Section A Plan of Investigation The topic explored in the investigation is to what extent did the bombing of Cambodia between

n 1969 and 1973 by U.S. forces lead to the takeover of the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975? This topic was selected because there seems to be much dispute over whether the bombings lead to the takeover of the Khmer Rouge or they were a means by which the takeover of the Khmer Rouge was inhibited In order to reach a successful conclusion, the scope of the investigation will include the takeover of the Khmer Rouge, the fall of Phnom Penh, Operation Menu, and the Cambodian Campaign. Areas of investigation will be analyzed through historical text and media articles during the period of the Vietnam War. Section B Summary of Evidence The U.S. bombing of Cambodian began in 1966 and peaked between 1969 and 1973 with the carpet bombing of the Cambodian countryside by American B-52s.1 Civilian casualties as a result of the bombing is one of the reasons the Khmer Rouge rose so rapidly.2 Subsequent to the bombing, the Khmer Rouge did not have as much public support.3 After being shown craters the bombs created by Khmer Rouge officials, most people only cooperated with the Khmer Rouge because of their anger with the bombings.4 When asked if the Khmer Rouge used the bombing to gain power, Chhit Do, a CPK leader, said the Khmer Rouge used the bombings as propaganda.5 Because of the peoples anger, they were willing to believe what they were told and join the side of the Khmer Rouge.6 sometimes the bombs fell and hit little children, and their fathers would be all for the Khmer Rouge he said.7 The CIAs Directorate of Operations said that the Khmer Rouge was using the damage caused by the bombing as the main point of their propaganda campaign.8 The cadre had told people that Lon Nols government was to blame for the bombings and that the path to stopping the bombings was in the defeat of Lon Nol. 9 The Khmer Rouge used the bombings of Cambodia to justify its brutal policies.10 During the U.S. bombings of Cambodia, the relationship between the Vietnamese communists and the Khmer Rouge lasted.11 Hanoi supplied arms to the Khmer Rouge while the Khmer Rouge continued to sell food to Vietnamese soldiers stationed in Cambodia.12 Moreover, as long as the U.S. kept bombing Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge would not agree to negotiations.13 On August 15, 1973, the bombing was halted due to an agreement between President Nixon and Congress.14 The
1

Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime, (United States of America: Yale University, 2008), 16 Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan, Bombs Over Cambodia, (Yale University: The Walrus, 2006), 63 3 Owen and Kiernan, 63 4 Owen and Kiernan, 67-68 5 Kiernan, 23 6 Kiernan, 23 7 Kiernan, 23 8 Kiernan, 22 9 Kiernan, 22 10 Kiernan, 19 11 Ang Cheng Guan, Ending the Vietnam War, (Great Britain: TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall, 2004), 142 12 Guan, 142 13 Guan, 142 14 William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 284
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Khmer Rouge also gained power through the use of violence.15 It relied extensively on murder from the very beginning.16 Khmer Rouge members went from village to village purging local leaders and replacing them with revolutionaries to gain greater political control. 17 Another technique the Khmer Rouge employed was the recruitment of children as soldiers. 18 These children were often recruited as young as 6 years of age.19 Because the Khmer Rouge had infiltrated school teachers, children were taught that communism was needed and were recruited as soldiers straight out of school.20 These children eventually became the core of the revolution.21 This was because they were able to carry out almost any task required of them.22 The Khmer Rouge also used the National United Front for Kampuchea, which called upon Cambodians to fight those who had overthrown Sihanouk, to draw recruits.23 Section C Evaluation of Sources The Pol Pot Regime is a book written by Ben Kiernan in 1996. Its purpose is to give Kiernans account of the Cambodian revolution and genocide. This source is valuable because the author is a professor at Yale University, a prestigious and credible institution. It is also valuable because has written multiple books regarding Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge and, therefore, has the knowledge to form a credible opinion. This source is limited because Kiernan seems to be convinced that the Khmer Rouges rise to power is the result of the U.S. bombing of Cambodia and does not put emphasis on other factors which may have contributed to its rise to power. After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide is a book written by Craig Etcheson in 2005. Its purpose is to relate the struggles since 1979 to end the three decades of war that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on Cambodians and bring them to account for their abuses of humanity. This source is valuable because it was written long enough after the Khmer Rouge was in power that it can accurately reflect on events. It is also valuable because the author is a part of the Cambodian Genocide Program and thus has extensive knowledge about the subject. This source is limited because the author cites so many people who contributed to the book that the analyses might not be strictly his own and there is a potential for inconsistencies throughout. Section D Analysis According to Kiernan, the U.S. bombing of Cambodia was the most important factor in the rise of the Khmer Rouge.24 The bombing destabilized Cambodia and without it, Pol Pots

