474 ChaPter^9
Sihanouk, thereby giving it credibility. Building on the hatred of the U.S. and
Lon Nol, the Khmer Rouge grew and took control of more area throughout
the early 1970s, culminating in victory in April 1975. In power, the regime,
led by Pol Pot, instituted the infamous “killing fields” in which the Khmer
Rouge eliminated hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, by starvation and
also by execution, often for absurd reasons like speaking French, wearing eye-
glasses, or being “enemies” of the people. The Cambodian people, in less than
a decade, had to deal with the twin terrors of the U.S. air war and the Khmer
Rouge genocide.
In the meantime, the war in Vietnam continued, but it was clear to
American leaders that it had to end soon. The Johnson and Nixon administra-
tions, however, had not sincerely negotiated with Ho to end the war up to
that point, always making the impossible demand that the NLF not participate
in peace talks–even though it was the dominant political group in the South.
In February 1970, however, Henry Kissinger secretly began talking to a rep-
resentative from the DRVN, Le Duc Tho but the invasion of Cambodia and
DRVN demands that free elections be held in southern Vietnam [which the
NLF would surely win against the Thieu-Ky regime] killed the talks; the
Cambodian invasion led to even greater doubt about American sincerity, while
free elections in the south, as Kissinger said, would be a source of “turmoil
and uncertainty.”
And so the fighting went on. My mid-1972, Nixon was again escalating
the war [made easier because he had developed friendlier relations, or deténte,
with the other Communist powers, Russia and China, and they thus reduced
their commitment to the DRVN and NLF]. Nixon unleashed a new torrent
of B-52 strikes, beginning during the so-called Easter Offensive in March. After
months of preparation, the northern Vietnamese army, with artillery and tanks,
swept southward across the 17th parallel and began to capture various cities
in the northern RVN, as well as gain control of Quang Tri Province right
below the 17th parallel. The American commander in Vietnam was alarmed
and feared that the southern Vietnamese “have lost their will to fight... and
that the whole thing may well be lost.” The RVN’s army, with desertions near-
ing 20,000 a month and casualty figures approaching 150,000, was simply
running away as the PAVN-VC offensive roared into Kontum Province in the
central highlands not far from Cambodia and had a clear path to Hué. Even
Hanoi was surprised by the speed of the offensives and hesitated before mov-