often.
One relents, likely out of politeness, and he describes an enduring image from his first days in Cambodia in 1979.
Le Thanh Hieu's unit pursued the retreating Khmer Rouge to the border with Thailand. He remembers seeing Cambodian villagers lying on the sides of roads dying of starvation and illness.
"They were dying everywhere. They were dying of hunger," said the 54-year-old. "We didn't have rice to feed the starving. We only had army rations to feed ourselves in battle."
Yet, he said, "faced with this situation the soldiers could not avoid saving lives" and they used their rations to make a thin rice soup for the starving.
"I don't want to have this experience to tell you about," Mr Hieu said.
Vietnam does not want to entirely forget about the war in Cambodia, said Mr Nhan. It only wants to remember an official version: a victorious, lightning attack that toppled Pol Pot.
Best forgotten, Mr Nhan said, are the 10 years of punishing hit-and-run fighting and the largely-forgotten veterans still scarred from their experiences.
"For me, the truth needs to be said," he said.
"Sometimes I think the dead are lucky. They rest in peace. We have to struggle every day. Our lives continue."
14 comments:
For Vietnamese, it is meaningless to get rid of Khmer Rouge as most Cambodian believed Khmer Rouge was hero, China and USA was being friend with these leaders. If they didn't invade Cambodia for Khmer Rouge, Vietnam could have time for economic development after the 1975 war.
[Some wonder why Cambodians are not more grateful to the troops who freed them from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime]
oh we are grateful but the liberation turns into an occupation and then installing their puppets gov to middle with our affair...just look at other country which the US has ''liberated '' same problems...liberated which turn into years of occupation so they could extract all those nation wealth [ from the earth--- oil , minerals and opium trade in afghan ] besides vietnam got plenty out of cambodia.
The point is Khmer Rouge was not completely destroy, still alive and supported by Thai and Chinese government at Cambodia-Thailand border. If Vietnamese withdrew immediately, I don't know what Khmer Rouge leaders would revenge against its anti-Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese with a better equipment.
When enemy get stronger, they will revenge aggressively.
This is what I know: Most Khmer in Cambodia are grateful and loyal to Vietnamese, especially the Khmer in the Eastern zone.
The Khmer who fled West were the relatives of the Khmer Rouges. They were not harmed much by the Khmer Rouges during the genocide. Thus, they are always pro-Khmer Rouges. Since they fled West, they had chance to migrate to America.
I think America discovered that and have been deported several hundred Khmers from America back to Cambodia. More Khmer will be deported.
USA made a mistake working with China in propping up the anti-Vietnam Khmer groups. As the result, USA felt obligated to allow some Khmer to resettle in America. So, the American society is not contaminated with Khmer Rouges genes!
-Drgunzet-
Hanoi invaded Cambodia because of Pol pot didn't agree with Hanoi wanted to dissolved all the border put Cambodia under INDOCHINA FEDERATION, but Pol pot didn't do what Hanoi wanted that was why they invaded Cambodia and installed its proxy regime instead.Was this liberation!? No!,was this an excuse for INVASION!? Yes,absolutely!..Pol pot didn't loses an inch of land and sea to Hanoi but Hanoi's proxy regime for thirty years plus gave islands and millions of hecta of land concession to Hanoi-Koh Tral was one of that island.
***DrugenZoo;your gene was unknown that can only means; your father was k.r/k.v.c because your mother was serving them in American-Viet war; you were conceived in the jungle,an offspring of GOOKS-rapists.
-Drgunzet-,
We told you again and again that leave Khmer people alone. Do you want your head to be smashed by baseball bat to death, asshole? You are one of the very bad Vietcong bastards and bitches who has stirred and created so many problems to neighbors. We wish you would be dead by now, asshole -Drgunzet-.
Vietnamese Democracy lovers in Hanoi against the evil communist Vietcong.
Had a typo, retyped with NOW:
This is what I know: Most Khmer in Cambodia are grateful and loyal to Vietnamese, especially the Khmer in the Eastern zone.
The Khmer who fled West were the relatives of the Khmer Rouges. They were not harmed much by the Khmer Rouges during the genocide. Thus, they are always pro-Khmer Rouges. Since they fled West, they had chance to migrate to America.
I think America discovered that and have been deported several hundred Khmers from America back to Cambodia. More Khmer will be deported.
USA made a mistake working with China in propping up the anti-Vietnam Khmer groups. As the result, USA felt obligated to allow some Khmer to resettle in America. So, the American society is NOW contaminated with Khmer Rouges genes!
-Drgunzet-
-Drgunzet-,
You still have your Master's poop in your mouth. How come you talk like a poop?
-Drgunzet-,
You still have your Vietcong/Yuon Master's poops in your mouth. How come you talk like a poop?
-Drgunzet-,
You are one of Vietcong/Yuon secret agents hiding in Khmer Rouges during the Killing Fields ending up murdering the innocent Khmer/Cambodian people including children.
Dshit if Just know who the your mfk at your ancestore are fk whore including your Mom everywhere have are Dieviet people they'r prostit hooker especially in Californai even where I live have a small Dieviet People they still have hooker this races so fk up
Dick head Dshit dont let me see u I dont care you a man or woman im gonna beat the fk u very bads and let u suck mu dick and fk your asshole too bastard Youn mfk go back to where your fucking ancestors come from and hand over my kampucheakrom and Champa back to their original owner idiots mfk
The original owner of Khmer Krom were the Funanese. But you Khmer folks have wiped them out. In fact, Vietnam should claim more land which used to belonged to the Funanese, starting with all current islands in the Gulf of Thailand.
I say, let's hand over all the islands first, then we talk about other land along the Mekong river.
-Drgunzet-
If anyone here need a history lesson, just ask Drushit. Drushit will teach you that the Funanese used to speak Vietnamese. Funan land belong to the Vietnamese people since the Khmer people could walk.
Drushit will also teach you that the Champa land didnt exist nor was there any genocide against the Champa people and any other race.
Drushit will also teach you that the Vietnamese people never even killed the Chinese Ming or the South/North Vietnam.
Just ask Drushit, he will teach you that Uncle Ho is the real god existed way before our Sun existed.
UN Kid.
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