🎯 Aims
To destroy enemy bases and supplies, to protect US troops, and to put pressure on Hanoi to negotiate seriously.
Nixon and Ford's Policies: Vietnamisation, Peace and Communist Victory, 1969-75 » Widening the War: Cambodia, Laos and the Secret Bombing
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A4, Key topic 4
- Why Nixon widened the war into Cambodia and Laos
- What the secret bombing of Cambodia was (1969-70)
- What happened in the Cambodian incursion (1970) and in Laos (1971)
- The results of widening the war
🔒 Unlock Full Course Content
Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseWhy widen the war?
When Richard Nixon became President in January 1969, he wanted the USA out of Vietnam without losing South Vietnam to Communism. His policy was Vietnamisation: hand the fighting to South Vietnam's army (the ARVN) while American troops went home. He needed time for that to work, and he needed to keep American soldiers as safe as possible while they left.
The problem was the border. Next to South Vietnam lay Cambodia and Laos. North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong fighters kept bases there, and supplies came down the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the network of jungle routes from North Vietnam) through both countries. Fighters could attack, then slip back across the border to rest and re-arm. Both countries were officially neutral, so the USA had treated them as off limits.
Key terms:
- Neutral: not taking sides in a war.
- Sanctuary: a safe base where enemy forces can rest and re-arm because attacks on it are not allowed or are unlikely.
- Operation Menu: the secret American bombing of Cambodia, March 1969 to May 1970.
- Incursion: a sudden military move into another country's territory. Nixon used this word; his critics called it an invasion.
- Khmer Rouge: Cambodia's Communist rebels.
The secret bombing, 1969-70
In March 1969 Nixon ordered B-52 bombers to attack North Vietnamese bases just inside Cambodia. The first raid came on 18 March. The campaign was code-named Operation Menu, and there were more than 3,000 B-52 raids before it ended in May 1970.
It was a secret bombing. Nixon did not tell the American public or most of Congress, and official records were falsified to hide the raids. He feared that admitting to bombing a neutral country would look like widening the war just as he was promising to wind it down. The full story only came out in 1973.
🤫 Why secret?
Cambodia was neutral, and the raids went against the idea that the war was being scaled back.
The Cambodian incursion, 1970
In March 1970 Cambodia's neutral ruler, Prince Sihanouk, was overthrown while abroad by General Lon Nol, who was friendlier to the USA. The North Vietnamese then pushed deeper into Cambodia, and the Cambodian army was too weak to stop them.
On 29 April 1970 South Vietnamese troops attacked border bases in an area called the Parrot's Beak. On 30 April Nixon announced on television that American troops would join an attack on the Fishhook area as well, aiming at what he called the headquarters of the whole Communist operation in South Vietnam. US and South Vietnamese forces went in on 1 May. Nixon promised that the American troops would be out by the end of June, and they were.
Results of the incursion
- Large stores of weapons, ammunition and rice were captured or destroyed, and the USA said this bought time for Vietnamisation.
- The Communist headquarters was never found. The North Vietnamese moved deeper into Cambodia.
- Cambodia was dragged into the war. Fighting spread across the country, and the Khmer Rouge grew stronger.
- Many Americans were angry that the war had widened. Congress became more suspicious: in December 1970 it voted to bar US ground troops from Laos and Thailand, and in January 1971 it repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Laos, 1971
Laos was officially neutral too, but the Trail ran through it and the USA had bombed it for years. In February 1971 Nixon backed a South Vietnamese attack into southern Laos (Lam Son 719) to cut the Trail at Tchepone. Because of a new ban on US ground troops in Laos, no American ground troops or advisers could go with them. American planes and helicopters gave support.
The ARVN reached Tchepone in March but then pulled out under heavy attack, with big losses of men and helicopters. The Trail was not cut for long. It raised doubts about whether Vietnamisation could work.
Common mistakes
- Saying the bombing of Cambodia and the 1970 attack were the same event. The bombing was secret air raids from 1969; the incursion was a ground attack in 1970.
- Writing that the Communist headquarters was destroyed. It was never found.
- Saying American troops fought in Laos in 1971. Only South Vietnamese ground troops did.
Exam-style question
Study Sources A and B.
Source A: From a speech in the US Senate by Senator Edmund Muskie, 16 December 1970.
'On one question there can be no doubt. The war has widened into Cambodia. We ourselves have carried the war into that country on one occasion. Our job now is to see that the United States does not again become directly involved in this expansion.'
Source B: From a television address by President Nixon, 30 April 1970.
'This is not an invasion of Cambodia. ... Our purpose is not to occupy the areas. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw. ... We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam ...'
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the American attack on Cambodia? Explain your answer. [8 marks]
Model answer
Source A supports Source B on one point: that the American move into Cambodia was a limited action. Source B says that once the enemy is driven out 'we will withdraw', and Source A says the USA carried the war into Cambodia 'on one occasion' and that the aim now is that the USA does not 'again become directly involved'.
However, the sources disagree about what the attack was. Source B insists 'This is not an invasion' and that the USA is not 'expanding the war into Cambodia'. Source A says the opposite: 'The war has widened into Cambodia' and refers to 'this expansion'. They also differ on responsibility, because Source B presents the attack as a way of 'ending the war in Vietnam', while Source A says 'We ourselves have carried the war into that country'.
Overall, Source A supports Source B only to a small extent. It agrees the attack was a single, limited action, but it rejects Nixon's claim that the war was not being widened, and so challenges the main point of Source B.
What lifts it to the top level: it cross-refers the two sources with short quotations from each, covers both support and difference, and ends with a judgement on how far A supports B.
Exam tip
The question asks how far A supports B, so keep that order in your answer. Quote both sources in every paragraph and finish with a judgement such as 'only to a small extent'.
Recap
- Nixon wanted to protect withdrawing US troops and give Vietnamisation time, so he attacked North Vietnamese bases in neutral Cambodia and Laos.
- Operation Menu was the secret B-52 bombing of Cambodia from March 1969 to May 1970.
- In April-May 1970 US and South Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia; in February-March 1971 the ARVN attacked into Laos.
- The results: some supplies destroyed, but Cambodia was drawn into the war, the Communist headquarters was not found, and Americans and Congress were angry.