The Invasion (Part Two): Nixon's Cambodian Incursion

On April 30th, 1970, Richard Nixon went on television to announce that American and South Vietnamese troops were crossing into Cambodia. He called it an incursion, not an invasion, and promised it would be brief. Within a week four students were dead at Kent State, and within two months the Americans were gone again. The war they left behind was not.

Time Period Covered: May to June 1970

Why did Nixon invade Cambodia in May 1970? What impact did the 'Cambodian Incursion' have on the war in Vietnam? How did it affect Cambodia?

In part two of our discussion of the situation in Cambodia after the coup, we see how the Nixon White House responded to the crisis. Lachlan asks whether the decision Nixon and Kissinger made was the right one, or whether there was a right one at all. We look at the circumstances that brought about the decision, what options were on the table, and the impact of Nixon's speech announcing the 'incursion'. Then we look at the Cambodia Campaign itself, the fighting that overtakes much of the country, and the outcomes this had in the short and long term.

Sources:

Chandler “Tragedy of Cambodian History”
Short “Pol Pot”
Shawcross “Sideshow”
Kamm “Report from a Stricken Land”
Sak Satsukhan “The Khmer Republic at War”
Wilfred Deac “Road to the Killing Fields”
Walter Isaacson “Kissinger”
Kiernan “How Pol Pot Came to Power”
Etcheson “Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea”
James Sterba "G.I's in Cambodia" (New York Times)