The 20th century saw a rare humanitarian and just event that Vietnamesepeople and army helped Cambodians overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regimeand free the country. The People’s Army Newspaper (PAN) introduces aseries of articles by Colonel Le Lien, former PAN journalist cum formerVietnamese volunteer soldier participating in this historical event.
* Part 1: Betrayers
In February 1963, in the second congress of the Workers Party ofKampuchea (previously the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party), PolPot was elected General Secretary, succeeding Tu Samut who had beenmurdered earlier.
One month later, Pol Pot and mostof the high-ranking officials of the party left Phnom Penh to establish abase in Ratanakiri province in orthern Cambodia.
After that, Pol Pot and his associates gradually took power in the partyby eliminating its senior members and those who actively andproactively advocated the revolutionary cause in the Indochinesepeninsula.
In September 1966, they secretly renamedthe party as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). Many members of theparty were not aware of this, even several years later.
In the jungle, they harboured and carried out extreme nationalist plots.
The reactionary group in Cambodia included five ringleaders Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ta Mok.
Pol Pot was born in 1928 in Kampong Thom province. In 1953, heparticipated in the Vietnamese-influenced "United Khmer Issarak(Freedom) Front" of Cambodian communists. After Cambodia finished thewar against the Americans (April 17, 1975), Pol Pot established theDemocratic Kampuchea. On May 20 1975, Pol Pot mapped out the threeeccentric policies of “purifying” the Khmer race; defining Vietnam asthe arch-enemy; and building up a state-run model of no personalownership, market, currency, school or religion.
OnFebruary 1, 1978, he said that if Cambodia did not defeat Vietnam at thebeginning, they would have not gained victory, and they targeted tosacrifice 2 million Cambodians to decimate 60 million Vietnamese people,adding that they should wage a war on Vietnam.
NuonChea, a Chinese Cambodian, was born in 1926 in Battambang province.After the establishment of the Democratic Kampuchea, Nuon Chea was knownas the right-hand man of Pol Pot and the director of “the killingfields” in Cambodia. Since 1960, he was in charge of party work andinternal security, which meant extirpating the opposition. When Pol Potcame to power, Nuon Chea was appointed Chairman of the National Assemblyof Cambodia, and even acting Prime Minister when Pol Pot took a monthoff. Nuon Chea also directly ordered his men to torture and killCambodian revolutionary cadres suspected of opposing the Pol Pot regime.
Ieng Sary was born in 1925 in Tra Vinh province,Vietnam. In 1957, he joined the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Partyand undertook key positions in the Phnom Penh Party Committee and alsothe party. In 1963, he was promoted to the politburo of the WorkersParty of Kampuchea. Between 1970 and 1975, he was a special consultantof King Norodom Sihanouk in Beijing, China. Since April 17, 1975, IengSary was the Deputy Prime Minister under the Pol Pot regime. Togetherwith Pol Pot, Ieng Sary was accused of directing the mass killing ofCambodian people.
Khieu Samphan, the son of aCambodian father and a Chinese mother, was born in 1931 into a farmingfamily. After the coup in 1970 overthrew the government of Sihanouk,Samphan followed the Khmer United National Front led by Sihanouk, andserved as deputy prime minister, minister of defence andcommander-in-chief of the military of the Government of United Kingdomof Kampuchea (GRUNK). In 1976, he was the Chairman of the Presidium ofthe Democratic Kampuchea. Khieu Samphan was regarded as an “architect”of the Democratic Kampuchea.
Ta Mok was born in 1926in Takeo province, Cambodia. His birth name was Chhit Choeun. Afterjoining the CPK, he was elected member of the Standing and MilitaryCommittees of the Central Committee. In July 1975, Pol Pot dividedCambodia into 7 zones and Ta Mok was in charge of the southwest. Hebecame Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1977, charged withorchestrating a series of massacres.
For Vietnam,the Pol Pot regime showed its betrayal since the two nations werecarrying out the anti-American resistance war.
Fromthe end of 1971, there were some clashes between the Pol Pot’s troopsand Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Pol Pot's soldiers stole some ofVietnam’s arsenal and murdered Vietnamese cadres while they werecarrying out missions alone or in small groups in Cambodia.
At the end of 1972, they asked Vietnam to withdraw from Cambodia. By1973, all Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts performinginternational obligation in Cambodia returned home.
