For most Americans, Cambodia was a sideshow to the war in Vietnam,
but by the time of the Vietnam invasion of Democratic Kampuchea in
1978 and the subsequent war, it had finally moved to center stage.
Kenneth Conboy chronicles the violence that plagued Cambodia from
World War II until the end of the twentieth century and peels back
the layers of secrecy that surrounded the CIA's covert assistance
to anticommunist forces in Cambodia during that span.
Conboy's path-breaking study provides the first complete assessment
of CIA ops in two key periods-during the Khmer Republic's existence
(1970-1975), in support of American military action in Vietnam, and
during the Reagan and first Bush presidencies (1981-1991), when the
CIA challenged Soviet expansion by supporting exiled royalists,
Republicans, and even former Communists trying to expel the
Vietnamese from their country. Through interviews with dozens of
CIA Cambodia veterans-as well as special forces officers from
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia-he sheds new light on
the contributions made by foreign intelligence services. Through
information gleaned from the U.S. Defense Attache's Office in Phnom
Penh, he offers a detailed look at the development of the Khmer
Rouge military structure, while his use of Vietnamese-language
histories released by the People's Army of Vietnam helps more fully
illuminate the PAVN's participation in the Cambodian wars.
More than a simple expos of CIA activities, however, The Cambodian
Wars is also an authoritative history of that country's struggles
over half a century. Conboy examines Cambodia as kingdom, colony,
republic, revolutionary state, and Vietnamese satellite, and offers
fresh insight into the actions of key players-Norodom Sihanouk, Lon
Nol, Sisowath Sirik Matak, Son Ngoc Thanh, and others-that will
enlighten even those who think they know that country's history.
Three decades in the making, The Cambodian Wars tells a little
known chapter in the Cold War in which non-communists pulled off a
surprising victory. Featuring dozens of photos covering events from
1970 to the trial of Pol Pot in 1997, it is must reading for anyone
interested in contemporary Southeast Asian history, CIA covert
operations, and the Vietnam War.
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