Planners of the American war in Vietnam realized that as long as North Vietnam
was able to supply its forces down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia
and at the same time provide sanctuaries for those forces, the war was not
winnable. Having identified COSVN (Central Office for South Vietnam-Viet Cong
headquarters) HQ facilities in Base Area 353, the Americans deemed it necessary
to destroy it even though the area contained 1,640 Cambodians of whom 1,000
were peasants. The decision to bomb Area 353 led to a secret, massive bombing
campaign inside Cambodia that has been recorded as one of the major evil deeds
of history.
.... Richard M. Nixon assumed office in January of 1969 and appointed Henry A.
Kissinger as his National Security Advisor, a position which was restructured
to transfer extraordinary power to Kissinger which enabled him to devise
national security and foreign policy. Alexander M. Haig, Jr. became military
assistant and then chief deputy to Kissinger.
During Kissinger's first week in office, the Pentagon reported to the White
House that a defector had pinpointed the exact location of COS\TN. The
legitimacy of this information was supposedly verified by other intelligence
sources. General Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
advocated a "short-duration, concentrated B-52 attack" on COSVN in order to
counter an imminent North Vietnamese offensive. ..
.... Air Force Colonel Ray B. Sitton, an aide to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Alexander M. Haig were summoned by Nixon to meet with him and Kissinger in
Brussels to discuss the proposed B-52 bombing strikes. Sitton, Haig, and
Kissinger, while waiting for President Nixon, began discussing the bombing of
Cambodia. Kissinger's overriding concern was secrecy. He did not want Congress,
the American public, or the world to know that the United States was planning
to bomb a country with which it was not at war and violate their neutrality. "'T
To preserve the secrecy of the bombing, Kissinger was prepared to bypass the
Strategic Air Command's normal command and control system. His obsession with
secrecy was so strong that he did not want the crews bombing Cambodia to be
aware of their targets.
Kissinger reported the outcome of the discussions to President Nixon. Nixon
then consulted his Secretary of Defense, Melvin R. Laird, and Secretary of
State, William Rogers and was warned that there would be intense criticism from
both Congress and the press if word of the missions leaked out. Nixon's and
Kissinger's obsession with Congress and the media motivated them to ask Sitton
to devise a reporting procedure that would ensure absolute secrecy.The
clandestine operation began with a cable from President Nixon to Ambassador
Ellsworth Bunker (American Ambassador to South Vietnam) explaining that there
were to be no more discussions about the bombing of Cambodia and with full
knowledge that despite its top-secret classification, the cable would be read
by dozens of senior officers and military clerks.
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