How Did Sihanouk's Involvement In Vietnam

In 1954 at the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was divided into two, North and South Vietnam. One year later, the Vietnam War began and was fought between North Vietnam- communist allies and South Vietnam- anti-communist allies. Vietnamese Communist forces occupied northeastern Cambodia. Cambodia had proclaimed neutral since 1955, but the Communists used Cambodian soil as a base. Prince Norodom Sihanouk tolerated the presence of the Communists, so wider conflict could be avoided. In 1969, Sihanouk changed his policy and Vietnamese Communists were no longer welcome. In response to the change of Sihanouk’s policy, the South Vietnamese Communist command center had moved to Cambodia to avoid destruction, wherein President Nixon took the opportunity
Due to the invasion, Cambodians saw their countryside being destroyed by a Vietnamese war in which neither side respected Cambodian territory (Welting, Matthew S). The bombs dropped by the United States and South Vietnam killed 150,000 to 500,000 Cambodian civilians. As the invasion moved westward, Vietnamese Communist troops occupied more and more Cambodian land and villages. By the end of May many villages were destroyed. Thousands of Cambodian troops died in the effort to push the Vietnamese out of Cambodia (Welting, Matthew S). These losses, combined with the United States and South Vietnamese invasions, ignited anti-Vietnamese hatred among Khmer people in Phnom Penh (Welting, Matthew S). The United States and South Vietnam bombing of Cambodian civilians spurred thousands of Cambodians to fight for the Communists against Lon Nol’s pro-American government (Welting, Matthew
In regards to the announcement that Nixon made about the United States and South Vietnamese troops invading Cambodia “resulted in a firestorm of protests and gave the antiwar movement a new rallying point”. Across the nation college students increased their anti war protests with marches, rallies, and other incidents of violence. About 400 schools were affected by strikes and more than 200 colleges and universities closed completely. The protests resulted in deaths at Kent State University and later at Jackson State in