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| US President Richard Nixon poses in the White House after his announcement to the nation April 30, 1970 that American ground troops have attacked, at his order, a Communist complex in Cambodia. Nixon points to area of Vietnam and Cambodia in which the action is taking place. (AP Photo) |
By ANDREW GLASS 4/28/15
On this day in 1970, President Richard Nixon authorized U.S. combat troops to cross the border from South Vietnam into Cambodia. The preemptive strike was aimed at forestalling communist North Vietnamese attacks into South Vietnam from their sanctuaries there even as the South Vietnamese were being primed to assume more responsibility for the conduct of the war and U.S. forces were being withdrawn.
Both Secretary of State William Rogers and Defense Secretary Melvin Laird were kept in the dark about Nixon’s decision until it was made public two days later. Three top staff members of the National Security Council, headed by Henry Kissinger, resigned in protest.
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On April 30, in a 2,700-word televised address to the nation, Nixon sought to justify his decision as a required response to North Vietnamese aggression. His speech triggered a fresh wave of antiwar demonstrations, which led to the killing of four students at Kent State University when Ohio National Guard troops fired on protesters.
On April 25, Nixon had dined with Kissinger and with his friend Bebe Rebozo. Afterward, they watched “Patton,” a film about Army Gen. George Patton. It was the sixth time Nixon had watched the movie.
Kissinger later said that “when [Nixon] was pressed to the wall, his romantic streak surfaced and he would see himself as a beleaguered military commander in the tradition of Patton.”
All in all, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam conducted 13 major operations from April 29 to July 22. U.S. combat forces joined in these actions from May 1 to June 30.
The Cambodian incursion angered many members of Congress who accused Nixon of having widened the war illegally. Still, it took five more years and a communist takeover of South Vietnam for American forces to fully depart.
SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM
3 comments:
This documentary can show you and all Khmer young abroad the real modicum why USA force decided to invaded Cambodia . the proclaim independent,neutrality by Sihanouk father of Khmer socialist to the world media became irrelevant as you all can see , the trick to hid the truth of the intentional association to emboldened to their friend Yuon troupe in Khmer territory was in predicament fact exposed . USA administration have all the survey and clear objective of all the VC camp stationed inside our Khmer land, like i said before . It is the fact that the VC of 50,000 or more troops well feed and equipped by Sihanouk our dear leader, who moved by order from Peking to destroyed the Khmer army of less than 30,000 soldier with no or ill equip, is true fact . Patriots Khmer of to day dare to decide and judgement your cultivated mind not because of confusion and murky from the subversion of Sihanouk sympathizers groups . Now you can see the real undeniable fact that the blindly the demagogue machine of Sihanouk survival spread the defamation propaganda .The killing spree, the genocidal in 1975 was a real despicable scenario Khmer survival supposed to remember ,the brutality act of irresponsible and immorality in part by Sihanouk bastard regime are coming in the daylight . Please young patriot stand up and recognized the event, the quagmire and conundrum of this devastating lost of our citizen life are unbelievable high than we thought . It isn't a fun of the truth, it is a historic book of world record about Khmer did genocidal of their own blood for vicious revenge in the 21st century .
Appreciate your post School of vice.
This history is outdated.
The American bombed Cambodia for over 10 years.
The bombing didnt happend on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam. The bombings occured over half the country (look at the Ho Chi Minh trials) from Sihanoukville, to Phnom Penh to the border of Laos.
The bombs not only pushed the Vietnamese agression to the Cambodia defence, but also weakened the Lon Nol government.
The constant bombings from the US and the Vietnamese controlling half of Cambodia allowed the Vietnamese to fight off the Lon Nol government and installed Pol Pot in power.
This is what why Cambodia became a genocide ground. Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge were merely scapegoats.
The Vietnamese hid behind the Khmer Rouge and used the US to do evil deed.
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