Cambodian Civil War
The Cambodian Civil War was a very complicated conflict that began in 1967 and continued until 1975. It was between the Communist Party of Kampuchea (which became known as the Khmer Rouge) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (also known as North Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia. Cambodia would come to be supported by the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the United States.
In 1970, the conflict escalated when the United States sponsored a coup and put a pro-American, anti-Vietnamese government in power. This ended any chance of Cambodian neutrality in the Vietnamese war. In order to protect their military installations from U.S. bombing, the North Vietnamese began moving them further within Cambodia and therefore taking over the northeastern part of the country. At the same time, they began providing assistance to the Khmer Rouge which was little more than a small guerrilla movement at the time. In response, the Kingdom of Cambodia began building up its military in order to combat the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge.
The United States wanted to prevent the spread of communism to Cambodia and protect their ally in South Vietnam. Therefore, they entered the conflict with aerial bombing campaigns and financial aid. The Soviet Union supported the North Vietnamese and even gave the go-ahead for the invasion of Cambodia. The resulting civil war destroyed the country so much that Prince Sihanouk eventually decided to ally himself with the Khmer Rouge in order to try and stop the war that was killing hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the efforts of the United States to protect and restore the government that they had put in place, they declared all to be lost by April of 1975. The Americans completely pulled out of the country and the Khmer Rouge under the control of Pol Pot took over the country. An estimated 300,000 people were killed in the fighting but an estimated 2 million were killed by Pol Pot’s genocidal regime.