Vietnam, Cambodia, and the United States : return engagement

Vietnam, Cambodia, and the United States : return engagement

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Vietnam, Cambodia, and the United States : return engagement


Title:	Vietnam, Cambodia, and the United States : return engagement
Author:	Richard Holbrooke (Interviewee); Richard V. Allen (Interviewee); Karen Elliott House (Interviewee); Krogh, Peter F. (Peter Frederic) (Moderator)
Abstract:	Examines American policy towards Cambodian and the return of the Khmer Rouge.
Description:	As the United States sought to normalize relations with Vietnam nearly 15 years after the end of the Vietnam War, civil war continued to rage in neighboring Cambodia. Following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, communist despot Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge overthrew the U.S. backed government in Cambodia, leading to a period of social revolution in which nearly one quarter of Cambodia’s population lost their lives to the brutal regime or famine. Within four years Vietnam had invaded Cambodia, driving the Khmer Rouge into the jungle and quickly establishing a puppet government. In 1979 the Khmer Rouge remerged as part of a tripartite coalition of guerilla factions to wage war against the Vietnamese installed government. Despite the Khmer Rouge’s prominent role as the most powerful of the three groups, this coalition was recognized by the United States and a majority of UN member states as the legitimate government of Cambodia. The withdrawal of Vietnam’s remaining forces in the fall of 1989 posed a new challenge for the international community- how to peacefully install a new non-communist government in Cambodia without allowing the genocidal Pol Pot to regain power. In this episode, the panel of foreign policy specialists discusses the Khmer Rouge’s role in Cambodian politics, as well as the feasibility of any potential power sharing arrangement that would exclude the Khmer Rouge from post-Vietnamese government. Featuring former National Security Advisor Richard Allen, Karen Elliott House of the Wall Street Journal, and former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Richard Holbrooke.
Permanent Link:	http://hdl.handle.net/10822/552701
Date Issued:	1990
Date Created:	1990
Subject:	United States -- Foreign relations -- Vietnam ; Vietnam -- Foreign relations -- United States ; United States -- Foreign relations -- Cambodia ; Cambodia -- Foreign relations -- United States ; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1989- ; Pol Pot ; Khmer Rouge ; Cambodian-Vietnamese War ; Hun San