Kissinger, China, Congress, and the lost chance for peace in Cambodia

Abstract

Henry Kissinger has been persistent in his claim that Congress's failure to adequately supply South Vietnam was the ultimate cause of its collapse in 1975 - a claim many historians dispute. An incident that has received less attention is the role of the congressionally-imposed bombing halt in Cambodia in terminating a potential negotiated settlement of that country's civil war in the summer of 1973. This article demonstrates that in this case Kissinger's claims are not without foundation, and that although the conclusions are tentative without the full Chinese record, the evidence suggests that the 'Eagleton amendment' terminating U.S. military operations in Cambodia fatally undermined Chinese efforts to negotiate the removal of Lon Nol as Cambodian head of state and the establishment of a coalition government involving the Khmer Rouge but with Sihanouk at its head