Cambodia and the Opium war

The Blip Report for Monday, August 12th 2024

I read an interesting story about Cambodia, by Jeremy Kuzmarov – “How the CIA Sponsored Terrorist Raids and Then Secretly Murdered 150,000 Cambodian Civilians in Paving the Way for Country’s Decade of Genocide”, that reviews a new book by Matthew Jagel – ‘Khmer Nationalist: Son Ngoc Thanh, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia’.

And the story tells us that:

“The aim was to overthrow the neutralist regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s head of state from 1953 to 1970 ...”

And the reasons why they wanted to overthrow Sihanouk?

“… because of his close alliance with China and desire to steer a neutralist course for Cambodia and avoid entanglement in the Indochina War, which he recognized would ruin his country … [and] Sihanouk’s refusal to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) with Thailand, the Philippines and South Vietnam.”

Then the story shows how the CIA would sponsor the anti-communist and so-called ‘nationalist’ Son Ngoc Thanh.

“By February 1955, after losing a rigged election, Thanh assembled a force of two thousand men on the Thai-Cambodian border … 

In 1958, Thanh reported that his anti-communist guerrilla forces began to receive military training from the United States to overthrow Sihanouk at its headquarters in the Prachin Buri province in Thailand ...

The CIA along with U.S. Army Special Forces contributed significantly to the destabilization of Cambodia by supporting raids carried out by Cambodian guerrillas known as the Khmer Serei (Free Khmer) based in South Vietnam and Thailand ...”

And it’s here that we see how this story intersects with the CIA’s sponsorship of Chiang Kai-shek and the opium war.

“Chinese Guomindang guerrillas based out of Taiwan actively supported the Khmer Serei along with the South Vietnamese and Thai governments, which supplied ammunition, bombs and explosives as Thanh’s men were sent as infiltrators into Cambodia to conduct sabotage and political warfare operations.”

The Guomintang army of Chiang Kai-shek, that was defeated by the Red Army and forced to flee to Taiwan, then with the help of the CIA, set up the ‘golden triangle’ of opium growing, and drug and gun running - to be used to finance these kinds of operations to overthrow governments that the CIA didn’t like!

Sihanouk would be overthrown in a coup in 1970, and as a reward, Thanh was appointed Prime Minister in 1972. But this got even worse, because of the US bombing of Cambodia:

“… civilian casualties drove an enraged population into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until the bombing began, setting in motion the rapid rise of the Khmer Rouge, and ultimately the Cambodian genocide.”

“Cambodia’s ‘decade of genocide’ was set in motion by the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Then, I read a story about present day Cambodia - ‘Cambodia breaks ground on a China-funded canal and says it will be built no matter the cost’, that a new canal would link their capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand, and it’s being financed and built as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Although the North Atlanteans are trying to sow friction between Cambodia and Viet Nam over this canal, it doesn’t seem to be working, and I read another story - ‘Vietnam backs Cambodia's Mekong canal, urges cooperation on impacts’, and that Vietnam has said that:

"We support the project and respect the decision to build the canal."

Although I haven’t read the book, I did watch the movie ‘The Ugly American’ with Marlon Brando, and perhaps our politicians should, if they want to understand why the world is moving forward with China and not with the ugly North Atlanteans.

Have fun. unugly.