Ford, Carter and Cambodia: US foreign policy and the Khmer Rouge

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dc.check.date10000-01-01
dc.check.embargoformatBoth hard copy thesis and e-thesisen
dc.check.entireThesisEntire Thesis Restricted
dc.check.infoIndefiniteen
dc.check.opt-outYesen
dc.check.reasonThis thesis is due for publication or the author is actively seeking to publish this materialen
dc.contributor.advisorRyan, Daviden
dc.contributor.authorO'Donoghue, Barbara
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2016-01-06T12:54:11Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.date.submitted2015
dc.description.abstractThis thesis is an investigation into the US response to the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1974 and 1981. It argues that the US experience in the Vietnam War acted as a causal factor in the formulation of its Cambodian policy during the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. From taking power in April 1975 to their removal by the Vietnamese in January 1979, the Khmer Rouge initiated a revolution unrivalled in the 20th Century for its brutality and for the total eradication of modern society. This thesis demonstrates that the Ford administration viewed Cambodia only as it pertained to their strategy in Vietnam and, following US disengagement from Indochina all but ignored the atrocities occurring there as they instead pursued informal relations with the Khmer Rouge as a means of punishing the Vietnamese. The Carter administration formulated a foreign policy based on human rights yet failed to adequately address the genocide that occurred in Cambodia due to its temporal and regional proximity to Vietnam. Instead, this collective reluctance to reengage with the region and the resulting anti-Vietnamese attitude reinforced Brzezinski’s broader global strategy that allied the US with China in support of an independent Cambodia to further isolate Hanoi. Thus this thesis argues that the distorting impact of the Vietnam War, as well as global Cold War calculations, undermined any appreciation of the Cambodian conflict and caused both administrations to pursue policies in Cambodia that ultimately supported the Khmer Rouge regime. This project incorporates declassified material from the Ford and Carter Presidential Libraries, supplemented by the material from the National Archives and Library of Congress, and relevant newspapers and periodicals. It demonstrates that the limitations placed upon US foreign policy by their experience in the Vietnam War may be used to reveal unexplored elements in US-Cambodian relations.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationO'Donoghue, B. 2015. Ford, Carter and Cambodia: US foreign policy and the Khmer Rouge. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/2160
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2015, Barbara O'Donoghue.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectHistoryen
dc.subjectCambodiaen
dc.subjectKhmer Rougeen
dc.subjectUS foreign policyen
dc.subjectInternational relationsen
dc.subjectVietnam Waren
dc.thesis.opt-outtrue
dc.titleFord, Carter and Cambodia: US foreign policy and the Khmer Rougeen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Arts)en
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