I was raised in a generation that was trained to view the Vietnamese as victims of American atrocities. Growing up, we were treated to images of children burned by napalm, stories of Agent Orange and “secret” bombings. My generation was the first to experience the naked horrors of war via television and the first to view government crimes against humanity on our color screens.
But, like most things in life, the truth is far more complicated. There are rarely clear-cut “good guys” and “bad guys” when it comes to national/ethnic rivalries. Today, I was chatting with a Cambodian woman and she claimed that the version of Indochinese history I had been taught was all wrong. In her view, the Vietnamese had not rescued Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge. Rather, they were the ones who instigated the genocide in the first place, and then used it as an excuse to expand their empire throughout Cambodia. With great sadness, she explained that the border between Vietnam and Cambodia is an “open border”.
The term “open border” is loaded – especially when one of the two countries, that shares that border, has a population of 86 million while the other one has only 14 million. In practice, what this means is that Cambodia is being inundated with Vietnamese. When I asked the woman if this meant that Cambodians are becoming a minority within their own country, she nodded and almost cried. She, herself, had almost been murdered by the Khmer Rouge – for the crime of being a city-dweller.
“Open borders” is a euphemism for the domination, by populous nations, over less populous ones. In days gone by, it was advanced culture and technology or military might that determined who was the victor and who the vanquished. Now, it is fertility or sheer numbers (the fruits of past fertility).
According to Cambodiana:
These definitions of these major concepts in international relations, known as sino centric “Tributary System”, before the advent of the United Nations demonstrates that Vietnam is not a liberator of Cambodia as they claimed to be. On the contrary, Vietnam colonialism and imperialism is the worst of its kind. Because, unlike western powers colonialism, Vietnam has not been only interested in occupying the land of Chams and the Khmers only for economic exploitation purposes only; it also had committed genocide against those original people of Champa and the Kampuchea Krom, to eliminated them from their ancestral land. SO, for Vietnam, to claim that it invaded Cambodia to save it., is to say the least, a lie.
Few people, listening to the Cambodian woman above, would describe her as “racist” or “Cambodian-supremicist”. All she wants is the survival of her people and an end to their displacement by a similar, related group. Few reasonable people could fault her for that. How much greater is the tragedy of the British, the French, the Dutch and the Swedes, whose nations are being replaced by those who bear no resemblance to them – except insofar as they are human.
Perhaps the pro-white movement should shift its focus a bit and concentrate on opposing open borders of any kind and anywhere. It is not only whites who suffer from open borders, although the loss of the white race would certainly have the largest impact on Mankind overall. It is sad when one people seeks to destroy another. It is even sadder when a people seeks to destroy itself.
I’m Cambodian and what the lady describe is TRUE! There millions of illegal Vietnamese in Cambodia! There intention is to populate the country as much as possible and then take over! But the take over won’t easy because China won’t let that happen! China considers Cambodia it’s backyard! If China can take over Cambodia and make it its province the Cambodians would be rather be colonize by China than Vietnam which man Cambodians view Vietnamese as barbarians and weak! China on the other hand have strong ties with Cambodia with over 2,000 years of history and with the famous Zhou Daguan visit to Angkor played a huge role in the history of man-kind! Plus China invested Billions in Cambodia I don’t think China will let that happen! The invasion wasn’t to save Cambodia but to install a puppet and install Viet secret agents inside the government and for the long run they will try to take over! If it wasn’t for the U.N. and other countries like China, America to put pressure on Vietnam to withdraw its troops out of Cambodia do you think they will actually leave??? It took 10 years for them to leave but the “THUTH” is the Troops did not leave they just switch uniforms and change their names to Khmer names and learn how to speak Khmer! Thank you! If you want to learn more don’t hesitate to ask me!
Are Cambodians trying to have more babies in order to replenish their numbers after the genocide and in order to offset the Vietnamese invasion?
