Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of WarStanford University Press, 1999 - 315 pages On December 25, 1978, the armed forces of Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia. That event marked a turning point in the first and only extended war fought between two communist regimes. The Vietnamese forced out Pol Pot’s Khmers Rouge regime from its seat of power in Phnom Penh, but the ensuing war was a major source of international tension throughout the last decade of the Cold War. This book is the first comprehensive, scholarly analysis of the causes of the Vietnamese invasion. At its core are two separate but related histories covering the years 1930 to 1978. The first concerns the continuing difficult relations between the Vietnamese communist party and the Cambodian communist movement. The second records the fluctuating and often conflicted relations between the Vietnamese communist party and the two most powerful communist states, the Soviet Union and China. These two histories are encased by a theoretical introduction and a conclusion that make clear the need for a "political culture” perspective on international relations. The author argues that key events leading up to the Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia present a historical puzzle. Many important decisions made by both the Vietnamese and Cambodian leaders are inexplicable in terms of the "rational actor” assumptions that dominate contemporary international relations theory. Instead, the author argues, these decisions can be explained only if we understand the political cultures of the rival states. This book is the only study of Southeast Asian affairs by a Western scholar who has used the rich archives of the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The key sources drawn on constitute confidential records of the former sponsor and ally of Vietnamese communism; they also provide fresh light on Chinese and Soviet foreign policy, as well as recent events in Cambodia. They are supplemented by extensive materials from French and American archives, as well as interviews with some of the main political decisionmakers. |
Contents
The Vietnamese Communists and | 23 |
The Foreign Policy of Democratic Kampuchea 197578 | 69 |
The Public Disintegration of Militant Solidarity | 88 |
Vietnam and the Communist World 193068 | 119 |
North Vietnams Tilt Toward the Soviet Union | 143 |
The Collapse of VietnameseChinese Relations | 167 |
The Emergence of the SovietVietnamese Alliance | 197 |
The Consequences of the Vietnamese Invasion | 219 |
Other editions - View all
Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War Stephen J. Morris No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
April army attacks August behavior Beijing border cadres Cambo Cambodia Cambodian communists Central Committee chiliastic China Comintern conflict countries coup December decision delegation Delo Democratic Kampuchea diplomatic Duan economic enemy ethnic Chinese February Fond Foreign Ministry foreign policy former French Hanoi leaders Hanoi Radio VNA Ibid ideological Ieng Sary imperialism Indochina Indochinese insurgency interview invasion January June Khmers Rouges Khmers Rouges leaders Laos Le Duan leadership Lon Nol Mao's Maoist March Marxist-Leninist military Minister Moscow namese communists neighbors Nguyen Nhan North November Nuon Chea October official Opis paranoid People's Pham Van Dong Phnom Penh Phnom Penh Radio Pol Pot Politburo political culture Pot's Quoc Radio Domestic Service regime relations Report revolution revolutionary September Sihanouk socialist South Vietnam Soviet Union strategic struggle Thai Thailand tilt troops TsKhSD United USSR Viet Minh Vietnamese leaders Vietnamese party