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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 8. April 23 1979

Introduction

Introduction

April 17 was the day that in 1975 the troops of the National United Front of Kampuchea, known popularly as the Khmer Rouge, entered Phnom Penh, and proclaimed the Democratic State of Kampuchea. It was, or so most of its many supporters the world over thought, the end of years of armed struggle to create a truly independent, non-aligned, socialist state against French, American, traitor nationals, Russians and Vietnamese.

This article (in two parts) commemorates the 4th Anniversary of Democratic Kampuchea. It is the third in a series of three articles on South East Asia.

Sometime in the future the world will look back on the turbulent history of the now seemingly insignificant country of Kampuchea and realise that the events in that country during the sixties and seventies constitute one of the most amazing stories of world history. They continue today.

This article is not designed as a comprehensive history of Kampuchea, but tells the story of the Kampuchean people's recent struggle against a formidable array of imperialist and hegemonist enemies.

Within the story, there are a number of sub-plots which, for the sake of brevity have had to be substantially cut out. There is the treacherous agression, bombing and finally starvation tactics used by the US against the Kampuchean people; there is the humiliating defeat suffereed by the massive US military machine which only accelerated their already increasing powerlessness to deal with problems in their traditional spheres of influence; there is the continual hampering of the Kampuchean struggle by the new superpower trying to set up a new sphere of influence in the South East Asian region — the USSR; there is the cynical corruption of the elite of Kampuchea, especially the [unclear: puppet] government of Lon [unclear: Nol], brought to power in a CIA coup in 1970; and finally there is the story of how Vietnam tried to engineer the liberation of the South East Asian region in a way that would afford them control over the area.