When the War Was Over (108 page)

Read When the War Was Over Online

Authors: Elizabeth Becker

BOOK: When the War Was Over
13.42Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
1965
 
The United States sends combat troops into battle in Vietnam for the first time.
 
Sihanouk breaks relations with the United States.
 
1966
 
Sihanouk allows Vietnamese communists use of border areas and seaport.
 
1967
 
Peasant-led insurrection against rice tax in Samlaut, in northwest Cambodia; sparks communist decision to wage armed struggle against Sihanouk.
 
1967—1970
 
Sihanouk responds by waging war against the small Khmer Rouge, or Red Cambodians, whose forces grow to 5,000 fighting against the 35,000-strong national army.
 
1969
 
The United States mounts secret, illegal bombing campaign against Vietnamese targets inside Cambodian border area.
 
1970
 
March 18: Sihanouk is deposed by Lon Nol, Sirik Matak, and Chang Heng.
 
March 23: Sihanouk announces the formation of the National United Front of Kampuchea which includes the Khmer Rouge.
 
October 9: The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Phnom Penh.
 
1971
 
The North Vietnamese army continues fighting the Phnom Penh army while the Khmer Rouge build their forces. In December the North Vietnamese defeat the Cambodian army in its Chenla II operation. The Phnom Penh army never truly recovers.
 
1972
 
Lon Nol is elected president of the Khmer Republic.
 
1973
 
January 27: The Paris Agreement on ending the war in Vietnam is signed. The Cambodian communists refuse to negotiate.
 
The Khmer Rouge take over the majority of the fighting in Cambodia while the Vietnamese communists retreat to border areas.
 
The U.S. resumes bombing Cambodia in an intensive campaign.
 
The Khmer Rouge order the creation of cooperatives in all their zones.
 
The U.S. Congress forces an end to the bombing campaign on August 15.
 
1974
 
Last full year of the Cambodian war. The Khmer Rouge win control over the insurgency movement, purging communists returned from North Vietnam and ethnic Vietnamese as well as Sihanoukists.
 
1975
 
Final Khmer Rouge offensive begins New Year's Day.
 
April 17: The Khmer Rouge march into Phnom Penh and immediately order the evacuation of the capital.
 
April 30: The Vietnamese communists win the war and take Saigon.
 
May 12: The merchant ship
Mayaguez
is captured by Khmer Rouge sailors, which leads to U.S. bombing and major incident.
 
Khmer Rouge revolution concentrates on establishing all people in rural cooperatives. By July the communists have begun setting up party and government offices in Phnom Penh. At the end of the year the communists order the second evacuation of city people from the southwest to the northwest and other northerly points.
 
1976
 
At the party congress, the leaders decide to increase the speed and scope of the revolution.
 
Promulgation of the constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.
 
Sihanouk resigns as head of state.
 
The government of Democratic Kampuchea is publicly announced, headed by “Pol Pot” as prime minister.
 
Mao Tse-tung dies and Pol Pot temporarily leaves office.
Beginning of execution of party figures over the question of party ties to Vietnam.
 
The communists complete their purge of the Northern Zone.
 
1977
 
The party has nearly completed purging the leaders of the old society and steps up purges of people within the party.
 
Cambodia initiates border clashes with Thailand and Vietnam. The more serious dispute is with Vietnam.
 
Purge of the Northwestern Zone begins.
 
July: Vietnam and Laos sign a friendship treaty which Cambodian communists contend is a major cornerstone for the Vietnamese goal of creating an Indochina federation.
 
September: Pol Pot finally declares publicly that his country is communist. He proceeds to China and North Korea revealing he is Saloth Sar.
 
The border war with Vietnam is under way.
 
December 31: Cambodia suspends relations with Vietnam.
 
1978
 
The Vietnamese withdraw their troops from the interior of Cambodia and the Cambodians claim victory in the border war.
 
By spring, Vietnam's leadership decides in a private session to invade Cambodia and topple the Pol Pot government.
 
Purge of the Eastern Zone.
 
Another Cambodian party congress unveils plans for industrialization.
 
December: Vietnam radio announces the formation of a Cambodian national salvation front opposed to the Pol Pot government.
 
Malcolm Caldwell is murdered in Phnom Penh.
 
December 22: Vietnam launches its offensive.
 
1979
 
January 7: The Vietnamese capture Phnom Penh.
 
January 8: The Vietnamese announce the establishment of the People's Revolutionary Council to rule Cambodia headed by Heng Samrin, formerly of the Eastern Zone.
 
February 16: The Heng Samrin regime signs a friendship treaty with Vietnam.
 
Pol Pot and the Cambodian communists loyal to him regroup along the Thai-Cambodian border and, with support from China, wage guerrilla war against the Vietnamese army occupying Cambodia, a war that continues.
 
February: China wages a border war against Vietnam to “punish” it for invading Cambodia.
 
October: The Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea retains Cambodia's seat at the United Nations.
 
1981
 
The UN hosts an international conference on Cambodia, which allows only the Khmer Rouge government to officially represent Cambodia.
 
1982
 
June 22: Under pressure from China and the United States, the non-communist resistance forces loyal to Prince Sihanouk and former Premier Son Sann agree to join the Khmer Rouge in a new Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. The Asssociation of Southeast Asian Nations is the official sponsor.
 
1984
 
November: Vietnamese forces begin their biggest offensive on the Thai-Cambodian border camps of the Khmer Rouge and non-communist resistance groups.
 
