Bombings in Cambodia

• • In March 1970 a pro-American army general took over Cambodia
  • The North Vietnamese had been running the Ho Chi Minh trail in Cambodia and allied with Cambodian communist guerrilla fighters
• • To help, Nixon sent ARVN and US troops to invade Cambodia and ordered secret bombing raids
  • He knew this would be unpopular with the American public, so limited the troops to 19 miles over the border and had to withdraw by the end of June
  • He kept the bombing raids secret
• • 11,000 communists were killed and the pro-American government stayed in power to fight the communists
  • Huge damage was done to the Ho Chi Minh trail and tonnes of weapons and supplies were captured
  • However, this didn’t stop the North Vietnamese who used parts of the trail that went through Laos to supply South Vietnam
• • There was public outrage in the USA which led to many protests
  • Congress cancelled the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, limited military funding and called for Vietnamisation to be sped up