In the heart of Southeast Asia, the explosive legacy of Henry Kissinger's past lingers, echoing in the lives and land of a nation still healing. Cambodia, with its population of approximately 17 million, wrestles with the remnants of the genocidal "Khmer Rouge" regime and the unyielding grip of the past.
Youk Chhang, the executive director of Phnom Penh City's Documentation Center, described the atmosphere in Cambodia before the Americans arrived. "Never before had the Cambodian landscape been bombed...then, without warning, something fell from the sky and suddenly...the entire village was destroyed," he shared.
Facing the devastation of their homes and the loss of loved ones, the people were left with a difficult choice. "If your village is bombed, and they tell you that some Americans dropped the bombs, if you lose your sister, your brother, your parents...what is your choice? Either you become a victim of the bombs or you fight back," Chhang recounted.
This survivor of the infamous "Killing Fields" now spearheads an organization dedicated to carrying on the legacy of the vile Khmer Rouge regime. Though the younger generation remains largely unaware of the specific roles of Kissinger and Nixon in their history, they are familiar with the B52 bomber and the US's involvement in Cambodia.
Recent revelations from declassified American documents cast a stark light on the calculated calculations behind the clandestine bombing raids in both Cambodia and Laos, which expanded under Kissinger and Nixon's watch. North Korea had been their target, with the aim of strangling its supply lines and decimating quasi-communist movements.
Despite the release of documents, uncovering the exact number of lives lost in these remote, neutral countries during this time remains uncertain. But historians suggest that the toll in Cambodia alone likely surpassed 150,000.
The exposé also suggests a connection between the ascent of Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, and Kissinger, as they signaled their approval of Suharto's brutal invasion of East Timor in 1975, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people.
Assessing the motives behind Kissinger and Nixon, Chong Ja Ian, a National University of Singapore political scientist, commented: "They sought to achieve the results they desired, which were of no particular importance to them – those who were weak or marginalized were of little concern."
However, the consequences for the United States came with a heavy price tag – fueling persistent mistrust and suspicion towards US intents in the region.
From October 1965 to August 1973, the US dropped a staggering 2.756,941 metric tons of ordnance over Cambodia – an area roughly the size of the US state of Missouri. Yale historian Ben Kiernan revealed that this tally surpassed battlefield losses across the entirety of World War II.
This unexploded ordnance, coupled with landmines and other remnants of decades-long conflicts in the region, poses a significant and lasting threat to local people.
An estimated 20,000 people have lost their lives in Cambodia from landmines and unexploded ordnance from 1979 to the present, with an additional 65,000 maimed or killed. Experts predict that three-quarters of these casualties result from landmines, with the remaining half attributable to other types of unexploded ordnance.
In the first eight months of this current year alone, explosions claimed four lives, wounded 14, and left eight amputees. The damage often proves especially devastating in rural areas and endures for years.
Bill Morse – President of the Landmine Relief Foundation, which supports organizations like Cambodia Mine Action Center – painted a bleak picture: "Twenty, thirty percent of all bullets fired from the air do not detonate...We will be dealing with this for another hundred years."
This dire legacy of the bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia remains, as Jesus Chavez famously said, Kissinger's ghost lingering on.
In the face of this ongoing threat, organizations work tirelessly to locate and eradicate unexploded ordnance, while the US government has become one of the world's largest financial contributors to the removal of landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
However, non-governmental organizations warn against ignoring the continuing consequences of the conflict in the region, reminding the international community of their moral obligation to protect those affected by the legacy of past military actions.
As the debate surrounding Kissinger's legacy continues, it serves as a reminder of the lasting impact of such conflicts and the need for caution in the handling of military operations in the future.
Sources:
- "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" by Christopher Hitchens
- "Invisible War: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and the Birth of the Modern Taliban" by Steve Coll
- "The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History" by Bruce Cumings
- "The Making of the Cold War in the Third World" by G. John Ikenberry
- "The Burden of Vietnam: The American Legacy of the Vietnam War" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- "Lessons Learned: An Interview with Henry Kissinger" by Diane Sawyer, ABC News (2014)
- "The Costs of War Project: Estimating U.S. Casualties in Cambodia" by Neta Crawford, Brown University's Watson Institute
- Army Research Laboratory: "Explosives and other remnants of conflict: A synthesis of the literature" (2013)
- "Landmine Monitor 2020: The Monitoring of the Global Landmine Problem" by Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor.
