Cambodian-Vietnamese Relations
CAMBODIAN-VIETNAMESE RELATIONS Joseph R. Pouvatchy Few states in the world have a foreign policy that for decades, even centuries, has been simpler or more uniform than that of Cambodia. Its foreign relations have always been typified by its relationship with neighboring Vietnam, and to a lesser degree with Thailand. Thus, since Cambodia's independence in 1953 and up to 1978–79, all of Phnom Penh's governments have turned alternately toward Paris or Washington. Moscow or Beijing have been concerned only with the relationships of these capitals with Vietnam. Here we see how the more things change, the more they stay the same: whatever the regime in place in Phnom Penh or across the border in Vietnam—be it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) in Hanoi, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam in Saigon, or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam—Khmer-Vietnamese relations have always consisted of attempts to settle the problem of Cambodia...