15

Craig Etcheson, After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide, (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2005), 4 16 Etcheson, 4 17 Etcheson, 5 18 Etcheson, 5 19 Etcheson, 5 20 Etcheson, 5 21 Etcheson, 5 22 Etcheson, 5 23 Etcheson, 7 24 Kiernan, 16

revolution would not have gained power.25 The U.S. bombings of Cambodia provided the Khmer Rouge with a method to manipulate the people of Cambodia into taking its side. The anger people experienced following the bombing led them to join the Khmer Rouge and fight the current government. According to one local peasant, after a B-52 raid, some people ran away, while others went and joined the revolution.26 Civilian casualties as a result of the bombings were so large that survivors turned to the CPK for support.27 The bombings provided the Khmer Rouge with a prime recruitment method. Its propaganda campaign was very successful with refugees and in areas that had been affected by B-52 strikes.28 After a raid on a village called Trapeang Krapeu, 60 people joined the Khmer Rouge out of anger.29 Because after each raid, more and more people were joining the Khmer Rouge, it continued to grow and gain political support. According to Nixon and Kissinger at the time, however, the halt on the bombings on August 15, 1973 destroyed any possibility of peace talks because of a lack of leverage. 30 This viewpoint suggests that the bombings worked against the Khmer Rouge, rather than for it. Shawcross refutes this by saying that the bombing actually hindered negotiations because it made the Khmer Rouge uncompromising in its opposition to the bombing. 31 Thus, the U.S. bombings of Cambodia contributed greatly to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, for it used the bombings as part of its propaganda campaign, which led to popular support of the Khmer Rouge. Unlike Kiernan and Shawcross, Etcheson says that the true source of the Cambodian genocide and the rise of the Khmer Rouge lies within the nation, and looking for external sources of influence does not represent the whole truth.32 He cites numerous tactics that were employed by the Khmer Rouge to gain support during its rise to power to show that if the bombings had not taken place, the Khmer Rouge would have risen to power anyways. 33 This interpretation also varies with that of Guan, who says that because of the bombings, the relationship between the Vietnamese communists and the Khmer Rouge strengthened and, as a result, the Khmer Rouge was supplied with arms by the former.34 Essentially, if it was not for the bombings, the Khmer Rouge would not have risen to power as fast as it did, though it would have gained popular support eventually anyways. Section E Conclusion The U.S. bombings of Cambodia that took place between 1969 and 1973 significantly contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge included the bombings as part of its propaganda campaign to gain support and the aftermath of the bombings led civilians to turn to the Khmer Rouge out of anger. Moreover, because of the continuation of the bombings, the Khmer Rouge was supplied with arms by the Vietnamese communists. However, the Khmer Rouge had already been employing various tactics to increase recruitment such as the purging
25

Kiernan, 16 Kiernan, 20 27 Kiernan, 20 28 Kiernan, 22 29 Kiernan, 21 30 Shawcross, 285 31 Shawcross, 285 32 Etcheson, 4 33 Craig Etcheson, The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984), 97 34 Guan, 142
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and replacement of local leaders. The Khmer Rouge also spread recruitment to young soldiers, who played a very useful role in the revolution. Therefore, the Khmer Rouge was on the path to