Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bomb Them To The Stone Age

On March 18, 1969 President Richard Nixon ordered American B-52s to bomb Cambodia, thus kicking off a deadly air campaign supposedly directed against North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge targets. 540,000 tons of high-ordinance bombs resulted in the deaths of anywhere from 150,000 to 500,000 civilians and countless wounded in the agrarian populace. Operation Menu lasted until August 1973. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has adamantly rejected any responsibility for the ensuing horror of the Khmer Rouge's Year Zero by stating in his memoir, "It was Hanoi-animated by an insatiable drive to dominate Indochina- that organized the Khmer Rouge long before any American bombs fell on Cambodian soil." Courts are trying Pol Pot's cronies in Phnom Penh. Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize. The co-winner Le Doc Tho refused his award. "There is no peace in my country." At least he had the honor to see the truth. Here is a map entailing the tonnage dropped on the Cambodian-Viet border during the early 70s. One ton for each Cambodian. Just think what Kissinger might have won with two tons.

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