Love Interest 2026 Update

[vinapu]

8 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

Sorry to disagree with the first part of your post.

I wonder what part of my post you disagree with ?   all I said is , Vietnamese entered in 1979, atrocities become well known , even if not believed to before country was unsealed by invasion.  Democratic Kampuchea occupied Un  seat till 1993.

So for 14 years West supported regime of well known genocidal credentials . 

[Tomtravel]

Hun Sen is a clever guy..he knew Western donors support him because alternative could be even worse like new civil war or totally collapsed state. The opposition leader was weak. As usually in those situations there are only bad choices. On a positive note, middle class is slowly growing.

What I found interesting is that large part of the problem is general attitudes of the population which is incredibly passive to improve their lives. Vietnam is applying years modern agricultural techniques with high yields but Cambodian attitudes are very conservative and thus their productivity very low. Knowledge and help is available but ignored. I read somewhere they have now „pilot advanced agriculture areas“ which seems to address the issue.
 

[jimmie50]

3 hours ago, Tomtravel said:

What I found interesting is that large part of the problem is general attitudes of the population which is incredibly passive to improve their lives.

This was mentioned in both books you recommended to me.  The people in general are resistant to change.  I can see this even in Cam's family.  If his father had his way, they would have replaced the old, rotten, termite infested fence with another wood fence that would eventually become rotten and termite infested again.  However, at Cam's insistence they are using steel rods, cement and brick.  Regarding the new house, his father said he did not want the bathroom inside the house, but again, Cam and his siblings have all said that is not an option.  If his father insists on the bathroom outside, there will be two bathrooms...one inside for the family and one outside for father.  lol.  I try to be supportive of Cam and his siblings and remind them that in the future the house will belong to one of them.  Would they want a new, modern house without an indoor bathroom?  When posed to them that way, they all agreed with Cam that the bathroom would be inside the house.  His parents remind me of the old expression...you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.  lol.  

[khaolakguy]

13 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

Cambodia. The secret US B-52 bombing campaign began in 1969 and was folllowed by the equally sercret incursion by ground troops in 1970. They were secret in that Congress had not been informed nor approved them. Nixon and Kissinger knew well as they had authorised it.

The downgrade from "invasion", which I queried, to "incursion" is appropriate given it was a time(two months) and distance(30KM) limited operation for the Americans to remove North Vietnamese military bases from the Cambodian border area. Although the previous bombing of that area had been secret the incursion was certainly not as Nixon announced it on nationwide TV within a couple of hours of the US army crossing the border.

[PeterRS2]

5 hours ago, khaolakguy said:

The downgrade from "invasion", which I queried, to "incursion" is appropriate given it was a time(two months) and distance(30KM) limited operation for the Americans to remove North Vietnamese military bases from the Cambodian border area. Although the previous bombing of that area had been secret the incursion was certainly not as Nixon announced it on nationwide TV within a couple of hours of the US army crossing the border.

I absolutely do not understand your logic! Nor why you are even bothered about it! Cambodia was a neutral country until Nixon and Kissinger decided it had to be brought into that war. Everyone knows that the US invaded Cambodia. Kissinger's "Operation Breakfast" followed by "Operation Menu" were the totally secret bombing campaign that started in 1969 and lasted until 1973, with half the bombs (mostly of the deadly cluster-type) being dropped in the final six months. By at least 2010, official records in the USA still stated that this bombing campaign never happened!!!

During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.

https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353

The article continues -

But Kissinger’s bombs also served as a recruitment tool. The Khmer Rouge were able to capitalize on the anger and resentment of Cambodians in the areas being shelled. Rebel leaders portrayed themselves as a force to protect Cambodia from foreign aggression and restore order and justice, in contrast to the ruling government’s massive corruption and pro-American leanings.

