Girl playing at the Killing Fields. Pol Pot might have been a genocidal murderer liquidating 17000 people from here, but lets not ignore the US's role.

The US dropped 500,000 tons of explosives on rural Cambodia, to destroy Viet Cong stongholds during the Vietnam war from 1969 - 1975, and killed an estimated 400,000 Cambodians. This action hardened Khmer attitudes against the US and the Camdonian Government who's generals were collaborating with and receiving payment from the US. Thus was born the radical Khmer Rouge, which came to power by force in 1975 and set about killing anyone who was displaying the "imperialist" attitudes of the US.

Following the ouster of Pol Pot by the Vietnamese in December 1978, Pol Pot's forces found a safe haven in Thailand, a U.S. client state, and for the next 15 years or more were aided and protected there by Thai, Chinese, British, and U.S. authorities. The U.S. backed Pol Pot's retention of Cambodia's seat in the UN after his ouster (which was greeted with outrage in the West and was the grounds for intensified economic and political warfare against Vietnam). This support was designed to hurt Vietnam, which had occupied Cambodia and installed friendly Hun Sen government in place of Pol Pot.

When Vietnam sought a settlement in the late 1980s, the U.S. insisted strenuously that Pol Pot be included in the "peace process" with "the same rights, freedoms and opportunities" as any other party. In anticipation of a settlement, in the early l990s the U.S. and its allies not only protected Pol Pot's forces from defeat by the Cambodian army, they helped him rebuild his strength and standing. During this period, the U.S. (and UN) refused to allow the Pol Pot regime to be referred to as genocidal. In order to oust the Vietnam-supported government, the U.S. strove to preserve Pol Pot and make him a significant force in the political struggle in Cambodia. Go USA!