1985
 
March: At the end of this offensive, the Vietnamese overrun every major border camp.
 
1986
 
September: Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev announces in a speech at Vladivostok that the Soviet Union intends to repair its relations in Asia, including the promotion of a peaceful resolution to the Cambodian crisis.
 
December: Nguyen Van Linh named the new head of the Vietnamese Communist Party and in a new pragmatic program begins breaking the international isolation of Vietnam, caused by its Cambodia policy.
 
1987
 
July 27: Vietnam and Indonesia call for talks among all Cambodian warring parties.
 
December 2—4: Prince Sihanouk and Prime Minister Hun Sen meet in Fere-en-Tardenois in their first encounter to discuss a peace settlement.
 
1988
 
January 20 and 21: Second meeting of Hun Sen and Sihanouk outside Paris but they reach no accord.
 
May 26: Vietnam announces it will withdraw half of its troops from Cambodia by the end of the year.
 
June 30: Vietnam withdraws its high command from Cambodia and turns over the running of the war to Phnom Penh officials.
 
July 10: Sihanouk resigns from the resistance saying the Khmer Rouge are killing his soldiers.
 
July 25—28: Vietnam meets all of the Cambodian parties in peace talks at Bogor, Indonesia. All agree that a Vietnamese withdrawal must be tied to the prevention of a Khmer Rouge takeover.
 
August: Thailand's new Prime Minister Chatichai announces his plan to transform Indochina from a “battlefield into a marketplace.”
 
November 3: For the first time, the UN denounces a return of the Khmer Rouge in its annual demand for a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia.
 
December 1—4: Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen makes the first visit by a top Chinese official to the Soviet Union in thirty-one years.
 
December 19: Chinese Premier Li Peng announces that China will reduce all of its aid to the resistance once Vietnamese troops have fully withdrawn from Cambodia.
 
1989
 
January 6: Hun Sen announces the withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops by September if a political settlement is reached.
 
January 14—20: A top Vietnamese official goes to Beijing in the first high-level Sino-Vietnamese talks in nearly ten years. They agree that Vietnam will withdraw its troops by September when China will end its aid to the resistance.
 
January 25—27: Hun Sen makes an unprecedented trip to Thailand, the major backer of the resistance against his government.
 
February 1—4: Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze makes the highest-level Soviet visit to China in thirty years and reaches a broad agreement on Cambodia. The two nations set May 15—18 for their first summit in thirty years.
 
February 19—21 The second Jakarta Informal Meeting on Cambodia is held in Indonesia with no breakthroughs.
 
May 2—3: Hun Sen meets with Prince Sihanouk in Jakarta. They agree on the convening of an international conference on Cambodia.
 
May 15—18: Gorbachev arrives in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit in thirty years. Among the agreements in the eighteen-point communique released at the end of the summit is the desire for a peaceful solution to the Cambodian problem.
 
June 1: France announces an International Conference on Cambodia to be held in Paris in July—August.
 
June 4: Chinese security forces massacre pro-democracy demonstrators near Tiananmen Square. The United States imposes sanctions against China.
 
July 24—25: Cambodian leaders meet in a Parisian suburb in advance of the International Conference. New points of disagreement emerge.
 
July 30—August 30: The International Conference on Cambodia convenes in Paris. After a promising beginning, the conference breaks down.
 
September 21: Vietnam announces that the last of its troops left Cambodia that day and gave the first accounting of its losses—some 55,300 soldiers on Cambodian territory since the invasion in 1978.
 
October: U.S. special envoy General John W Vessey, Jr. travels to Hanoi where he tells Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach that the U.S. refuses to acknowledge or reward the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia.
 
November 8: British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd announces in a speech before the House of Commons that Vietnam has withdrawn its troops from Cambodia—the first Western acknowledgement.
 
November 24: Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans introduces a new Cambodia peace plan that would rely heavily on the United Nations.
 
1990
 
January 15—16: The five permanent member nations of the United Nations Security Council (P-5) meet in Paris to negotiate a settlement to the Cambodian crisis. The diplomats from China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union arrive at a consensus for using the UN to effect a solution. No Cambodians were included in the talks.
 
February 12—13: The P-5 diplomats meet again, this time in New York, and reach new agreements for a Cambodia settlement.
 
February 21: Hun Sen and Sihanouk meet in Bangkok and agree to a general consensus that complements the work of the P-5.
 
March 12—13: At its third meeting, the P-5 reach an overall outline for a Cambodian settlement centered on a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
 
May i: Vietnam and China hold their first round of talks on normalizing their relations and solving the Cambodia crisis in Beijing.
 
May 25: Another round of P-5 meetings in New York leads to agreements on a final settlement including establishing a Supreme National Council of the Cambodian parties.
 
June 4—5: Japan hosts talks among Cambodians in Tokyo that lead to complementary agreements but the Khmer Rouge boycott the discussions.
 

Other books

Contours of Darkness by Marco Vassi
Velvet Thunder by Teresa Howard
Waxwork by Peter Lovesey
Unbreak my Heart by Johannesen, I. R.
The Bill from My Father by Bernard Cooper, Kyoko Watanabe
The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton
Katy Kelly_Lucy Rose 01 by Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me
Song Yet Sung by James McBride
A Breach of Promise by Victoria Vane
Dreams of Desire by Holt, Cheryl