Cambodian Campaign - Conclusion

Conclusion

For more details on the conflict in Cambodia, see Cambodian Civil War. For more details on the 1972 Nguyen Hue Offensive, see Easter Offensive. For more details on the 1971 ARVN incursion into Laos, see Operation Lam Son 719.

President Nixon proclaimed the incursion to be "the most successful military operation of the entire war." General Abrams was of like mind, believing that time had been bought for the pacification of the South Vietnamese countryside and that U.S. and ARVN forces had been made safe from any attack out of Cambodia during 1971 and 1972. A "decent interval" had been obtained for the final American withdrawal. ARVN General Tran Dinh Tho was more skeptical: "despite its spectacular results...it must be recognized that the Cambodian incursion proved, in the long run, to pose little more than a temporary disruption of North Vietnam's march toward domination of all of Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam."

John Shaw and other historians, military and civilian, have based the conclusions of their work on the incursion on the premise that the North Vietnamese logistical system in Cambodia had been so badly damaged that it was rendered ineffective. The next large-scale North Vietnamese offensive, the Nguyen Hue Offensive of 1972 (called the Easter Offensive in the West) would be launched out of southern North Vietnam and western Laos, not from Cambodia, proof positive that the Cambodian operations had succeeded. The fact that PAVN forces were otherwise occupied in Cambodia and had no such offensive plan (so far as is known) was seemingly irrelevant. The fact that logistically, a northern offensive (especially a conventional one backed by armour and heavy artillery) would be launched closer to its source of manpower and supply also seemed to be of little consequence.

The logistical haul discovered, removed, or destroyed in eastern Cambodia during the operations was indeed prodigious: 20,000 individual and 2,500 crew-served weapons; 7,000 to 8,000 tons of rice; 1,800 tons of ammunition (including 143,000 mortar shells, rockets, and recoilless rifle rounds); 29 tons of communications equipment; 431 vehicles; and 55 tons of medical supplies. MACV intelligence estimated that PAVN/NLF forces in southern Vietnam required 1,222 tons of all supplies each month to keep up a normal pace of operations. Due to the loss of its Cambodian supply system and continued aerial interdiction in Laos, MACV estimated that for every 2.5 tons of materiel sent south down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, only one ton reached its destination. However, the true loss rate was probably only around ten percent.

South Vietnamese forces had performed well during the incursion but their leadership was uneven. General Tri proved a resourceful and inspiring commander, earning the sobriquet the "Patton of the Parrot's Beak" from the American media. General Abrams also praised the skill of General Nguyen Viet Thanh, commander of IV Corps and planner of the Parrot's Beak operation. Unfortunately for the anti-communists, both officers were killed in helicopter crashes—Thanh on 2 May in Cambodia and Tri in February 1971. Other ARVN commanders, however, had not performed well. Even at this late date in the conflict, the appointment of ARVN general officers was prompted by political loyalty rather than professional competence. As a test of Vietnamization, the incursion was praised by American generals and politicians alike, but the Vietnamese had not really performed alone. The participation of U.S. ground and air forces had precluded any such claim. When called on to conduct solo offensive operations during the incursion into Laos (Operation Lam Son 719) in 1971, the ARVN's continued weaknesses would become all too apparent.

The Cambodian people, whose fate was the most dramatically affected by the results of the incursion, were basically ignored by all but a few historians listed below. One notable exception is the motion picture dramatization, 'Freedom Deal: The Story of Lucky' (2012) IMDB, which tells the story of a Cambodian youth refugee making his way through the conflict as US and ARVN units enter Cambodia during the beginning of the campaign. The incursion, about which the Cambodian government was not even informed until it was under way, heated up civil war. The withdrawal of U.S. forces, after only a 30-day campaign "left a void so great that neither the Cambodian nor the South Vietnamese armies were able to fill it."

Lon Nol's forces would then have to contend with not only PAVN and the NLF, but with an ever-growing indigenous insurgency, which was now fully supported by Hanoi and its armed forces. Cambodia (like neighboring Laos) would collapse with the withdrawal of the Americans. Millions of Cambodians would pay the ultimate price as a result of a Khmer Rouge victory, and within a decade or so, Hanoi would find itself at war with its old ally.