Helloe Jewamongyou! Sorry for the late reply! As of right now! Cambodian have one of the lowest birth rates in Asia after Lao! It still won’t make a difference if they make more babies or not! The Vietnamese population in Cambodia numbers 4 million total ( Excluding those who live there for generations)! The Vietnamese have a goal of interbreeding or eliminating the khmers. Cambodia have a population of only 14 million! The govenrment claims that 95% are ethnic Khmers (NOT TRUE)! There are at least 4 million Viet, 2 milion Chinese, 1 miliion Muslims, and so on. The real population of the ethnic Khmers are only 5-6 million.
One question: If you let China invested billions in Cambodia and hope that your relationship with China would drive Vietnamese out of Cambodia, what would guarantee that 10-30 years from now Cambodian would not said “Chinese imperialism” as you do with Vietnamese who expelled Khmer Rouge 35 years ago?
The Vietnamese were using about 20, 000 of the Khmer Krom, combined with their own troops to invade Cambodia. They were the one who used tactic to let Khmer kill Khmer people, the idea were Vietnamese, when it was the right time, they invaded Cambodia. Think about it, there were never, any country, would killed millions of their own, for what reason? The Idea was to kill all Cambodian people so the Vietnamese could bring their own people to live in Cambodia. So they could fool the world that Cambodian were killing their own. It didn’t make any sense! Look at the issues in Cambodia between Vietnam and Cambodia now a day.
That’s true
The writer has apparently accepted without question the standard Cambodian view of history, which verges on paranoia as far as the Vietnamese are concerned. While the Vietnamese are not angels many Cambodians view them implicitly as demons and dream all up manner of fantastic stories to support this, like the idea that it was the Vietnamese rather than the Khmer Rouge who devastated the country from 1975 to 1979. While the Vietnamese undoubtedly had mixed motives for their invasion of Cambodia in 1978 the end result was that they saved the country from a brutal regime which would have eliminated many more Cambodians through execution, disease and malnutrition had they continued to rule the country. For many Cambodians the Vietnamese are larger than life figures who are so deceitful that they can take on the appearance of Cambodians so that in the end one can never be sure who is Cambodia and who is Vietnamese. This kind of thinking is suicidal and is what led Pot Pol to eliminate so many people in his own movement who were accused of having Cambodian bodies but Vietnamese minds. So any Cambodian they wanted to eliminate for whatever reason could be placed in that category and many Cambodians continue to repeat this kind of thinking, which by turning Cambodians against each other makes them even more vulnerable to the Vietnamese, as well as the Thai and others. But if you say this to most Cambodians they will accuse you of taking the Vietnamese side because they are so caught up in this paranoid view of the world that they cannot see the flaws in their own logic (or il-logic).
Your fucking perspective of somewhat Paranoid theory??? Those Viets has been flooding into Cambodia to vote for the ruling party (CPP) to secure their present control and sustain long term imperialism gradually. So, you should learn those Viets have got Khmer Cards illegally through either their cool relationship with CPP or corruption in order to vote to determine the destiny of Khmer people instead of khmer people. Is that Paranoid, you fucking fool!!!???
Pingback: Tweets that mention Vietnamese imperialism against Cambodia « Jewamongyou's Blog -- Topsy.com
Had Vietnam let the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge (which was recognized by the UN & U.S as a legitimate regim) stay in power in Cambodia in 1979, there wouldn’t be too many Khmer left to hate VN, would there?
Re: Tee,
That is very depressing. I could never understand what motivates one people to commit genocide upon another in their own land. I would imagine that some Khmer are angry when they see other Khmer intermarrying with Vietnamese or Chinese.
Dear Jewamongyou! I personally don’t find nothing wrong with intermarriages but to used the people of a different race to breed out another race is totally wrong! I hope this helps!I don’t live in Cambodia or Vietnam but I hear stories about the Viet/Khmer people. I actually know a lot of Khmer Krom people (indigenous Khmers of South Vietnam)who look completely Vietnamese/Chinese by Physical appearance! The Khmer people are trying to keep their identity strong for the future!
The woman is 100% correct. All of you have access to online. You should be able to google and learn the history of Cambodia(Khmer) and Indochnia(when France too over). Cambodia today is being colonied by Vietnamese people openly freely. The government of Cambodia allow this to happen. In the US, we have strict Immigration law. I take you year to apply for permanent resident. In Cambodia, Vietnamese are freely travel to live in Cambodia without restriction. So, please, whoever you are, stop accusing the woman of racist. What about you, if your neighbor came over to live in your country freely in the hundred thousand number, how are you going to say to yourself and how do you feel???
there are 20 millions mexicans who come to US to work without permit.