After the liberation of Vietnam in 1975, Pol Pot sent troops to attacksouthwest Vietnam’s islands and border areas. On May 3, 1975, Vietnamdefeated Pol Pot's troops when they landed on Phu Quoc Island. However,on May 10, 1975, Pol Pot's troops seized Tho Chu Island and killed about500 locals. Later, they continued invading localities along thesouthwest border of Vietnam and Cambodia.
* Part 2: Everything has its own limit
Since 1975, there appeared in Cambodia the opposition against the PolPot genocidal regime’s oppression, starting from its own officials thenrapidly spread out to people throughout the country.
Between 1975 and 1978, many unprompted campaigns emerged across thecountry like “Seizing power at commune and district levels” and “peacehas been restored and no more war” in Kampong Thom and Siem Reapprovinces; “Getting married by ourselves” and “Improving our livingstandards” in Southwestern Cambodia; “Do not murder the Cham people” inKampong Cham; and “Freedom of traveling”, “Strengthening nationalunity”, “Saving King Norodom Sihanouk” and “Asking for help frominternational community” in Phnom Penh.
The more theCambodian people opposed, the more they were barbarously repressed orkilled by the Pol Pot troops. As a result, tens of thousands of peoplehad to take refuge in jungles.
Among millions ofCambodians opposing the Pol Pot regime, there were many its own partyleaders and high-ranking officers who were former Khmer Rouge cadres.They had played an important role in rekindling the revolutionary flamein Cambodia. They even mapped out ways to save Cambodian people and ledlocals to revive the country and build a new society.
In June 1977, Hun Sen led 16 others into Vietnam to avoid Khmer Rougepurges in the Eastern Military Zone, where he was himself a Khmer Rougeregimental commander. In late 1978, another 107 army leaders fled toVietnam.
Thank to wholehearted help from Vietnam,the Cambodian refugees started building up their forces and working outpolicies to liberate the country.
From November 26 to29, 1978, the Congress of the Kampuchean United Front for NationalSalvation, including 108 delegates, voted its Central Committee withHeng Samrin, Chea Sim and Roh Samay as the committee’s Chairman, ViceChairman and General Secretary respectively.
OnDecember 2, 1978, a solemn ceremony to announce the coming into being ofthe front was held in Kratie province, Cambodia, with the participationof people from all walks of life. All the participants felt excited asthey could now have leaders of the revolutionary cause and believed thatCambodia would certainly overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
Core cadres leading the Cambodian revolutionary cause in Vietnam aretrue members of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party.
On January 4 and 5, 1979, former members of the party gathered in HoChi Minh City for a congress to restore the Party’s operation and elect anew Central Committee. Besides, the delegates voted the State Presidentand the Cabinet to represent the Cambodian people right after thenational liberation from the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
The Party Central Committee included General Secretary Pen Sovan,Permanent Members Heng Samrin and Chea Sim, and Central Members Hun Sen,Bu Thoong, Van Son and Chan Sy.
Since then, theCambodian revolutionary cause would be under the leadership of apolitical party whose members had been tempered through the fierce warsagainst foreign invaders and who were loyal to the nation and people’sinterest, and stood close to Vietnamese people.
Theparty had assembled all the Cambodians who had opposed the Pol Potregime to make an uprising, with the wholehearted support from Vietnam,to topple the genocidal regime.
On November 3, 1978,the Cambodian revolutionary forces occupied the Seneca base of Pol Potin Kampong Cham and captured a large number of weapons and militaryequipment. From then on, the uprising against the Pol Pot regime hadbeen spreading nationwide not only in the scale but also the strugglingmethod with the effective coordination between forces in cities andrural areas, between armed struggles and political negotiations, andbetween the public and the Pol Pot troops who mutinied and crossed therank to the people.
From November 1978, theCambodian revolutionary armed forces and local residents in western andnorthwestern zones simultaneously rose up against the Pol Pot regime andspread leaflets to call on Cambodians across the country to overthrowthe genocidal regime.
By early December 1978, themovement considerably developed and gained many victories, seizing powerin several communes and reducing the enemy’s strength. Even in somemilitary zones, there were military coups against the Pol Pot.
* Part 3: Side by side in the hard times
As Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts startedwithdrawing from Cambodia, Cambodian people in many provinces like SvayRieng, Kampong Cham and Prey Veng asked for asylum in Vietnam.
Lines of Cambodians and wagons carrying their children and necessitiesfollowed Vietnamese troops. At that time, more than 40,000 Cambodiansfled to Vietnam.
They said that the Pol Pot regimeconducted wild policies, such as forcing people in Phnom Penh and othercities to rural areas to do farming, and building up a state-run modelof no personal ownership, market, currency, school and religion, ororganising makeshift collective marriage ceremonies. The oppositionwould be murdered in bloodshed.
