Secret bombing of C ambodia

1. Secret bombing of Cambodia Secret bombing of Cambodia Created by Mitchell Kowalski

2. Background information Nixon wanted to end the war in Vietnam as quickly as possible. he wanted to destroy NVA bases in Cambodia to keep them from launching attacks on American troops. This led to the bombing of these bases inside of Cambodia.

3. conflict • America expanded war to bombing NVA bases inside of Cambodia • Cambodia is neutral in Vietnam war

4. details • communications were split along two paths one was ordering a typical B-52 mission that was to take place within South Vietnam near the Cambodian border. the second utilizing back-channel messages between commanders ordered the classified missions.

5. More details • Only the pilots and navigators of the aircraft (who had been sworn to secrecy) knew of the true location of the targets. The bombers then flew to their targets and executed the airstrikes. After the air strikes, all records were destroyed. then a special phone number in Saigon was called and told that "The ball game is over.“

6. Impact on war effort • This bombing of a neutral country angered many people because they thought that it would escalate the war • The people also resented that the president had kept it secret from congress

7. More impact on war effort • These bombing led to more anti-war protests and increased resentment toward the war

8. quote • Kissinger in an interview with Theo Sommer defended the bombing, saying: • "Now, with respect to Cambodia, it is another curious bit of mythology. People usually refer to the bombing of Cambodia as if it had been unprovoked, secretive U.S. action. The fact is that we were bombing North Vietnamese troops that had invaded Cambodia, that were killing many Americans from these sanctuaries, and we were doing it with the acquiescence of the Cambodian government, which never once protested against it, and which, indeed, encouraged us to do it. I may have a lack of imagination, but I fail to see the moral issue involved and why Cambodian neutrality should apply to only one country. Why is it moral for the North Vietnamese to have 50,000 to 100,000 troops in Cambodia, why should we let them kill Americans from that territory, and why, when the government concerned never once protested, and indeed told us that if we bombed unpopulated areas that they would not notice, why in all these conditions is there a moral issue? And, finally, I think it is fair to say that in the six years of the war, not ten percent of the people had been killed in Cambodia than had been killed in one year of Communist rule."