We bomb for peace. US peculiar military operation in Cambodia

“It is to be done, and without talking. No buts. Everything that flies is expected to fly there and bomb until it does. Without limitation on hours and budget limits. Understand?” said president Richard Nixon in a telephone conversation with Henry Kissinger on December 9, 1970. In total, the United States dropped 183 bombs from Hiroshima in 4 years, on the civilian population of the country the size of half of Poland. Nixon justified the bombing by ‘bombing for peace’ in Cambodia. It's like reading a text in the People's Tribune: "Soviet nations manifest unwavering will to fight for peace".

Five minutes later, after talking to Nixon, Henry Kissinger called General Alexander Haig.

Kissinger: “He wants a massive air strike on Cambodia. He doesn't tolerate any buts. It's an order, it's just to be done. Anything that flies, on anything that moves. Do you understand?’

Haig: [ chuckles ]

Political context of the talks: in 1969, the presidency of the United States is Richard Nixon; Henry Kissinger becomes his closest abroad policy advisor; in decline from his predecessors they get the Vietnam War: Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson; Official propaganda was preachingThat the United States defends South Vietnam against communism. What was the truth? In search of answers I urge reading books Seymour M. Hersha "Dark side of Washington" and Noam Chomsky "Year 501. Conquest continues".

Secret bombings

Americans started a “peaceful” bombing Cambodia on March 18, 1969, and finished it on August 15, 1973. They said that raids only service to “clean up” from Vietnamese military bases of the border sectors of Cambodia and South Vietnam.

It's like I heard Putin talking about "cleaning" Ukraine from the Nazis today.

President Nixon and his advisor made the decision to start the bombing panic without informing the United States Congress. It was illegal due to the fact that the president does not have specified powers and powers. It was besides illegal due to the fact that Cambodia was neutral at the time. She wasn't in the Vietnam War. But who cares about national and global law erstwhile we “fight for peace”.

By May 1, 1970, the carpet bombings of the Cambodian-Vietnamese border were classified. The first operation of B-52 bombers was codenamed "Breakfast" (Breakfast), second ‘Snack’ (Snacks), 3rd ‘Dinner’ (Lunch) and the 4th “Desert” (Dessert). All secret raids Military moles codenamed ‘Menu’ (He was eating a magazine.). Cynicism without boundaries. In total, as part of these bombings, the Americans performed 3695 "peaceful" drops from B-52 aircraft.

The subject of the secret bombings was addressed by William Shawcross in his book entitled "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the demolition of Cambodia". The author was an English journalist, military correspondent for the weekly Sunday Times.

“The full Shawcross book (unquestionably 1 of the most prominent positions in the full literature of the subject) is in fact 1 indictment of the president of the United States and his advisors as the people liable for the demolition of Cambodia”,

Piotr Ostaszewski wrote in his book “Kamboja. Forgotten War 1970-1975". Let me remind you that Ostaszewski has been Polish Ambassador to South Korea since 2017.

Managing people military-industrial complex were able to hold the bombing Cambodia in secret due to the fact that Bomb mafia falsifying drop coordinates for B-52 pilots. The pilots were convinced they were bombing Vietnam erstwhile they actually bombed Cambodia. The fact came out during interrogations before the peculiar legislature Commission in 1973. General Earle Gilmore Wheeler confirmed that the raids were kept in strict secrecy, and Major Hal Knight revealed details of the falsification of data for pilots, which he believed had “the intent of misleading Congress”.

From 19 May 1970 to 15 August 1973, the “peaceful” bombing operation of Cambodia was codenamed “Freedom Deal” (Freedom Agreement). The name resembles the codename of the “special military operation” of March 20, 2003 “Iraqi Freedom” (Iraqi Freedom). any fight for freedom, others fight for peace...

Civil bombing

“Bombs fell everywhere and above all on the civilian population”, notes Philip Short in his book “Pol Pot. Fields of Death”.

The author knows what he is writing about, due to the fact that for over twenty-five years he has been a abroad correspondent for “The Times”, “The Economist” and the BBC in the Far East. He stayed in Cambodia in the 1970s and early 1980s.

"Bill Harben, a disappointed political officer at the US embassy in Phnom Penh, did a simple experiment. He took a part of cardboard to designate a “field”, 800 metres wide and 3 kilometres long, harm caused by a B-52 bomber load, and placed it on a large scale map. He found that in most parts of central and east Cambodia he could not be placed anywhere so that the field did not include villages or villages," says Philip Short's book.

"President [Nixon] wanted to send a 100 extra B-52s. It was terrifying. You could not even imagine where all of them were to be accommodated," recalled Air Force Secretary Robert Seamans. It was February 1973. In the last six months of the bombing, eighty bombers day by day dropped bombs on Khmer villages. Of course, the peace bombs. 3 100 and 10 kilos.

