I strongly believe that Cambodians would be better being a part of Vietnam. However, I prefer to see Cambodians become a part of Thai kingdom instead because they then can live in peace and prosperity under Thai monarchy. What do you want to say about that?
On Mar 2, 5:31 pm, PuppyXpress <[email protected]> wrote: > ----- Forwarded Message ---- > *From:* Gaffar Peang-Meth <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Tue, March 2, 2010 10:42:56 AM > *Subject:* Cambodians complicit in Vietnamization > > *PACIFIC DAILY NEWS* > March 3, 2010 > > Cambodians complicit in Vietnamization > > By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth > > I promised last week to discuss today the 25-year treaty of peace, > friendship and cooperation concluded by Heng Samrin, a former Khmer > Rouge commander who is now a leader in Cambodia's government, and > Vietnam's prime minister Pham Van Dong on Feb. 18, 1979. > > This treaty binds Cambodia and Vietnam in what the treaty terms, "militant > solidarity and fraternal friendship." In a stroke of the pen, the > signatories extol a symbiosis of interests between Cambodia and > Vietnam, opening the door to an even more thorough Vietnamization of > Khmer land and culture than might have taken place in a federation of > the states of the former French Indochina. > > Retired Johns Hopkins professor Naranhkiri Tith observes on his Web site > that > the 1979 treaty between Hanoi and its puppet in Phnom Penh "became > official in 2005" when Cambodia's King Sihamoni, "with the support of > his father Sihanouk," put his royal signature on "supplements" to the > treaty, thereby making Cambodians complicit in the Vietnamization of > Cambodia. > > Some readers have requested a review of Vietnam's historical expansionism > and its contemporary revolutionary activities that ended with the 1979 > treaty. I will provide that review today and then deal with the treaty. > > A saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention." > > Vietnam, which broke off its thousand-year bondage to China in 939, began > its > southward movement a few decades later, to escape Mongol and Chinese > military threats in the north. Migration to the west was hampered by > natural and physical barriers. To the south, the territory was > unoccupied and the land was fertile. The horizon seemed infinite. > > The migration was ongoing, even as other kingdoms were encountered. In > 1406, the ancient kingdom of Champa's capital, Vijaya, was seized and > the kingdom was extinguished in 1471. Then, in 1630, Vietnamese > princess Ngoc Van, married to Khmer King Chey Chetha II, promoted > Vietnamese settlements in the low delta in Khmer Preah Suakea (Ba Ria) > and Prey Nokor (Saigon). > > The 1979 friendship-cooperation treaty brings Hanoi's influence as far west > as the border with Thailand. > > What started as a necessity dictated by the search for security and growth > became a strategy for expansionism. The intention to expand its > influence is illustrated even in the name of the political party > founded by modern Vietnam's leader, Ho Chi Minh, in 1930 -- the > "Communist Party of Indochina." Ho Chi Minh didn't just want to > liberate Vietnam from the French; he defined the task of CPI "to make > Indochina completely independent." > > In 1941, Minh created the Viet Minh, an abbreviation of "Vietnam Doc Lap > Dong Minh Hoi," or "League for the Independence of Vietnam," and spread > its anti-French activities to Laos and Cambodia, where the Viet Minh > later fragmentized the anti-French local Khmer Issarak front into a > Khmer Viet Minh front. > > In 1949, the Viet Minh instituted the "Ban Van Dong Thanh Lap Dang Nhan > Cach Mang Cao Mien" -- "Canvassing Committee for the Creation of the > Revolutionary Kampuchean People's Party" -- and created the Kampuchean > People's Liberation Army in 1950. > > Although the CPI was dissolved to demonstrate Vietnam did not harbor > expansionist intentions toward its neighbors, it resurfaced in February > 1951 as the Vietnam Workers' Party (Lao Dong), with the same agenda. In > November of that year, the Revolutionary Kampuchean People's Party was > created. It has been said the RKPP and the Cambodian local Communist > Pracheachon Party were one and the same. > > As Prince Sihanouk wrote in February 1960, the Pracheachon Party was > "working indefatigably ... and specifically to bring Cambodia under the > heel of North Vietnam." > > Finally, in 1952, the Hanoi-created "Kampuchean Resistance Government" > emerged to rival Sihanouk's royal government. > > When the 1954 Geneva Accords ordered the Viet Minh to leave Cambodia, they > took with them to Vietnam between 4,500 and 8,000 Cambodians, mostly > young children. > > According to Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, the Marxist-Leninist > Communist > Party of Kampuchea was born on Sept. 30, 1960, after the first party > congress of 21 people met for three days and three nights. According to > Pol Pot, a Cambodian revolutionary movement that "truly belonged to our > people," existed prior to the Geneva Convention, but its dissolution > after the 1954 agreement was acknowledged because "people lacked a > correct and enlightened guideline." Pol Pot described 1968 as the year > when armed struggle -- civil war -- began. > > Undoubtedly, Hanoi was aware that its publicly proclaimed "fraternal > brothers and > sisters," the Khmer Rouge, were not so "fraternal" privately, and it > knew its relationships with the Khmer Rouge were unsatisfactory. But > Hanoi let the Khmer Rouge be while it looked to building its own > Kampuchean puppets. Hanoi was biding its time. > > And as it was fighting a war against the Americans in Vietnam, Hanoi threw > in its battle-tested troops to fight Lon Nol's republican army, enemies > of Prince Sihanouk, who had allied himself with Hanoi. It was Hanoi's > troops that routed Lon Nol's army and put Pol Pot in power in Phnom > Penh. > > Neither Hanoi nor the world governments intervened to stop the genocide that > followed. However, when the Khmer Rouge's fierce independence of Hanoi > was more than the latter would tolerate, Hanoi concluded it was time to > teach its insolent comrades a lesson. The invasion of Cambodia > followed, on Christmas Eve 1978. > > Phnom Penh was captured and a subservient regime was installed, leading to > the signing of the February 1979 treaty between the master and the > puppet comrades. > > A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where > he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at [email protected]. > > http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201003030300/OPINIO...- > Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org