That was the air bombing. If the murder of 113,716 civilians over four years is not war through invasion from the air, then someone is not thinking straight in my view. As all sources agree, Nixon and Kissinger specifically used semantics to call the later entry of ground forces from South Vietnam an incursion. This was in an ultimately vain attempt to keep the fact that it was in reality an invasion into foreign territory away from the US political establishment and more importantly the US population which would never have agreed to expand the Vietnam war (but it did get out, with subsequent deaths in the USA as a result). Incursion in this case definitely means invasion into foreign territory for the purpose of continuing a war.

And from the Yale University site "Bombs Over Cambodia" -

Nixon was facing growing congressional opposition to his Indochina policy. A joint US–South Vietnam ground invasion of Cambodia in May and June of 1970 had failed to root out Vietnamese Communists, and Nixon now wanted to covertly escalate the air attacks, which were aimed at destroying the mobile headquarters of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army (vc/nva) in the Cambodian jungle.

https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf

And from PBS -

In April 1970 without Lon Nol's knowledge, American and South Vietnamese forces crossed into Cambodia. There was already widespread domestic opposition to the war in Vietnam; news of the "secret invasion" of Cambodia sparked massive protests across the US, cultminating in the deaths of six students shot by  National guardsmen at Kent State University and jackson State University.

https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/tl02.html

[PeterRS2]

On 7/22/2026 at 9:13 PM, vinapu said:

nothing surprising here.  For years our governments in the West were aware about Khmer  Rouge atrocities and yet , after they were overthrown by Vietnamese for year they supported so called Democratic Kampuchea government ( i.e. Khmer Rouge's ) as legitimate government and ensured that they keep Cambodia's seat at UN

I disagreed with the implication "For years our governments in the West were aware about Khmer Rouge atrocities and yet , after they were overthrown by Vietnamese"

I read that as for years western governments had known about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge as they were happening between 1975 and 1978 since they occurred before the Vietnamese invasion. The fact is that few governments were aware of anything happening in those years as Cambodia as it was totally closed off. The few who were able to get out and tried to inform the world about the gencoie just were not believed! The knowledge of the atrocities did not come to light in the eyes of world governments until 1979.

[khaolakguy]

4 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

I absolutely do not understand your logic! Nor why you are even bothered about it!

I am bothered by blithe inaccuracies which undermine the narrative of historic events. Whatever you call it the operation to send US troops into Cambodia on a short term basis cannot be described as "secret".

 

Quote

At 21:00 on 30 April, however, Nixon appeared on all three U.S. television networks to announce that "It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight" and that "the time has come for action." Nixon's speech began 90 minutes after American troops entered the "Fishhook" area.

 

The "Fishhook" area was so named because of it's appearance on a map as it is part of Cambodia that protrudes into the land mass of Vietnam.

It was just another incursion into a foreign country that ended badly. How little we learn from history.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_campaign

 

 

[PeterRS2]

1 hour ago, khaolakguy said:

I am bothered by blithe inaccuracies which undermine the narrative of historic events.

It was just another incursion into a foreign country that ended badly. How little we learn from history.

Who is being inaccurate? Someone who quotes wikipedia as his only source? Hmmm!

It seems you blithely continue to persist in using the niceties dreamed up by the warmongers Nixon and Kissnger. We know from sources within the White House that incursion was chosen since the American public would never stand for invasion. You quote an unnamed wikipedia article. I have already provided three serious ones and could do so for another 30 but it would totally bore other readers. However, since you insist that you do not accept what historians accept, here are four more with sources - 

As the Cambodian government faces imminent collapse, Kissinger convinces Nixon to order a land invasion, sparking massive protests across American college campuses.

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/amex37kis-soc-fwc/beyond-vietnam-the-forgotten-war-in-cambodia-american-experience/

The United States' invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was a significant military and political event during the Vietnam War

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/united-states-invades-cambodia

On May 8, 1970, Nixon held a press conference to defend the invasion of Cambodia

https://www.history.com/articles/nixon-war-powers-act-vietnam-war-cambodia

Please note that quote is from history.com!