The Pol Pot cliquepersecuted Buddhists during their reign, even killing those wearingfrock. They intended to abolish the religion in Cambodia.
Cambodian refugees to Vietnam were provided with shelters and didfarming in Tay Ninh province. Besides, they were called on to denouncethe Pol Pot regime’s atrocity.
As a result, theCambodian revolutionary cause seemed to start from the scratch.Vietnam’s Party, State, army and people had to help Cambodians topplethe genocidal regime with the noble international solidarity spirit, asthey had done in the wars against French and American invaderspreviously.
In March 1978, the Communist Party ofVietnam assigned the Vietnam People’s Army to help Cambodia when truemembers of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party stated theirexpectation to build armed forces in Vietnam to free their country.
On April 21, 1978, the Central Military Commission issued a decisionto set up Mission Board Z (Cambodia), alias Board 10, headed by Tran VanQuang, Deputy Minister of National Defence.
Theboard then established an agency called Unit 478 to send its staff toVietnam’s localities where there were Cambodian refugees, to keep intouch with current events and recruit cadres for the Cambodianrevolutionary cause.
After that, at a meetingbetween Senior Lieutenant General Tran Van Tra, Commander of MilitaryZone 7 at that time, and Hun Sen, they reached an agreement onsupporting Cambodia to build up armed forces for the country’sliberation.
Accordingly, Vietnam provided militarytraining courses, weapons and equipment, and logistics for Cambodia,while the Cambodian cadres were in charge of political work.
With Vietnam’s support, on May 12, 1978, the Kampuchean United Frontfor National Salvation was established, whereas Steering Committee 578was subsequently set up and led by Hun Sen, paving the way for theestablishment of Unit 125, the first army unit of the Cambodianrevolutionary armed forces.
Over the last months of1978, the Cambodian revolution had a twist. After over three years underthe Pol Pot's rule, Cambodian people felt hatred for the genocidalregime and hoped that the just revolutionary armed forces would free thecountry. In addition, Cambodian cadres fleeing to Vietnam since the1954 Geneva Accords were ready to return home to overthrow the Pol Potregime. Meanwhile, by November 1978, Vietnam helped Cambodia set up 21battalions and 100 armed working teams.
After theestablishment of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, KampucheanUnited Front for National Salvation and Cambodian revolutionary armedforces, Cambodia asked Vietnam to help dislodge the Pol Pot clique andcrush their savage war along Vietnam's southwest border.
* Part 4: The decisive campaign
During the war along Vietnam's southwest border waged by the Pol Potclique from May 1975 to December 23, 1978, more than 5,000 Vietnamesepeople were murdered, nearly 5,000 injured and over 20,000 others takenfor annihilation.
Besides, the invaders destroyedthousands of hectares of paddy fields and hundreds of schools, hospitalsand pagodas, and plundered thousands of cattle along the borderlinewith Cambodia. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of hectares of cropland andrubber plantations in southwest Vietnam were left fallow and half amillion local residents had to flee to the eastern part of the country.
Facing this critical situation, Vietnam’s Party andState still proposed political negotiations with the Pol Pot regime.Though Vietnam’s goodwill was rejected, the country continued pursuingits persistent policy.
Responding to the call by theCambodian people, Vietnam decided to support the true Cambodianrevolutionary fighters to topple the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
In mid-December 1978, the Pol Pot regime mobilised 10 out of its 21divisions to start a large-scale war on Vietnam's Southwest border withTay Ninh town (Tay Ninh province) as its target, and the VietnamPeople’s Army started a strategic counter-attack on the invaders fromDecember 23, 1978. The Vietnamese troops, in coordination with armedforces of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, fought infive main directions.
On January 7, 1979, the capitalcity of Phnom Penh was liberated and 10 days later, all other localitiesin Cambodia were freed. As a result, Cambodia finally escaped from thegenocidal regime.
Apart from the Vietnamesevolunteer soldiers’ bravery and military talent, the Cambodian peopleand armed forces played an important role in the rapid final victory.
In every newly-liberated locality in Cambodia, localpeople were overwhelmed with joy while welcoming Vietnamese volunteersoldiers and military experts. For them, the Vietnamese are theirsaviours and close relatives.
Many Cambodians whohad been suffering from the Pol Pot genocidal regime could not holdtheir tears seeing Vietnamese volunteer troops and whole-heartedlysupported them in toppling the Pol Pot clique.