I think it’s a lot more than that.
Vietnam is a very small country and one of the most crowded and dense in S.E. Asia. The Indochina Federation must be completed to fulfill Uncle Ho’s wish!
Vietnamese should not enter Cambodia until they down on their knees for desperate helped. Manay Cambodian are not appreciated us saving their life but in fact they were brainwashed by the Chinese that Vietnamese invaded Cambodia.
The fact of the matter is Chinese support Khemer Rouge and Vietnamese save this country. To all Cambodia, you should thank to Vietnam instead of hated them
Samrih, I was there during the Khmer Rouge Regime. I never heard about Pol Pot until the Vietnamese Troop invaded Cambodia in 1979. At first I thought Vietnamese liberated Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge, but it was not true at all. That’s was delusional. That’s was just their excuse to invade Cambodia. After 37 years of evidents are enough. If you study and do the research from 700 years up to now about the Vietnamese and Cambodia, Vietnamese are always the worst enemies. Vietnamese are always want to take over and control Cambodia as they already took over Champa, Kampuchea Krom and Lao, of course they continue to take over the rest of Cambodian land. So there was no reason for Vietnamese to save Cambodia. They did it in the new ways to manipulate most of Cambodian and people around the world. The evident is overwhelming! History repeat itself.
Actually Vietnamese was stupid to invade Cambodia. They should have let Pol Pot and his vicious Khmer Rogue regime to killed all of his own people, and then the Vietnamese and Chinese could sit together and see how many land they should take. How do you think the Khmer Empire could be that big? Isn’t it obvious that they invaded other countries and regions? In 18th century, it was the Vietnamese turn to expand their land through invading southern region. There are not much difference between the Cambodians and Vietnameses, simply they are all invaders. Khmer Empire couldn’t be that big if they didn’t invade other regions, Vietnam wouldn’t stretch out if they didn’t invade, too. It’s only fair my friend. If Cambodians want Vietnamese southern land back, then go and tell the Russian to give the Kuril island back to the Japanese, the Crimea to Ukraine, tell the American to give Alaska back to the Russian. The sovereignty had changed for centuries, if you want to change them back, then you go to war first. Not war with Vietnam, but war with the whole planet.
I would agreed with the women. If you look at history, not just recent history but the history of Vietnam and it southward expansion. They destroyed the country Champa and assimulated the people. Champa is now extincted. Vietnam expansion into South Cambodia aka South Vietnam Mekong Delta area… Siagon was called Preh Nokor… and so on. Vietnam expansionism was brought by its own conflict with China and Mongolia.
The Mekong Delta was home to Khmer for many century, with limited population they were over-run by Vietnamese who befriend them. Khmer couldn’t defend it territory due to war with Siam. War on two front weaken the khmer empire. Vietnam and Siam took advantage of this to claim more khmer land for themselves.
Sure, only the strong survive. I have ask many Vietnamese who claim that Vietnam is a friend to Cambodia. I ask them, How was Cambodia before the French Arrival? Why did Cambodia ask the French for help? they couldn’t answer me or just wouldn’t. What was Ho Chi Minh intention of a united Indochina under Vietnamese Rule?…
North Vietnamese had two hundred thousand soldiers inside Cambodia during the 1970’s, Communist Vietnam trained thousand of Cambodian with Vietnamese decent to try to create chaos for the government. – http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/ESAU/esau-53.pdf
Red Cambodia didn’t have the manpower and weapons to oust the Red Vietnamese from Cambodia, ever since the French left. Red Vietnam create propaganda team to create false and confusing inside Cambodia, Loas and S. Vietnam… They change their name and married locals to blend into Cambodia society… this same tactics of confusion was done in KhmerKrom land aka MekongDelta.
Vietnam and Siam has created confusing and disorder and has riped Cambodia apart for their own gain.
So why wouldn’t Cambodian by paranoid of the Vietnamese?
Exactly right.
