Cambodia: Vietnamese Soldiers · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Chhay Vet blogging at Khmer440 remember the time immidiately after the fall of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The blogger has respect for the first batch of Vietnamese troops who helped end Khmer rouge rule. “The Vietnamese finally established their headquarters in the pagoda at the top of Phnom Sampheou but often they’d come down and eat noodles or drink tea at my mother’s stall. As I said before, the first troops – the assault soldiers – were very disciplined and were almost all from the North Vietnamese Army that had beaten the Americans but they moved on to fight the Khmer Rouge near Pailin. These were really tough guys and I remember one of them saying to me, ‘If they let us fight the Thai’s we’d be in Bangkok in a month.’ I believed him.”