A few years ago, I took a social course at a University in Ohio. In the course, our professor required students to read a book with title “First They Killed My Father” by author Loung Ung. This was an interesting and emotional book, The book tells about the Cambodian genocide, and the author and her family members were also the victims. At first, I felt sorry for what she and her family endured during Khmer Rough, but after I finished the book, I don’t like her narrative when she mentioned Vietnamese and Vietnamese volunteers who sacrificed their lives to liberate Cambodia from going extinct.
I heard many stories about young Vietnamese volunteers who died or returned without limbs after they liberated Cambodia from Khmer Rough. Why I don’t like the book? Even though the book depicts the crimes that Khmer Rough committed against all ethnicities in Cambodia. But she didn’t respect Vietnamese people and Vietnamese volunteers when she called Vietnamese by a derogatory term(Youn), just like in the US we call curry to mention Indians or yellow to mention the rest of Asian people. In the book, she appreciated Vietnamese volunteers to liberate her family and her native country from Khmer Rough, but her narrative in the book reflected her thoughts that Vietnam intentionally invaded Cambodia not liberated Cambodia.
Vietnam invaded or liberated Cambodia? Vietnam liberated Cambodia, I can show you guys with compelling evidence. The UN Court brought and convicted the Khmer Rouge regime and its leaders for their atrocity, genocide against humanity. We all know that The Khmer Rouge systematically killed about 1,5 million Cambodian people. After Vietnam toppled the Khmer Rouge and helped to maintain a new Cambodian government that could withstand from Khmer Rouge’s insurgency. Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia and respected Cambodian territorial integrity after Vietnam made sure Khmer Rouge would never come back. Many survivors of Polpot’s regime are still alive and much Cambodian genocide evidence is displayed in many Cambodian museums today.
You can see a chart above. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for only four years from April 1975 to Jan 1979, Cambodia lost over a million people with a total population of only 7,8 million. During a decade Vietnam helped Cambodia, and the Cambodian population increased from 7 to 9 million. Whoever knows Cambodian history, they would know how Polpot’s regime destroyed Cambodian human capital (human resources) and public infrastructures(they killed all intellectuals such as doctors, nurses, teachers, and other professionals and destroyed the schools, hospitals, etc.). Can you point out any nations that are facing embargoes still help other nations for a long time?
You see when Hitler’s regime committed genocide against Jews and other ethnicities, the whole world cooperated to topple Hitler’s regime. The whole world celebrated and honored international volunteers as heroes. In addition, they sent soldiers, and economic aid to maintain the new government in Germany just like Vietnam did in Cambodia. The difference is Vietnam was slapped with boycotts and embargoes by the world communities. In addition, many countries labeled Vietnam as an invader. Whoever lived in Vietnam during the 1980s, would know how the Vietnamese people faced economic hardship by embargoes. In addition, on 17 Feb 1979, China attacked Vietnam on its northern borders with the purpose to draw Vietnamese troops out of Cambodia to help the Khmer Rouge regroup and return to control Cambodia. Even though the bloody border only lasted three weeks and six days, some Western sources estimated that it cost Vietnam 30,000 lives and 32,000 wounded and decimated Vietnam’s northern economy.
You can see from the map above that Germany lost a lot of its territories after Hitler’s regime was toppled while Vietnam respected Cambodian territorial integrity based on the map drawn by the French that the international community recognized.
The reason I write this article is to hope people should verify the information before they believe it. The Internet provides a lot of information, but much of them are false information. I hope Vietnamese and Cambodian people don’t hate one another because of false information. If you have a chance to visit Vietnam, you should go to Ba Truc’s Memorial in An Giang where more than three thousand innocent Vietnamese Victims of the Khmer Rouge.
It is not right when you hate the Vietnamese government and deny the truth that many Vietnamese people sacrificed to help Cambodia from extinction. I don’t know why many books or online information still label Vietnam as an invader, not a liberator. I hope that people or the media when they mention the Cambodian genocide, please respect many Vietnamese people who sacrificed their lives to put an end to the Khmer Rouge by using the words Vietnam liberated Cambodia. Please leave any comments or thoughts about my perspective on this matter.