Analysis: Nixon on Operations in Cambodia
The operations in Cambodia during President Richard Nixon's administration represent a significant and controversial chapter in the Vietnam War era. After taking office in 1969, Nixon initiated a strategy known as "Vietnamization," which aimed to gradually withdraw U.S. troops while empowering South Vietnamese forces. However, by 1970, he identified a threat from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong military sanctuaries in Cambodia, prompting a decision to conduct a military invasion alongside South Vietnamese troops. This move was framed as a necessary step to protect U.S. interests and support the ongoing Vietnamization process. Nixon's announcement on April 30, 1970, led to widespread protests across American campuses, underscoring the deep divisions in public opinion regarding the Vietnam War and U.S. foreign policy.
The operations included a secret bombing campaign, "Operation Menu," which Nixon had previously authorized, raising questions about the extent of U.S. commitment to respecting Cambodian neutrality established by the 1954 Geneva Accords. The Cambodian intervention not only aimed to dismantle communist bases but also became emblematic of the broader struggle against perceived totalitarian threats at home and abroad. Despite initial successes in disrupting enemy operations, the long-term effectiveness of these military actions was limited, as North Vietnamese forces reestablished their presence shortly thereafter. This historical context highlights the complexities surrounding U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and the consequential domestic turmoil that ensued.
Analysis: Nixon on Operations in Cambodia
Date: April 30, 1970
Genre: address
Author: Richard M. Nixon
Summary Overview
President Richard Nixon, upon assuming office in 1969, began implementing his program of “Vietnamization” in which US ground troops would be gradually withdrawn and replaced by newly trained South Vietnamese troops. In the spring of 1970, Nixon turned his attention to neutral Cambodia, where the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had long maintained military sanctuaries on the border with South Vietnam. Nixon believed the communist presence in eastern Cambodia posed a threat to both the Cambodian government and the U.S.-backed government in South Vietnam, as well as threatened Vietnamization. Nixon made the controversial decision to order a joint US-South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia to attempt to wipe out these communist sanctuaries. Nixon's announcement of the decision in his address to the nation on April 30, 1970 sparked the largest wave of campus protests in US history, which included the tragic shooting deaths of students at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi.
Defining Moment
The 1954 Geneva Accords, which divided Vietnam into North and South pending elections (that never occurred), also established the neutrality of Cambodia. Nevertheless, during the Vietnam War the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong maintained scattered bases—“military sanctuaries”—throughout the sparsely populated and densely forested sections of eastern Cambodia, from which they could supply their forces in South Vietnam as well as carry out cross-border raids.
Cambodian leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk had to conduct a delicate balancing act to maintain Cambodia's official neutrality. Openly supporting North Vietnam could incur the anger of the United States and cause the Vietnam War to spill over into Cambodia, and challenging the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong sanctuaries might provoke the North Vietnamese into supporting the Cambodian communist Khmer Rouge and toppling Sihanouk. Sihanouk decided to overlook the communist sanctuaries, which he felt little power to remove, while professing official neutrality.
Nixon went after these communist sanctuaries in Cambodia early in his presidency with a top secret B-52 bombing campaign called “Operation Menu.” Nixon knew open military action would be regarded as a violation of Cambodia's neutrality and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress in 1964, which authorized military action only in Vietnam. Furthermore, at a time when the American public believed the US was winding down its war in Vietnam, an openly acknowledged expansion of the war into Cambodia could spark massive antiwar protests.
By the spring of 1970, however, Prince Sihanouk had been overthrown by a pro-American Cambodian general named Lon Nol and the North Vietnamese fought Cambodian Army forces for the first time. Nixon and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger now made the controversial decision to order a US and South Vietnamese military incursion into Cambodia.
In his April 30, 1970 address Nixon argued these sanctuaries needed to be wiped out to protect US troops during Vietnamization and uphold America's credibility. Failure to act, Nixon declared, would make the United States appear to be a “pitiful and helpless giant.” Nixon's announcement sparked a firestorm of criticism and an explosion of campus protests that culminated in the largest student strike in US history and the killings at Kent State and Jackson State. The Cambodia operation lasted until the end of June, and while successfully destroying some communist bases and ammunition depots, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were soon back in their sanctuaries.
Author Biography
Richard Milhous Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, on January 9, 1913. He attended Whittier College and Duke University Law School. During World II, Nixon served in the Navy in a non-combat role in the Pacific Theater. He was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives from a California district in 1946 and to the US Senate in 1950. Nixon served as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953–1961. He lost his bid for president to John F. Kennedy in 1960. In 1962, he lost a run for California governor. Nixon was elected president of the United States in 1968 and re-elected by a landslide in 1972. On August 9, 1974, amidst the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first president in US history to resign from the presidency. Nixon died on April 22, 1994.
Document Analysis
President Richard Nixon's address announcing United States and South Vietnamese incursions into Cambodia proceeds on two levels. First, Nixon outlines the objective of the operation and lays out reasons for it that are consistent with his earlier promises to reduce US involvement in the Vietnam War. Here, Nixon argues he must temporarily expand the war in order to successfully execute Vietnamization. Second, he elevates his decision to go into Cambodia to the level of an epic struggle between freedom and the forces of “totalitarianism” and “anarchy” at home and abroad.
Nixon begins by noting his earlier announcement that 150,000 US troops would be withdrawn from South Vietnam over the next year. He states this withdrawal is threatened by the communist presence in base camps in eastern Cambodia. Only by wiping out these camps, he argues, can the US safely carry out its draw down in South Vietnam.
Nixon then asserts United States policy had been to “scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian people.” Here the president is misleading the American public. Soon after assuming the presidency, Nixon had ordered the top secret “Operation Menu,” which consisted of heavy bombing of communist sanctuaries in Cambodia as well as secret cross-border ground operations. These secret operations would not be revealed until 1973 amidst Congressional investigations into the Watergate scandal (some members of Congress wanted the illegal forays into Cambodia to be added to the other proposed articles of impeachment.)
Nixon puts full blame upon North Vietnam, which violated Cambodia's neutrality by setting up bases there. While correct in his description of the role of the communist sanctuaries, Nixon overstates their importance when he declares them “the headquarters for the entire Communist military operation in South Vietnam.”
The most remarkable part of the address is when Nixon ties his Cambodian decision to a global struggle against totalitarianism and anarchy. Nixon links what he sees as communist aggression overseas to the antiwar movement in America, which he accuses of “systematically” destroying great universities and “institutions created by free civilizations in the last 500 years.” Nixon condemns protesters in America, whom he privately blamed for constraining his latitude for action in Vietnam. In the address's most memorable line, Nixon declares, “If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.” Here, the president, as in his “Silent Majority” speech the previous fall, is addressing those he regards as patriotic, mainstream Americans as opposed to radicals and liberals.
Nixon concludes by seeking to highlight the bravery of his decision. He compares himself to previous presidents making momentous decisions, but states that they, unlike him, were not assailed by voices of protest and doubt. He seeks to elevate the courage of his decision even more by asserting that his party may lose seats in upcoming elections and that he may be a one-term president, but he'd rather suffer the political consequences than see America reduced to a “second-rate power.”
Bibliography and Additional Readings
Dallek, Robert. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. New York: HarperCollins P., 2007. Print.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Print.
Shawcross, William, Sideshow: Nixon, Kissinger and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. Print.
Vietnam: A Television History: Episode 8, “Laos and Cambodia.” Dir. Judith Vecchione, Austin Hoyt, Martin Smith, & Bruce Palling. Nar. Will Lyman. Boston: WGBH, 1983. Documentary.
Young, Marilyn B. The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991. Print.