Ho Chi Minh was an international communist, not a nationalist. He laughed that it was ‘the watermelon tactic — green on the outside but red inside’, the goal being a communist Indochina under Hanoi’s thumb under Moscow’s guidance.
Ho created the Khmer Rouge, NV destroyed the Lon Nol govt troops, but from ’73 Pol Pot did the dirty on Hanoi and switched to Beijing, leaving a furious Hanoi.
Thru the pol Pot genocide, Thailand screamed long and loud while the other neighbor, Vietnam, not wanting any UN intervention that would interfere with its plan to complete the takeover of Cambodia from Pol Pot, kept absolutely silent.
You still have buffoons who continue to parrot that the US was the problem in Indochina — there is a reason that those particular characters are described as ‘useful idiots’.
comon peopels move on history is the past we must concentrate on the future and never ever repeat the same mistake again we khmer peopels vietnames and no saint but we should thank them from barbarect polpot ,we are lucky to have acountry call campuchea if there are no civilisation in the 21 century cambodia will become part of vietname and thailand now we are lucky the french come to indochina on time i dont care if they vietnames or chiness as long as they speak khmer eat prohock and pokterkkreing go to the wate they are cambodian we all should intermarreig
So if they stop eating prohock, what should be done with them?
The Cambodians and Vietnamese are the same race! They are both Austro-Asiatic race! But the thing is cambodia don’t want to become a part of Vietnam. We Vietnamese will make sure we interbreed good:D
So where was the UN when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge slaughtered 2 million people. That’s right, they did NOTHING!
Until the Khmer Rouge kept launching border raids against Vietnam, especially on April 18, 1978, when the Khmer Rouge attacked Ba Chuc village killing 3,157 people. Only two survived.
Vietnam had every right to invade Cambodia to stop the Khmer Rouge. Yet you have the nerve to say Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia was wrong while ignoring the fact the Khmer Rouge started the war by launching border attacks against Vietnam since the late 1970’s.
What would Cambodia turn out if Vietnam didn’t invade Cambodia? That’s right, Pol Pot would’ve wiped Cambodia off the map for good.
Many thanks John when u talk the Truth with fully understanding of the history.
Cambodia come with China & the things they have will be like Africa & any country who get poor environment, lobyism, loosing culture, etc). They will be the same wth what the world is saying.
We love freedom & peace – that is all.
Cambodians always hate Vietnamese for no reason. There is not that many 4 millions Vietnamese live in Cambodia. Cambodia is not better place to live than vietnam. A 4 million Vietnamese in Cambodia is a lie. Let Cambodians dance with Chinese for good. Let them live together, let see what happen at the end.
I believe there is a reason, Vietnamese is expanding. I wonder why Vietnamese is a minority who got kick out from a small part of China Mongolia and then fled to south east Asia? I think they did something bad. Trouble maker? Maybe you should do a research?
There are a lot of reasons that Cambodians hate Vietnam. Because Vietnam are always causing problems and constantly invading Cambodia. If Vietnam just stay in their country, Cambodia would not have any problem at all. Why don’t you go google and type in Khmer Empire and compare your country to Cambodia back then. If you being neutral, you would know who invaded who and who gained lands and who lost, then you know why Cambodian people hate Vietnamese.
That’s not true!
I’m not really invested in this debate, but there’s 2 issues that stuck out like for me. First off, most countries around the world have had issues with their neighbors, Vietnam’s tensions with Cambodia don’t invalidate the very real and extensive atrocities inflicted upon it by America.
Secondly, there is a huge flaw I can already spot in that woman’s version of events which any basic student of Southeast Asian history would be able to point out. The wars between Vietnam and Champa weren’t one-sided, both tried to conquer each other, and more importantly there were periods where the Khmer themselves conquered Cham territory. So how on earth could she try to use that against Vietnam and ignore her own country’s history? Bizarre.
Mina, Cambodia used to be called Khmer Empire. We never invaded any country if you go a head and study the Khmer history since Khmer Angkor around the 12th century. Champa Invaded Cambodia first. Vietnam used to be very small country. Look and compare the two country now. Don’t just take my word, go to google and just type: Khmer Empire, then you will find out the truth.
Thanks