Itwas easy to understand why the Cambodians were so happy to have got ridof the genocidal regime and why they have been taking the Vietnamese astheir relatives.-VNA
* Part 1: Betrayers
In February 1963, in the second congress of the Workers Party ofKampuchea (previously the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party), PolPot was elected General Secretary, succeeding Tu Samut who had beenmurdered earlier.
One month later, Pol Pot and mostof the high-ranking officials of the party left Phnom Penh to establish abase in Ratanakiri province in orthern Cambodia.
After that, Pol Pot and his associates gradually took power in the partyby eliminating its senior members and those who actively andproactively advocated the revolutionary cause in the Indochinesepeninsula.
In September 1966, they secretly renamedthe party as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). Many members of theparty were not aware of this, even several years later.
In the jungle, they harboured and carried out extreme nationalist plots.
The reactionary group in Cambodia included five ringleaders Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ta Mok.
Pol Pot was born in 1928 in Kampong Thom province. In 1953, heparticipated in the Vietnamese-influenced "United Khmer Issarak(Freedom) Front" of Cambodian communists. After Cambodia finished thewar against the Americans (April 17, 1975), Pol Pot established theDemocratic Kampuchea. On May 20 1975, Pol Pot mapped out the threeeccentric policies of “purifying” the Khmer race; defining Vietnam asthe arch-enemy; and building up a state-run model of no personalownership, market, currency, school or religion.
OnFebruary 1, 1978, he said that if Cambodia did not defeat Vietnam at thebeginning, they would have not gained victory, and they targeted tosacrifice 2 million Cambodians to decimate 60 million Vietnamese people,adding that they should wage a war on Vietnam.
NuonChea, a Chinese Cambodian, was born in 1926 in Battambang province.After the establishment of the Democratic Kampuchea, Nuon Chea was knownas the right-hand man of Pol Pot and the director of “the killingfields” in Cambodia. Since 1960, he was in charge of party work andinternal security, which meant extirpating the opposition. When Pol Potcame to power, Nuon Chea was appointed Chairman of the National Assemblyof Cambodia, and even acting Prime Minister when Pol Pot took a monthoff. Nuon Chea also directly ordered his men to torture and killCambodian revolutionary cadres suspected of opposing the Pol Pot regime.
Ieng Sary was born in 1925 in Tra Vinh province,Vietnam. In 1957, he joined the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Partyand undertook key positions in the Phnom Penh Party Committee and alsothe party. In 1963, he was promoted to the politburo of the WorkersParty of Kampuchea. Between 1970 and 1975, he was a special consultantof King Norodom Sihanouk in Beijing, China. Since April 17, 1975, IengSary was the Deputy Prime Minister under the Pol Pot regime. Togetherwith Pol Pot, Ieng Sary was accused of directing the mass killing ofCambodian people.
Khieu Samphan, the son of aCambodian father and a Chinese mother, was born in 1931 into a farmingfamily. After the coup in 1970 overthrew the government of Sihanouk,Samphan followed the Khmer United National Front led by Sihanouk, andserved as deputy prime minister, minister of defence andcommander-in-chief of the military of the Government of United Kingdomof Kampuchea (GRUNK). In 1976, he was the Chairman of the Presidium ofthe Democratic Kampuchea. Khieu Samphan was regarded as an “architect”of the Democratic Kampuchea.
Ta Mok was born in 1926in Takeo province, Cambodia. His birth name was Chhit Choeun. Afterjoining the CPK, he was elected member of the Standing and MilitaryCommittees of the Central Committee. In July 1975, Pol Pot dividedCambodia into 7 zones and Ta Mok was in charge of the southwest. Hebecame Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1977, charged withorchestrating a series of massacres.
For Vietnam,the Pol Pot regime showed its betrayal since the two nations werecarrying out the anti-American resistance war.
Fromthe end of 1971, there were some clashes between the Pol Pot’s troopsand Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Pol Pot's soldiers stole some ofVietnam’s arsenal and murdered Vietnamese cadres while they werecarrying out missions alone or in small groups in Cambodia.
At the end of 1972, they asked Vietnam to withdraw from Cambodia. By1973, all Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts performinginternational obligation in Cambodia returned home.
After the liberation of Vietnam in 1975, Pol Pot sent troops to attacksouthwest Vietnam’s islands and border areas. On May 3, 1975, Vietnamdefeated Pol Pot's troops when they landed on Phu Quoc Island. However,on May 10, 1975, Pol Pot's troops seized Tho Chu Island and killed about500 locals. Later, they continued invading localities along thesouthwest border of Vietnam and Cambodia.