Bomber panic B-52

"Nothing the guerrilla had to last was like the terrible panic of B-52 bombings [...] It looked as if a immense scythe had driven through the jungle, overthrowing immense teak trees and it like grass, tearing them apart into billions of scattered splinters [...] It is not that everything was destroyed – in any amazing way everything ceased to be [...] There was nothing in the unrecognized scenery of the immense craters [...]

Cambodia. Bomb craters, photograph CC BY-SA 4.0

The first fewer times I survived the B-52 attacks, I thought I was trying to compression myself into the bunker floor, that I was surrounded by the apocalypse.

[...] Shocking boom-boom was getting closer and closer [...] Later, the cataclysm swept over us, everyone cuddled to the ground, any quietly screamed, others attempted to halt the attack of violent involuntary tremor. The earth around us began to sway spazmatically and surrounded us with a monstrous roar [...] The horror was complete. You lost control of your body erstwhile your head shouted incomprehensible orders to get out of there. On 1 occasion, the russian delegation visited our ministry erstwhile an highly late informing about the raid came. erstwhile it was over, no 1 was injured, but the dignity of the full delegation was severely hurt – uncontrolled shaking and wet pants were besides good for interior convulsions. Visitors could have spared themselves a sense of embarrassment – all hosts have known these symptoms very well for a long time [...] But sooner or later, the shock caused by the bombings weakened, giving way to a sense of pathetic fatalism. Veterans no longer crawled across the bunker floor, twisting in fear. Instead, people just sat down resigned [...] B-52 in any way implemented order [...] It was a lesson that stuck in my mind, like many others," wrote Truong Nhu Tang, Minister of Justice of the Vietcong (Vietnamese organization fighting against the US).

183 Hiroshima bombs

Military Americans have argued that bombings will be precise and will have the intended effect at an instant. Nothing like that happened.

Three 100 and fifty-pound bombs fell on the civilian population, villages and critical infrastructure. They fell like rain for 4 years.

When I read about it, I remember that a akin propaganda was cultivated by the military and interred journalists before bombing of Yugoslavia and invasion of Iraq. ‘In full 2,756,941 tons of bombs were dropped on Cambodia. This is 1 and a half times what the Allies dropped during planet War II, including atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's an infernal demolition device that's hard to compare to anything. The full force of the explosion, for example, corresponds to 183 Hiroshima bombs. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are estimated to have died. 183 Hiroshima bombs in 4 years, on a country the size of half of Sweden. Initially in secret," writes Peter Fröberg Idling in his book "Pol Pot's Smile". In 1971 alone, American bombers made 61,000 raids into Cambodia.

Several 100 1000 civilians were killed during the United States bombings of the Khmer Republic.

Red Khmerers and Pol Pot

The bombing of Cambodia was beneficial to the American elites of power (politicians, military and businessmen) due to the fact that they limited the number of soldiers killed (as opposed to Vietnam). Bombardment meant “less crosses placed on American war cemeteries and thus was more acceptable in the States” (Peter Fröberg Idling).

The bombing of Cambodia was besides beneficial for Pol Pot and the Red Khmers.

Why? As a consequence of the bombings for peace, hundreds of thousands of peasants fled the countryside to cities that had grown to sky-high borders. For example, the population of Phnom Penh capital rose from 650 1000 to 2.5 million in 1975. Another 100 1000 Cambodians fled to the forest. The mediocre and hungry peasants were an easy mark for Pol Pot's recruitment procedures. “What they said sounded credible due to the fact that so many immense bombs were falling. This is what made Khmer's Reds so easy to get people,” says the book “Pol Pot. Fields of Death”.

Lesson for Today

"We gotta do without any sentimentalism, we gotta halt reasoning about human rights, raising the standard of surviving and democratisation," wrote George Kennan in 1948.

The American diplomat and sovetologist, considered to be the architect of the Cold War policy at the US Department of State Political Memorandum, stressed: “We cannot fool ourselves that present we can afford the luxury of altruism and benefits in the world.”

Reading about the “special military operation” in Cambodia, I get the impression that Nixon and Kissinger have taken Kennan's advice to heart. Reading Chomsky’s book, we can see that another American president, including the current Joe Biden. due to the fact that what Kennan said more than half a century ago is inactive up to date. It is worth remembering erstwhile examining the replacement war in Ukraine, between the US and China.

It is besides worth remembering, considering the Polish right of state.

It is worth remembering this at last, erstwhile the intertwined journalists bombard us regular with narratives told in the language of principles (freedom, democracy, free market). due to the fact that as prof. John Mearsheimer wrote, advisor to Presidents Reagan and Bush senior, in the book "Tragism of Powers Policy":

"Behind closed doors, elites who do national safety policies talk the language of power, not principles, and the United States operates in the global strategy according to what dictates the logic of realism.

Indeed, the apparent gap separates public rhetoric from the actual conduct of American abroad policy.” Henry Kissinger was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. For bombing for peace?