The Vietnamese people and Cambodian people have built up a close friendship and unity in fighting common enemies for years. Particularly, the two peoples stood side by side in fighting French colonialists and American aggressors for national independence and freedom of each country.
But starting from the early 1970s, the Pol Pot force abetted by foreign reactionary forces launched attacks and assassinations of Vietnamese revolutionaries working in the Cambodian battlefield. At the same time, the Pol Pot force sowed division among Cambodian communists. During the 6 first months of 1973 only, the Pol Pot forces carried out 102 attacks and assassinations, robbed dozens of tons of food and weapons, and caused 103 casualties to the Vietnamese revolutionary side.
As soon as Pol Pot and his fellows took power in Cambodia in April 1975, they set their face against the Cambodian people and revolutionary cause, carrying out acts of genocide against their people. More generously, they also pursued a policy of undermining the war-fighting unity among the three countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in general and the traditional friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam in particular, and started to send forces across the Vietnam-Cambodia borderline, seriously encroaching upon Vietnam’s territory.
At home, the Pol Pot band made an especially serious mistake when carrying out a brutal genocide policy. They killed many innocent people and buried them in mass graves here, there and everywhere. They also turned schools and pagodas into jails, herded people into concentration camps, imposed forced labor on even women, the elderly and children, and cruelly tortured them. For only 3 years, 8 months and 20 days (from April 1975 to late 1978), the Pol Pot regime killed nearly three millions innocent Cambodians, destroyed all social bases, urban areas, industrial production and craft industry, as well as eradicated monetary and trade systems. They drove Cambodia toward a possible perdition. An extremely severe rule was exercised in the country: Cambodian people had no freedom of travel, no freedom of meeting, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no right to go to school, no right to get married, no right to go to hospital, no right to go to temple, no trading, no money.
Under the auspices of foreign reactionary forces, the Pol Pot band deliberately undermined the traditional friendship and unity between Cambodia and Vietnam. They sought to slander Vietnam, provoked nationalism among short-sighted Cambodians and demanded to review the bilateral relationship and the Vietnam-Cambodia borderline. More dangerously, they irrationally considered Vietnam its No-1 enemy, trespassed upon Vietnam’s border and launched a number of attacks on Vietnamese civilians. In 1975 when Vietnam just completed its reunification, Pol Pot ordered his army to continue attacking Vietnamese citizens living along the Vietnam-Cambodia borderline on one hand, and tried to invade Vietnam’s Southern islands on the other hand.
On May 3, 1975, the Pol Pot force attacked the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc; on May 10, 1975, they invaded Tho Chu, and arrested and killed more than 500 Vietnamese islanders.
Along the shared land border, they sought to provoke Vietnamese border guards and used Cambodian civilians to moved border landmarks in the Vietnamese provinces of Tay Ninh, Kon Tum and Dak Lak. In October 1975, troops of the Pol Pot regime crossed the shared border, attacked Pa Cham (Lo Co), illegally grew crops in Vietnam’s soil in the Vietnamese localities of Moc Bai, Khuoc, Va Sa, Ta Not and Ta Bat. In the period from the end of 1975 to the beginning of 1976, Pol Pot troops conducted more surprise assaults on Vietnamese land, including several expeditions 10 km inside Vietnam’s territory, engendering a lot of bloody crimes to Vietnamese people living near the shared borderline.
In January 1976, the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of Kampuchea chaired by General Secretary Pol Pot defined: “The top peril that must be paid special attention to is Vietnam.” In this period, the Pol Pot force with foreign support expanded military operations devastating Vietnamese villages along the shared borderline. During late February 1976 and early March, Pol Pot troops intensified acts of provocation at two Vietnamese border posts in Bu Prang, Dak Lak province, and carried out extensive land encroachment drives along the Vietnam-Cambodia border. During the last months of 1976, they caused 280 cases of provocation, and encroached on 20 positions of Vietnam’s territory in Military Region 7 while Military Region 5 and Military Region 9 saw an increasing number of land encroachment cases.
Along with their invasion of Vietnam’s territory, the Pol Pot regime tried to smear the image of Vietnam, incited anti-Vietnam spirit among Cambodians, and explicitly declared Vietnam as the “No1 enemy” and “Traditional enemy.” Under the pretext of cleaning up the apparatus, Pol Pot and his fellows classified the Cambodian people, carried out various bloody purges targeting the Cambodian cadres who had trained in Vietnam.
From April 30, 1975 to April 30, 1977, the Pol Pot regime was making hectic preparation for a war against Vietnam. They increased its military to 12 divisions of regular forces from 7, invested in modern military equipment and weapons, developed dozens of thousands of local-level troops, and moved 41% of its military force to the shared border. During March and April 1977, Pol Pot troops conducted a number of military exercises under the cover of the “defensive area” and “home security” purposes.
Pol Pot stated, “The contradiction between Cambodia and Vietnam is a vital strategic one that cannot be relieved nor resolved by negotiation, and that can only be addressed by force.” In late April 1977, Pol Pot sent 5 divisions, hundreds of cannons and tanks to the shared border in an attempt to open a large-scale operation on Vietnam’s territory.
On the night of April 30 1977, when Vietnamese people and armed forces were celebrating 2 years of the country reunion, the Pol Pot force launched a large-scale attack on the Vietnamese border province of An Giang, officially starting their invasion war on the Vietnam’s Southwestern border.
Translated by Thu Nguyen