Troubled Relations
The United States and Cambodia Since 1870

Kenton Clymer (Author)

9780875806150

Paperback / softback, published 7 May 2007

266 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.454 kg

Pacific Historical Review
Clymer's study remains the definitive account of U.S.-Cambodian relations. It is traditional diplomatic history at its best.

From the beginnings in 1870, American relations with Cambodia were rarely easy. In this abridged and updated version of his definitive history, Clymer examines the effects of U.S. interactions with Cambodia, tracing the disruptions that climaxed during the Vietnam War when U.S. planes bombed perceived enemy strongholds within Cambodia. The attacks led to Cambodia's involvement in the war and to civil war, from which the Khmer Rouge emerged victorious. Nearly one third of Cambodia's population died under the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule. Clymer shows how diplomatic neglect, misperceptions, misunderstandings, and poorly conceived policies contributed to these tragic events. In the 1990s, the United States finally worked with the United Nations to broker the settlement of conflict in Cambodia.

Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1: Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Encounters
2: Cambodia: The View from the United States, 1940–1954
3: From Optimism to the Year of Troubles, 1954–1960
4: A Casualty of War: To the Break in Relations, 1961–1965
5: Prelude to Tragedy: The United States Nonrelationship with Cambodia, 1965–1969
6: Richard Nixon and Cambodia: Diplomatic Relations and Bombs
7: Sticking with Lon Nol
8: Dénouement: Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, and the Fall of Cambodia
9: Jimmy Carter, Human Rights, and Cambodia
10: Toward a New Beginning
Epilogue
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index