Author(s)

Kenneth Ray Olson^1*, David Richard Speidel^2#

¹College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA.
²USDA Resource Conservationist and Agricultural Consultant with Natural Resource Conservation Service and Foreign Agricultural Service, Benton, USA.

The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) decided to use conventional warfare to unify Vietnam. The United States military operation against the Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic began in 1959. The (PAVN) connected a series of old trails leading from North Vietnam to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. In the 1960s the network of trails was expanded. Trail traffic was interdicted by repeated CIA (Air America) and US Air Force (Operation Ranch Hand) tactical herbicide spraying and bombing missions. During the late 1960s, the Khmer Rouge Army slowly grew in eastern Cambodia during a time when America was spraying and bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On February 22, 1969, the PAVN launched a new offensive against American forces in South Vietnam from their sanctuaries in Cambodia. President Richard Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger, decided to spray and bomb Cambodia, a neutral country, to eliminate the PAVN sanctuary base camps. The damage and loss of life as a result of U.S. air campaign resulted in the insurgency (Khmer Rouge) being able to recruit civilian members. This created a dual effect of strengthening the popularity of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enabling him to overthrow the Khmer Republic in 1975. The primary objectives of this study are to determine the political impacts and consequences of: 1) the 1959 United States secret war on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia and 2) the 1969 President Nixon’s decision to destroy the PAVN bases hidden in the Cambodian jungles. These United States secret wars in Cambodia had long-lasting effects on Cambodian political, social, and economic stability.

Ho Chi Minh Trail, Khmer Rouge, Cambodia, Secret American War, Pol Pot, Killing Fields

Olson, K. and Speidel, D. (2023) Review and Analysis: United States Secret Wars in Cambodia: Long-Term Impacts and Consequences. Open Journal of Soil Science, 13, 295-328. doi: 10.4236/ojss.2023.137013.