On Christmas Day 40 years ago, 150,000 Vietnamese troops crossed the border into Cambodia to drive the murderous Khmer Rouge regime from power.
It's January 1979 and Vietnamese forces have invaded their Western neighbor, Cambodia, interrupting the plans of the violent Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge. The international community reacts negatively, condemning them for aggression toward their neighbor. But should this event have been considered an invasion? Or was it a liberation of the Cambodian people?
On one hand, the Vietnamese entry into Cambodia helped stopped the devastating massacres by the Khmer Rouge under leader Pol Pot. On the other hand, this Cambodian-Vietnamese War was more than just a battle to end Pol Pot's wrath. The Vietnamese involvement came from a combination of different factors, including their desire to defend disputed territory and to stop attacks at their borders. Perhaps neither term, invasion or liberation, can completely explain the complex reality of this war.
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