Henry Kissinger: "A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves."

Tin Sokhavuth



Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his speech to garment workers on Wednesday in Phnom Penh, said that he welcomed US experts for working with Cambodian deminers to remove a chemical weapon dropped by US plane in Svay Rieng province during the Vietnam War. But, he added that seven more chemical weapons of the same type had been discovered in the area.

Regarding this issue, the premier raised a question whether the US government led by President Richard Nixon thought about human rights or not when they ordered the bombing campaign to kill Cambodian people from 1964 to 1973.

"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person," read Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To this point, not only Prime Minister Hun Sen, many American people also ask the same question why the US government dropped tons of bomb to kill innocent Cambodians. Moreover, some American people want to bring Mr. Henry Kissinger, who was the top advisor to President Richard Nixon, on trial for war crimes.

Elizabeth Becker, a former war correspondent for The Washington Post covering Cambodia, said that it was Henry Kissinger who was the designer of the US foreign policy in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. So, it was Mr. Kissinger who gave advice to President Nixon to order the bombing of Cambodia.

According to Mrs. Becker, in a telephone conversation with President Nixon, released by the US National Archives in 2004, Mr. Kissinger said that the US Air Force must bomb anything that moves in Cambodia.

"A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves," said Mr. Kissinger in the telephone conversation with President Nixon as reported by Mrs. Becker.

Last year in a debate with Hillary Clinton over whether Henry Kissinger is an elder statesman or a pariah, Bernard Sanders, a junior US Senator, acknowledged that Mr. Kissinger is the person who caused war and suffering in Cambodia by giving advice to President Nixon to bomb Cambodia and to overthrow the late King Norodom Sihanouk.

"I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger. And in fact, Kissinger’s actions in Cambodia, when the United States bombed that country, overthrew Prince Sihanouk, created the instability for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come in, who then butchered some 3 million innocent people, one of the worst genocides in the history of the world. So count me in as somebody who will not be listening to Henry Kissinger," said Mr. Sanders.

According to the CIA, it was this bombing campaign that pushed Cambodian people to support the Khmer Rouge who later killed more than two million Cambodians. Moreover, the bombing was illegal, because it was carried out secretly without the knowledge or approval from the US Congress.