Keesing's World News Archives http://www.keesings.com/print/search?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print&kssp... Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives), Volume XXIV, October, 1978 Vietnam, Cambodia, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Cambodia, Page 29269 © 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. Border clashes between Vietnam and Cambodia, which had occurred at intervals since 1975, developed into serious fighting in 1977, and on Dec. 31 Cambodia broke off diplomatic relations with Vietnam. The fighting continued throughout the first eight months of 1978, although because of the contradictory nature of the reports from Vietnamese, Cambodian and neutral sources its actual course was obscure. A number of Vietnamese proposals for peace negotiations were rejected by the Cambodian Government, which on June 24 made allegations that there had been an unsuccessful Vietnamese plan for a coup in Cambodia, following a series of earlier similar attempts. Vietnamese broadcasts from April onwards called on the Cambodian Army to overthrow the Government, and a number of reports in the summer suggested that a strong resistance movement had developed in the border areas with Vietnamese support. These events further widened the divisions in the communist world; Cambodia was supported by China and North Korea, and Vietnam by the Soviet bloc and Albania, while Laos, Yugoslavia and Romania remained neutral. Details of these developments are given below. Background to the Conflict The Mekong delta and the whole of the present southern Vietnam (formerly known as Cochin China) were annexed by the Vietnamese from the Khmer (Cambodian) Empire in the 18th century, but they still contained a large Cambodian-speaking population and Cambodia continued to claim Cohin China as "Khmer territory". After the conquest of Cochin China by the French in 1859 and the establishment of a French protectorate over Cambodia in 1863, four more areas were transferred to Cochin China or Annam. These were (i) the present Dac Lac province, in the Central Highlands; (ii) the Loc Ninh area of Song Be province; (iii) Tay Ninh province, together with a large area extending from the salient of Cambodian territory known as "the Parrot's Beak" or in French as the "Bec de Canard" almost to the east coast of the Mekong delta; (iv) the Ha Tien area of Kien Giang province, adjoining the Gulf of Thailand. In addition, part of northern Cambodia was transferred to Laos. Relations between the present Governments of Vietnam and Cambodia were further complicated by the history of the Communist parties of the two countries. The Communist Party of Indo-China was founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1930, and although nominally representing all three countries of Indo-China was dominated by Vietnamese. A resolution adopted by the party in 1935 envisaged the establishment of an Indo-Chinese federation, but stated that each country would be free to join it or set up a separate state. This formula was modified in 1941, when the party laid down that the peoples of Indo-China might either form a federation or become independent states. At the same time it was decided to establish separate organizations in each country to resist the French and Japanese-the League for the Independence of Vietnam (the Vietminh), the Khmer Patriotic Front and the Lao Patriotic Front. The party's second congress, held in February 1951, decided to divide the party into three independent 1 of 15 5/27/2011 15:11 Keesing's World News Archives http://www.keesings.com/print/search?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print&kssp... organizations-the Vietnamese Workers' Party, the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Party and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. The Cambodian party was divided between a pro-Vietnamese faction known as the Khmers Vietminh, which favoured collaboration with Prince Norodom Sihanouk (then the Cambodian head of state), and a rival faction led by Mr Saloth Sar (now known as Mr Pol Pot —see page 28807) which advocated his overthrow. After the Geneva Agreement of 1954 between 5,000 and 6,000 of the former faction settled in North Vietnam, with the result that their opponents were able to gain control of the party. The present Cambodian leadership regarded 1960, when the party held its first national congress and adopted a pro-Chinese and anti-Soviet policy, and not 1951 as the date of its foundation [see 28805 A]. A major point at issue between the two countries was the question of sovereignty over the islands in the Gulf of Thailand-this question having been exacerbated by the discovery of offshore oil in these waters [see 26222 A]. In 1939 M. Brevie, the Governor-General of Indo-China, laid down that all islands situated north of a line drawn at right angles to the coast at the frontier between Cambodia and Cochin China would be administered by Cambodia, and that all islands