Cambodia 1973-6

A very brief note, as it is wildly tangental to the purpose of the
list, but came up before:

In my discussion (on this list) about the timeline of U.S. Support for
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (with Rett), he reproached me on the
grounds that I suggested the U.S. supported Pol Pot prior to the
massacres, whereas he supposed their support for the Khmer Rouge began
later (circa 1976-9?).

I have just found the most direct affirmation possible for my belief
that U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge pre-dated 1975, viz. the written
testimony of Richard Millhouse Nixon himself.  As I had rather
speculated, the U.S.-China compact on Cambodia (viz., mutually
supporting Pol Pot as a kind of proxy in the evolving hostilities
between China and the Soviet Union) was settled in 1973 ("mid-June"
according to Nixon) --as I have already remarked, this proved to be a
remarkably durable arrangement, with American support for Pol Pot
continuing until after 1992.

The identification of the origin of the policy (from the American
perspective) in Kissinger's "secret" talks (actually pretty well
publicized) with China in 1973 certainly makes a lot of sense, and, as
Sihanouk was in Beijing at that time, the Americans were afforded the
rather strange excuse that they were supporting Pol Pot in order to
restore Sihanouk to power (although, N.B., it was the Americans
themselves who had supported the coup that deposed Sihanouk and
installed Lon Nol just a few years earlier).   The transparency of the
united front between the Khmer Rouge and the Royalists was to be
revealed in dramatic fashion in 1975; but U.S. support for Pol Pot did
not change.

E.M.