* Part 2: Everything has its own limit
Since 1975, there appeared in Cambodia the opposition against the PolPot genocidal regime’s oppression, starting from its own officials thenrapidly spread out to people throughout the country.
Between 1975 and 1978, many unprompted campaigns emerged across thecountry like “Seizing power at commune and district levels” and “peacehas been restored and no more war” in Kampong Thom and Siem Reapprovinces; “Getting married by ourselves” and “Improving our livingstandards” in Southwestern Cambodia; “Do not murder the Cham people” inKampong Cham; and “Freedom of traveling”, “Strengthening nationalunity”, “Saving King Norodom Sihanouk” and “Asking for help frominternational community” in Phnom Penh.
The more theCambodian people opposed, the more they were barbarously repressed orkilled by the Pol Pot troops. As a result, tens of thousands of peoplehad to take refuge in jungles.
Among millions ofCambodians opposing the Pol Pot regime, there were many its own partyleaders and high-ranking officers who were former Khmer Rouge cadres.They had played an important role in rekindling the revolutionary flamein Cambodia. They even mapped out ways to save Cambodian people and ledlocals to revive the country and build a new society.
In June 1977, Hun Sen led 16 others into Vietnam to avoid Khmer Rougepurges in the Eastern Military Zone, where he was himself a Khmer Rougeregimental commander. In late 1978, another 107 army leaders fled toVietnam.
Thank to wholehearted help from Vietnam,the Cambodian refugees started building up their forces and working outpolicies to liberate the country.
From November 26 to29, 1978, the Congress of the Kampuchean United Front for NationalSalvation, including 108 delegates, voted its Central Committee withHeng Samrin, Chea Sim and Roh Samay as the committee’s Chairman, ViceChairman and General Secretary respectively.
OnDecember 2, 1978, a solemn ceremony to announce the coming into being ofthe front was held in Kratie province, Cambodia, with the participationof people from all walks of life. All the participants felt excited asthey could now have leaders of the revolutionary cause and believed thatCambodia would certainly overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
Core cadres leading the Cambodian revolutionary cause in Vietnam aretrue members of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party.
On January 4 and 5, 1979, former members of the party gathered in HoChi Minh City for a congress to restore the Party’s operation and elect anew Central Committee. Besides, the delegates voted the State Presidentand the Cabinet to represent the Cambodian people right after thenational liberation from the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
The Party Central Committee included General Secretary Pen Sovan,Permanent Members Heng Samrin and Chea Sim, and Central Members Hun Sen,Bu Thoong, Van Son and Chan Sy.
Since then, theCambodian revolutionary cause would be under the leadership of apolitical party whose members had been tempered through the fierce warsagainst foreign invaders and who were loyal to the nation and people’sinterest, and stood close to Vietnamese people.
Theparty had assembled all the Cambodians who had opposed the Pol Potregime to make an uprising, with the wholehearted support from Vietnam,to topple the genocidal regime.
On November 3, 1978,the Cambodian revolutionary forces occupied the Seneca base of Pol Potin Kampong Cham and captured a large number of weapons and militaryequipment. From then on, the uprising against the Pol Pot regime hadbeen spreading nationwide not only in the scale but also the strugglingmethod with the effective coordination between forces in cities andrural areas, between armed struggles and political negotiations, andbetween the public and the Pol Pot troops who mutinied and crossed therank to the people.
From November 1978, theCambodian revolutionary armed forces and local residents in western andnorthwestern zones simultaneously rose up against the Pol Pot regime andspread leaflets to call on Cambodians across the country to overthrowthe genocidal regime.
By early December 1978, themovement considerably developed and gained many victories, seizing powerin several communes and reducing the enemy’s strength. Even in somemilitary zones, there were military coups against the Pol Pot.
* Part 3: Side by side in the hard times
As Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts startedwithdrawing from Cambodia, Cambodian people in many provinces like SvayRieng, Kampong Cham and Prey Veng asked for asylum in Vietnam.
Lines of Cambodians and wagons carrying their children and necessitiesfollowed Vietnamese troops. At that time, more than 40,000 Cambodiansfled to Vietnam.
They said that the Pol Pot regimeconducted wild policies, such as forcing people in Phnom Penh and othercities to rural areas to do farming, and building up a state-run modelof no personal ownership, market, currency, school and religion, ororganising makeshift collective marriage ceremonies. The oppositionwould be murdered in bloodshed.
