Abstract:

This program scrutinizes U.S. violence against technically neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War, attacks carried out in an effort to deny a haven for communist forces. The decade of upheaval that followed that has been called the low point in American diplomacy is also addressed, as an allegedly U.S.-backed coup drove Norodom Sihanouk into the arms of China and opened the door to the ruthless Khmer Rouge. Features commentary by Emory "Coby" Swank and Noel Deschamps, former U.S. and Australian ambassadors to Cambodia; David Whipple, CIA station head in Cambodia; Lao Mong Hay, of the Khmer Institute of Democracy; and historian Stephen Heder.