When American and South Vietnamese forces, led by General Creighton Abrams, launched an attack into neutral Cambodia in 1970, the invasion ignited a firestorm of violent antiwar protests throughout the United States,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271359600_The_Cambodian_Campaign_The_1970_Offensive_and_America's_Vietnam_War

And as Willliam Shawcross writes on page 213 of his masterly book on the Destruction of Cambodia,

"The invasion of Cambodia led to an extension of the use of bombing"

You can continue taking Nixon and Kissinger's side all you want, but you cannot change facts!

[Blah]

21 hours ago, vinapu said:

I wonder what part of my post you disagree with ?   all I said is , Vietnamese entered in 1979, atrocities become well known , even if not believed to before country was unsealed by invasion.  Democratic Kampuchea occupied Un  seat till 1993.

So for 14 years West supported regime of well known genocidal credentials . 

Not exactly true, for example:

Australia officially withdrew its diplomatic recognition of the ousted Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime on February 14, 1981

[PeterRS2]

35 minutes ago, Blah said:

Not exactly true, for example:

Australia officially withdrew its diplomatic recognition of the ousted Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime on February 14, 1981

Ironically it was the USA which led the group of nations that ensured the Khmer Rouge held on to Cambodia's UN seat for so long. The USA was determined not to permit any Vietnamese influence. There were even allegations from several sources that it was directly arming and partially funding the Khmer Rouge to weaken the influence of Vietnam and thus, it assumed, the USSR in SouthEast Asia.

The ridiculous positions taken by the United States throughout much of this period is rather nicely summed up by the comments of President Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. In 1980 he urged the Thais to work with China in helping rebuild the Khmer Rouge and said, "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot . . . we could never support Pol Pot but China could." 

Then in an open letter to the New York Times in 1998, he stated, "The Chinese were aiding Pol Pot but without any help or arrangement with the United States. Moreover we told the Chinese explicitly that in our view Pol Pot was an abomination and that the United States would have nothing to do with him – directly or indirectly."

Obviously a man after Kissinger's own crooked lying heart.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Blah said:

Not exactly true, for example:

Australia officially withdrew its diplomatic recognition of the ousted Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime on February 14, 1981

I gladly stand corrected but still not much to be proud off. It sounds like some government would be announcing in summer of 1947 that it no longer recognizes Nazi government as legitimate German governemnt 

[khaolakguy]

4 hours ago, PeterRS2 said:

You can continue taking Nixon and Kissinger's side all you want, but you cannot change facts!

I am not taking anyone's side. Hell, I was demonstrating against the Vietnam War outside the US embassy in London. 

I just like accurate information. Just because you have read a few books doesn't make you infallible. While the previous appalling bombing of Cambodia and Laos was kept secret, are you still asserting that Nixon was keeping the incursion/invasion into Cambodia secret? Some way to keep a secret!

 

 

 

 

 

[PeterRS2]

12 hours ago, khaolakguy said:

While the previous appalling bombing of Cambodia and Laos was kept secret, are you still asserting that Nixon was keeping the incursion/invasion into Cambodia secret? Some way to keep a secret!

You clearly either cannot read what I have written and what historians accept or you now weakly suggest it might have been an invasion rather than incursion.

But you are wrong again! Nixon and Kissinger kept the 1970 invasion of Cambodia a total secret - from all but the South Vietnamese government, the ground troops who invaded and the poor Cambodians they slaughtered. The reason was threefold. 1. to prevent the need for congressional approval which they knew would almost certainly not be forthcoming; 2. to prevent an even greater increase in anti-war outrage within the US; and 3. to continue the fiction of Cambodian neutrality.

But he could not keep the invasion a secret. So instead of information filtering out in dribs and drabs, he went public about it, stating it was to protect US lives. As predicted, his TV address (made after the secret invasion had started, a point which it appears you tried to avoid mentioning) prompted further outrage among the US public.