Don't Forget the
History
Dear Editor
I read the article entitled "January 7 and
its malcontents" (PPP, Jan 10, 2001). Your effort in trying to give a
balanced view on this very difficult and sensitive issue is very commendable.
However, I would like to give a more historical point of view based on two
recent sources written by Vietnamese expatriates, a book in French by Colonel
Bui Tin, a former editor of "Nhan Dan", the Vietnam armed forces,
entitled "945-1999; Vietnam: La face cachee du regime", and a book
which appeared on the Internet by Dang Anh Tuan, of the French research center
NRCS entitled "Vietnam: the Land of the dragons and Legends".
Bui Tin was an eyewitness to the invasion of Cambodia since day one in 1978. He
was later in charge of forming the national press corps of Cambodia. In that
capacity he attended many secret and high level meetings between the Vietnamese
occupation authorities under the supervision of Le Duc Tho and General Le Duc
Anh Commander of the occupation forces, and the Vietnamese-picked Cambodian
government representatives that included Pen Sovan, Chansi, Bou Thong, among
others. From the quote below ... observers can clearly see that aspects of the
invasion, its organization, management, design and implementation were performed
by Vietnamese policy-makers with the Cambodian "chosen leaders" as
bystanders if not as sheer pawns:
"As for me, I remained three years in Cambodia, returning to Ho Chi Minh
City and Hanoi only occasionally. During this period, I gathered... documents.
Some were coming from the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh. There was, in
particular, a text of agreement signed on July 1976, allowing the Chinese army
to build the largest airport in all Southeast Asia in Kampong Chhnang. There was
also congratulations sent by Mao Tse Tung to Pol Pot for...crushing, as
completely and as quickly, the capitalists, the exploiting land owners, and the
reactionary lackeys, a historic and bloody achievement. But to apply this
proletarian internationalism, that revolution had to crush one million skulls
with shovels and clubs on behalf of socialism and the purity of communism, and
Marxism-Leninism!
"From these KR documents, I was able to examine their genocidal policy. It
was really much worse than the crimes committed by the Nazis...but this policy
was cleverly hidden under the mantels of pure communism... This sentiment would
have lasted longer had we not made numerous errors later on. The first one, was
the fact that we stayed too long in Cambodia. I thought that we should have
withdrawn much earlier and without any condition attached. After the liberation
of Cambodia, we were enameled with the pretense of arrogance. In the midst of
the communist party we were told that we must exercise our duty as international
proletarian in order to reinforce and export to other countries. However, for
the Vietnamese people, it was as if we were guests to a house belonging to
somebody else.
"The main person responsible for the policy in Cambodia was Le Duc Tho. He
was assigned...to set up a new party and a new government. Before even our armed
forces had reached Phnom Penh, he presided over a meeting in the border region
known as the "Bec de Canard", near Snoul, for the purpose of
nominating a Cambodian government to replace the one led by Pol Pot. Among the
"chosen," was Pen Sovan, who became minister of defense and who was
also appointed as Secretary General of the Cambodian Communist party. His
appointment was no great surprise to Cambodians because, for more than 10 years
he managed the broadcasting in the Cambodian language for the Voice of Vietnam
radio. There was also Chansi, also a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam,
who before 1979 had managed an electrical sub-station in the province of Vinh
Phu in Vietnam. That...did not prevent him becoming Prime Minister of Cambodia
until his...death in 1983.
"As to Bou Thong, who became Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia with the
rank of general, he was only a captain in the Vietnamese army, stationed in a
small district in the highland... In Phnom Penh, Le Duc Tho often stayed in a
villa behind Chamcar Mon... There, he called for meetings with senior officials
of the party...I saw him talk to those Cambodian officials at the royal palace
in 1981, and also in Thu Duc, near Saigon, at the beginning of 1982. If I were
not personally present in those meetings, I would never have believed that such
scenes could have taken place. Le Duc Tho, caught in his oratory frenzy, had
forgotten his nationality and that of his counterparts, and he ingratiated
himself to freely lecturing these officials like schoolboys.
