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Abstract
The December 1978 to January 1979 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia was a meticulously planned, modern combined arms operation led by some of Vietnam's most talented and experienced generals. In spite of a preemptive attack by Cambodia, Vietnamese forces, using six coordinated corps-sized combined arms mechanized columns, along with a division-sized amphibious assault along the coast and air strikes conducted by captured American-made attack aircraft, quickly crushed the fanatical Cambodian resistance in a swift, blitzkrieg-like campaign. Within three weeks the Vietnamese controlled all major roads, harbors, airfields, and population centers in Cambodia, forcing the remainder of Pol Pot's Cambodian armed forces to flee to the Thai border for sanctuary.
THE Vietnamese conquest of Cambodia in December 1978-January 1979 was arguably one of the seminal events of the last half-century in Southeast Asia. In little more than two weeks, Vietnamese motorized columns swept across the border, captured Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh, and shattered or dispersed virtually every unit of the genocidal dictator Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge (KR) army. However, while its command structure was shattered, Pol Pot's army was not completely destroyed. Thousands of KR troops fled to safety along the Thai-Cambodian border. There, with the sanctuary of Thai territory at their backs, they would rest, regroup, and rebuild to fight again.
The military aspects of the Vietnamese invasion have received almost no attention outside of Vietnam. Some authors have said that the Vietnamese originally planned to take only that portion of Cambodia east of the Mekong River and that it was only after the sudden collapse of KR units along the Vietnamese border and Pol Pot's panicked order to abandon Phnom Penh that the Vietnamese decided to move on to take the entire country.1 In fact, a review of Vietnamese records now available reveals that the Vietnamese invasion and conquest of Cambodia was meticulously planned from the outset and that it was executed by some of Vietnam's best and most experienced combat leaders.
The story of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia is the story of five generals: Le Due Anh, Chief of the High Command's Forward Headquarters in South Vietnam; Le Trong Tan, Commander of the Vietnamese Army's General Staff and Commander of the Cambodian Offensive Campaign; Nguyen Huu An, Commander of...