Cambodia Bombing Research Paper

The open secret about the Vietnam War was that America didn’t just wage it in Vietnam. All of Southeast Asia was fair game as the US unleashed all of its military might to crush the Communists. The massive bombing of Laos which turned it into the most bombed country in history is usually forgotten, but even more unknown is the suffering the US inflicted on Cambodia. Between 1963 and 1973, the US dropped over 2.5 million tons of bombs on Cambodia, and invaded it for several months. The memory of this has been buried, along with the tens of thousands of corpses that Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and the rest of the US leadership left behind. In this video, we will expose the secret war the US waged in Cambodia, a war that was an atrocity in its own right, but also paved the way for the monstrous genocide of the Khmer Rouge afterwards. If that sounds interesting to you, then consider leaving a like to support this video, and subscribe for more content on important historical events like this. Johnson’s Bombing The Vietnamese-Cambodian border is rough terrain of hills and jungle. Infrastructure and maps are unreliable, and many villages are unreachable by road, even today. In the late 1960s, many of these villages were virtually cut off from the outside world, and the only way to reach them was to trek through difficult terrain on foot or drop in from the air. While they were technically in Cambodia, the Cambodian government meant little to the daily lives of people there. This weak control made it easy for the North Vietnamese to slip across the border and establish bases in Cambodia to strike at US and South Vietnamese forces. In 1963, Cambodia’s King Sihanouk made a secret deal with Communist China to turn a blind eye to these bases on his soil. Bases in Cambodia and neighbouring Laos became an important part of North Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh trail which allowed the north to move men and supplies to continue fighting. Inevitably, US intelligence figured out that their enemy was using Cambodia as part of the war effort. The US later claimed that Sihanouk and the Cambodian government gave tacit permission for the US to conduct anti-Communist activity. This strategy of secretly cooperating with both Communist and Capitalist countries while officially remaining neutral was a core part of Sihanouk’s Cold War policy. Other sources dispute this and say Sihanouk only gave the US permission to pursue fleeing Vietnamese troops across the border during combat engagements, not conduct a multi-year bombing campaign in his country. US Bombing Tactics Between 1965 and 1969, 2,565 bombing sorties would be launched against Cambodia. US bombers operated largely out of Thailand. In 1961, they signed a secret agreement with the Thai government to get permission to launch from their airbases. As much as 75% of US bombing of Southeast Asia was launched from Thailand. The US employed a range of aerial strategies. Conventional mass bombing from B-52s was the standard, but helicopter missions were also common. As early as 1968, US bombers stationed in allied Thai air bases were also dropping Agent Orange over targets in Cambodia and Laos. One estimate says the US sprayed over 150,000 litres of it over Cambodia during the war. Sources: David P. Chandler, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution Since 1945, (1991) Kenneth Ray Olson and David Richard Speidel, ‘Review and Analysis: United States Secret Wars in Cambodia: Long-Term Impacts and Consequences,’ Open Journal of Soil Science, 13, p295-328, (2023), https://www.scirp.org/pdf/ojss_2023071215091909.pdf Matthew Evangelista and Henry Shue, The American Way of Bombing: Changing Ethical and Legal Norms, From Flying fortresses to Drones, (2014) Nick Turse, Blood on His Hands: Survivors of Kissinger’s Secret War in Cambodia’, The Intercept, 23rd May 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/ Rebecca Tan and Regine Cabato, ‘Henry Kissinger’s Central Role in the US Carpet Bombing of Cambodia’, The Washington Post, 30th November 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-war/ William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia, (1979) #vietnamwar #darkhistory #secrethistory Copyright © 2025 A Day In History. All rights reserved. DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com