south of this line, including Phu Quoc (the largest of the islands, the greater part of which lay north of the line), would continue to be administered by Cochin China. In 1960 the South Vietnamese Government laid claim to seven islands north of the Brevie Line, however, and in 1962 Prince Sihanouk appealed to the great powers to guarantee Cambodia's territorial integrity [see 18886 A]. A Vietnamese statement of April 7, 1978, revealed that on June 20, 1964, Prince Sihanouk had asked Mr Nguyen Huu Tho, then president of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) and now a Vice-President of Vietnam [see page 27918], to meet him for an exchange of views on the border question, stating that "we give up all territorial claims in exchange for an unambiguous recognition of the existing borders and of our sovereignty over the coastal islands illegally claimed by the Saigon Administration". Negotiations held in Peking in the following October and December failed to achieve any result, however, as Cambodia claimed two islands also claimed by Vietnam and called for modifications to the border and privileges for Khmers residing in South Vietnam. When the negotiations were resumed in Phnom-Penh (the Cambodian capital) in August 1966 Cambodia again demanded amendments to the frontier, put forward a claim to Phu Quoc and called for privileges for the Khmers in South Vietnam, navigation rights on the Mekong and the use of the port of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), with the result that the negotiations were adjourned. The Cambodian Government appealed to all countries on May 9, 1967, to respect Cambodia's territorial integrity within its existing borders, this guarantee being given by the NLF on May 31 and by North Vietnam on June 8, as well as by a number of other countries [see page 22284]. [For subsequent confirmation f borders, see page 24018.]. From 1965 onwards North Vietnamese and NLF troops used the eastern provinces of Cambodia as bases against the South Vietnamese and US forces, with Prince Sihanouk's connivance. The Cambodian Communist Party in 1967 launched a guerrilla movement against Prince Sihanouk's regime, in opposition to the North Vietnamese party's policy [see page 22283], but the situation was transformed when in March 1970 Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by a military coup led by General Lon Nol, which was accompanied by massacres of the local Vietnamese community [see 24025 A], and the Cambodian Communists (generally known as the Khmers Rouges) announced their support for Prince Sihanouk. At the Summit Conference of Indo-Chinese Peoples, held in Canton on April 24–25 of that year[see page 243031], the North Vietnamese and NLF representatives again pledged respect for "the territorial integrity of Cambodia within its existing borders". During the early stages of the succeeding war in Cambodia the North Vietnamese and NLF forces bore the brunt of the fighting, and they continued to co-operate with the Khmers Rouges, though in decreasing numbers, until the war ended. The return from North Vietnam after 1970 of hundreds of Khmers Vietminh to take part in the struggle led to friction between them and the Khmers Rouges, however, and the resulting tensions became acute when after the signing in 1973 of the Paris Agreements on a peace settlement in Vietnam[see 25781 A] North Vietnam greatly reduced its military aid to the Khmers Rouges. Pro-Vietnamese cadres were eliminated from the Cambodian party, and early in 1975, before the end of the war in Cambodia, North Vietnamese and NLF units in and around the Parrot's Beak were reported to have been attacked by 2 of 15 5/27/2011 15:11 Keesing's World News Archives http://www.keesings.com/print/search?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print&kssp... Khmer Rouge troops seeking to establish Cambodian control of the region. The reports of conflict between the Khmers Rouges and the Khmers Vietminh were confirmed by a Cambodian statement of Dec. 31, 1977 [see below], which asserted that Vietnam had organized "a handful of traitors to found a new party which was its instrument to sabotage the CPK ". The statement went on: “When they set up their sanctuaries on Cambodian territory-since 1965 and especially from the period that followed the March 18, 1970, coup d'état-Vietnam secretly organized a group of hooligans into a separate Cambodian army as its instrument on Cambodian soil, and created a separate Cambodian state administration to oppose and attack the Cambodian revolutionary state power under the leadership of the CPK." Fighting began immediately after the fall of Phnom-Penh on April 17, 1975, and that of Saigon on April 30, which ended the civil wars in Cambodia and Vietnam respectively [see 27149 A; 27197]. According to the Vietnamese statement of April 7, 1978, Cambodian troops encroached on Vietnamese territory in a number of places from Ha Tien (on the coast) north-east to Tay Ninh on May 1, 1975, causing heavy casualties.