The Pol Pot cliquepersecuted Buddhists during their reign, even killing those wearingfrock. They intended to abolish the religion in Cambodia.
Cambodian refugees to Vietnam were provided with shelters and didfarming in Tay Ninh province. Besides, they were called on to denouncethe Pol Pot regime’s atrocity.
As a result, theCambodian revolutionary cause seemed to start from the scratch.Vietnam’s Party, State, army and people had to help Cambodians topplethe genocidal regime with the noble international solidarity spirit, asthey had done in the wars against French and American invaderspreviously.
In March 1978, the Communist Party ofVietnam assigned the Vietnam People’s Army to help Cambodia when truemembers of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party stated theirexpectation to build armed forces in Vietnam to free their country.
On April 21, 1978, the Central Military Commission issued a decisionto set up Mission Board Z (Cambodia), alias Board 10, headed by Tran VanQuang, Deputy Minister of National Defence.
Theboard then established an agency called Unit 478 to send its staff toVietnam’s localities where there were Cambodian refugees, to keep intouch with current events and recruit cadres for the Cambodianrevolutionary cause.
After that, at a meetingbetween Senior Lieutenant General Tran Van Tra, Commander of MilitaryZone 7 at that time, and Hun Sen, they reached an agreement onsupporting Cambodia to build up armed forces for the country’sliberation.
Accordingly, Vietnam provided militarytraining courses, weapons and equipment, and logistics for Cambodia,while the Cambodian cadres were in charge of political work.
With Vietnam’s support, on May 12, 1978, the Kampuchean United Frontfor National Salvation was established, whereas Steering Committee 578was subsequently set up and led by Hun Sen, paving the way for theestablishment of Unit 125, the first army unit of the Cambodianrevolutionary armed forces.
Over the last months of1978, the Cambodian revolution had a twist. After over three years underthe Pol Pot's rule, Cambodian people felt hatred for the genocidalregime and hoped that the just revolutionary armed forces would free thecountry. In addition, Cambodian cadres fleeing to Vietnam since the1954 Geneva Accords were ready to return home to overthrow the Pol Potregime. Meanwhile, by November 1978, Vietnam helped Cambodia set up 21battalions and 100 armed working teams.
After theestablishment of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, KampucheanUnited Front for National Salvation and Cambodian revolutionary armedforces, Cambodia asked Vietnam to help dislodge the Pol Pot clique andcrush their savage war along Vietnam's southwest border.
* Part 4: The decisive campaign
During the war along Vietnam's southwest border waged by the Pol Potclique from May 1975 to December 23, 1978, more than 5,000 Vietnamesepeople were murdered, nearly 5,000 injured and over 20,000 others takenfor annihilation.
Besides, the invaders destroyedthousands of hectares of paddy fields and hundreds of schools, hospitalsand pagodas, and plundered thousands of cattle along the borderlinewith Cambodia. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of hectares of cropland andrubber plantations in southwest Vietnam were left fallow and half amillion local residents had to flee to the eastern part of the country.
Facing this critical situation, Vietnam’s Party andState still proposed political negotiations with the Pol Pot regime.Though Vietnam’s goodwill was rejected, the country continued pursuingits persistent policy.
Responding to the call by theCambodian people, Vietnam decided to support the true Cambodianrevolutionary fighters to topple the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
In mid-December 1978, the Pol Pot regime mobilised 10 out of its 21divisions to start a large-scale war on Vietnam's Southwest border withTay Ninh town (Tay Ninh province) as its target, and the VietnamPeople’s Army started a strategic counter-attack on the invaders fromDecember 23, 1978. The Vietnamese troops, in coordination with armedforces of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, fought infive main directions.
On January 7, 1979, the capitalcity of Phnom Penh was liberated and 10 days later, all other localitiesin Cambodia were freed. As a result, Cambodia finally escaped from thegenocidal regime.
Apart from the Vietnamesevolunteer soldiers’ bravery and military talent, the Cambodian peopleand armed forces played an important role in the rapid final victory.
In every newly-liberated locality in Cambodia, localpeople were overwhelmed with joy while welcoming Vietnamese volunteersoldiers and military experts. For them, the Vietnamese are theirsaviours and close relatives.
Many Cambodians whohad been suffering from the Pol Pot genocidal regime could not holdtheir tears seeing Vietnamese volunteer troops and whole-heartedlysupported them in toppling the Pol Pot clique.
Itwas easy to understand why the Cambodians were so happy to have got ridof the genocidal regime and why they have been taking the Vietnamese astheir relatives.-VNA
