Southeast Asia Divided
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About the Book and Editor
The central problem of international politics in Southeast Asia since December 1978 has been the Vietnamese armed presence in Kampuchea. The noncommunist nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have insisted that Vietnam withdraw from Kampuchea; the Vietnamese, perceiving a threat from the PRC and an ASEAN-sponsored Khmer resistance, maintain that the situation is irreversible. The contributors discuss the conflict from the point of view of all parties involved (ASEAN, Vietnam, the PRC, the USSR, and the U.S.) and assess various strategies for its resolution.
Dr. Donald E. Weatherbee is Donald S. Russell Professor of Contemporary Foreign Policy at the University of South Carolina. He is also the executive editor of Asian Affairs.
The paper used in this publication meets requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
A Westview Replica Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright 1985 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published in 1985 in the United States of America by Westview Press, Inc., 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301; Frederick A. Praeger, Publisher
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Weatherbee, Donald E.
Southeast Asia divided.
(A Westview replica edition)
Bibliography: p.
1. Asia, Southeastern--Politics and government. 2. ASEAN. 3. Indochina-
Politics and government. I. Title.
DS526.7.W43 1985 327.0959 84-15307
ISBN 0-86531-895-6
Printed and bound in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Contents
, Donald E. Weatherbee
, Karl D. Jackson
, John F. Copper
, Sheldon W. Simon
, Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok Post , and Tap Chi Quan Doi Nhan Danh
The original versions of the first four chapters of this book were presented as papers at the International Studies Associations annual meeting in March 1984, on the panel Competing Security Interests in Southeast Asia. We are indebted for the initial criticism to the discussants on that panel, Professor Robert Rau of the United States Naval Academy and Professor Paul Kattenburg of the University of South Carolina. Ms. Chris Cannon and Ms. Connie Humphrey, research assistants of the University of South Carolina Institute of International Studies, gave valued assistance in preparing the diplomatic chronology and the index. The editor is especially grateful to Mrs. Lori Joye and her word processing skills for the production of the final manuscript.
Donald E. Weatherbee
In December 1978 what has been called the Third Indochina War broke out when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam escalated its already bleeding border conflict with Democratic Kampuchea (DK) by launching an invasion in force designed to remove Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime and install a Khmer government amenable to the politics, policies, and security concerns of Hanoi. This new Kampuchean government was the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) led by pro-Vietnamese Khmer backed up by Vietnamese advisors and a 180,000-man occupation force.
The Vietnamese decision to invade culminated a bitter and complex relationship between erstwhile comrades-in-arms in the common struggle against imperialism. The deterioration of their fraternal links, already apparent before their 1975 victories, grew out of multiple reinforcing causes. There were the jealous nationalisms embodying traditional ethnic antagonisms. There was an ideological rivalry between competitive revolutionary models. There was state confrontation as the DK resisted the political inequality inherent in its perception of the hegemonistic pretensions of Vietnam, either in the form of a Hanoi-dominated Indochina federation or a special bilateral relationship that would subordinate Kampucheas interests to Vietnams. Finally, there was Vietnams threat analysis of the strategic impact of the DKs growing economic, political, and security ties to China at the same time that Phnom Penh refused similar ties to Hanoi.
On the ground, in Kampuchea, the military risk for Vietnam was low as long as there was not massive intervention by a third power. In a matter of weeks, upwards of 220,000 Vietnamese troops driving to the Thai border had shattered DK resistance. Even when external intervention occurred in the form of the February 1979 Chinese punitive expedition across Vietnams northern border, it was both militarily and politically ineffective if the goal was to reverse Vietnams policy. In Thailand, there were now added to the tens of thousands of Khmer refugees who had fled there to escape the excesses of the Pol Pot regime, thousands more caught up in the flight of the remnants of the DK forces. From Thai sanctuary, the regrouped Khmer Rouge and smaller noncommunist Khmer resistance forces have carried a low-intensity war back into Kampuchea against Vietnamese occupation troops. This has spurred retaliatory Vietnamese incursions into the Thai border region. Thus, Thailand has been turned into a front-line state as its border region with Kampuchea became the de facto bleeding Khmer-Vietnamese border.
