We probably didn’t realise it at first, but the journey happened to go through three countries, South Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, whose fates turned out to be interconnected through strikingly similar historical conditions. But despite that, they took completely different paths and today have reached vastly different positions on the success scale, both economically, socially, and politically. If we seek causes, we must start with colonialism, which almost always fundamentally destroys the colonised country’s own ability to develop.
Colonial times
Korea was occupied by Japan from 1910 until its surrender at the end of World War II in 1945.
Vietnam was a French colony from 1885 until 1945 when the communist liberation movement Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh expelled the French.
Cambodia became a French colony in 1863, strangely enough at its own request. This was to gain protection against what was perceived as aggression from Vietnam. The colonisation lasted until 1953 when Cambodia’s King Sihanouk managed to negotiate independence for his country.
The resistance
What happened next also shows similarities between the countries. In a colonised country, resistance against the colonial power always arises sooner or later. There is often both a faction that wants to see a liberated country with a leftist agenda and another that wants the same thing but with right-wing politics. During the liberation war, they fight against a common enemy, but when they achieve success in the struggle, the differences become clear and former comrades-in-arms begin to fight each other.
Civil war
Now the conflict takes on an international dimension as each side is supported with weapons and money by the superpowers who have an interest in one side or the other winning. In Southeast Asia, leftist movements were supported by China and Russia, while the USA, whose mission was to stop the spread of communism, provided all conceivable support to the right. The result? Brutal civil wars.
The outcome of war
Vietnam was divided in half as Ho Chi Minh’s forces controlled the northern half and various U.S.-backed military leaders controlled the southern half. But the country was reunified in 1975 when North Vietnam and the socialist NLF forced the U.S. to leave the southern part of the country.
In Korea, a similar situation arose after a brutal civil war. The warring parties signed an armistice agreement in 1953, but hostilities have never ceased to occur and have continued into modern times.
Cambodia was drawn into conflict during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, when USA carried out massive bombings in the country. This led to a general hatred against USA, which gave the communist movement that had once been formed in resistance to the colonial power France, a strong boost. Its guerrilla soldiers were now called the “Khmer Rouge.”
In 1970, the popular King Sihanouk was deposed in a US-backed coup, and General Lon Nol took power. But in 1973, the USA launched a new bombing campaign, this time to stop the advance of the Khmer Rouge. The result was the opposite – supported by massive popular backing, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, captured the capital Phnom Penh in 1975. Almost immediately, a reign of terror began that forced the urban population out of the cities into the countryside. The Khmer Rouge began carrying out mass executions and torture. This, along with famine and diseases, took the lives of several million Cambodians.
Four years later, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia and Phnom Penh was liberated. The Khmer Rouge retreated to the border with Thailand and continued a guerrilla war for ten years before giving up. In 1993, democracy was introduced,
The situation today
Two countries were divided, but one of them was reunified. The third country, Cambodia, remained whole and today considers itself a democracy, although many, especially in the West, view it as somewhat of a sham democracy.
But all three were affected by violence and millions of casualties due to a conflict that was not really theirs, but what we today call a “proxy war.” The violence is fuelled and financed by great powers that want to expand their influence. But the violence is always fought at a safe distance from the great powers’ own territories.