"When Pen Sovan was dismissed from his job...in 1981, it was the work of Le
Duc Tho - supported by Le Duc Anh. On their recommendation, the Polit Bureau
accepted in Hanoi the "call" from several members of the Communist
Party of Cambodia. But the Cambodian people never had anything to do with either
the appointment or the fall of Pen Sovan from power. What did Pen Sovan do
wrong? At the beginning, Pen Sovan who was a major in the Vietnamese armed
forces, continued to act as a junior officer. During a meeting, he stood up at
attention to salute General Le Duc Anh! The latter had to remind Pen Sovan that
as a minister of defense, he was his superior, and he was told to stop acting
that way. However, after having been received with great honor by Brezhnev, Pen
Sovan had changed his attitude toward Vietnam. According to a Vietnamese adviser
in charge of training Cambodian cadre, he did not always know how to hide his
unhappiness about his lack of real power while being secretary general of the
party and minister of defense, at the military level, he was ignored by general
Le Duc Anh. Such behavior was intolerable in the eyes of our Directorate,
therefore, Pen Sovan was brought back to Vietnam where he was in house arrest
and closely watched near Hanoi, where he spent 10 years. We only allowed him to
return to Cambodia after the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops, when the United
Nations took charge..."
From the above I would like to note that contrary to what Mr. Pen Sovan claimed
that he was unaware of the Vietnamese intention when he agreed to be the head of
the so called "Salvation Front government". This is not possible,
because he was a member of the Vietnamese Communist Party and a Major in the
Vietnamese Armed forces. He is either very naive or he did not tell the truth.
His belated remorse for having worked for the Vietnamese is to be commended.
But, he should not forget that he was part of the problem of allowing the
Vietnamese to implement their historical expansionist not to say imperialist
policy and strategy toward Cambodia.
I now turn to a Vietnamese historical view of this expansionist/imperialist
policy dating back to the Tenth Century. In the words of Dang Anh Tuan...the
strategy and policy that have been used by the Vietnamese to conquer its
neighbors, especially Champa and Kampuchea Krom, is analyzed as follows:
"The first kingdoms of the legendary dynasties were located north in Tonkin.
By the 10th century they had, as a name kingdom Van Lang, then kingdom Âu Lac,
started from the Red River delta, the cradle of the Vietnamese nation, a
movement characterized as Nam Tie'n (Advancement toward the South). This nation
relentlessly pushed new cells in each parcel of land favorable to its mode of
growth. It was based on a multitude of small, politically independent hearths
consisting of soldier-peasants re-inforced sometimes by troops from the central
authority, and behaved like a gigantic madrepore forming its atoll little by
little, ending up encircling and assimilating the new country and thus enlarging
Viet-Nam. It had the advantage of a triple coherent national structure...
It constituted an undeniable advantage for a policy of expansion but would on
the other hand always require a strong central authority. At the least
relaxation of the latter, the country crumbles easily. This is one of the main
reasons of why the history of Vietnam is filled with disorders and eternal wars.
This policy of nibbling silkworms allowed the slow absorption of the space
occupied by the Khmer and the Chàm people. Their vestiges currently found in
central Vietnam (Phan Thiet, Da Nang etc.) and in the delta of the Mekong River
illustrate very well this conquest. The attachment to independence has been
proven many times in the past and in the war in Vietnam. It requires long
centuries of struggle, wars, pains and jolts for Vietnam to finally become the
size of a dragon today."
The purpose of this letter is not to stir up hatred between the Vietnamese and
Cambodian people, but there is hardly any Cambodian voice raised in the defense
of Cambodian people against Vietnamese imperialism without being accused of
being cynical or worse still a racist. I am neither a politician nor a
Vietnamese hater. I wish that the two neighboring people can live as friends one
day. But before that process of reconciliation can start Vietnam will have to
stop its imperialist policy and must apologize to the Cambodian people, not the
other way around...
-
Naranhkiri Tith, Ph. D., SAIS The Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC
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Phnom
Penh Post, Issue 10/4, February 16 - March 1, 2001
© Michael
Hayes, 2001. All rights revert to authors and artists on publication.
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