Customer Reviews

Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War

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This book is undoubtedly one of the few "must have" books on Vietnam and Cambodia. The author has produced a very carefully argued and superbly researched analysis of the Vietnamese relationship with Cambodia and the Vietnamese relationships with the Soviet Union and China. It shows how our conventional thinking in terms of states only pursuing their national security or economic interests doesn't explain why the Vietnamese and the Khmers Rouges each provoked their larger neighbors (The Khmers Rouges provoked Vietnam and Vietnam provoked China). The idea that the weak can provoke the stronger goes against our "common sense" understanding of how states behave, but it obviously did happen in these cases. Morris also has a very good writing style (I even found the more abstract conceptual discussion in the introduction and conclusion quite easy to follow) and the narrative flows quite nicely. He has also introduced the concept of "hyperMaoism" to explain the outlook of the Khmers Rouges, which is something that I find quite insightful. His research in Soviet archives also brought forth some fascinating revelations, regarding how little the Vietnamese leadership knew and understood about the motives of the Khmers Rouges leaders. And the Soviet documents also bring completely new information on how Vietnam's relations with China broke down during the 1970s. I had read every book published on the Vietnamese communists and the Khmers Rouges, but this book has taught me a lot that I didn't know. The tone of the work is quite dispassionate, and its approach completely objective, as Morris tries to get inside the thinking of all of the parties to the conflict. Highly recommended.

A scholarly analysis of the history behind the 1978-89 Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia, followed by the author's brutally frank assessment of the consequences. As the author states, a final assessment is premature, but recent events do indeed cause the reader to wonder how long the Vietnamese will continue to be pleased with the tactics of its "clients". Readers will also want to review "Falling Out of Touch" by Goscha and Engelbert for another look at historical relations between the Vietnamese and Cambodian communists.

Steven Morris's work on this book is amazing. I have such a better understanding of the conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam from the early '70s to 1989. North Vietnam, China and the USSR are culpable regarding the victory of Pol Pot in 1975, and not American bombing as so many Stalinists try to claim. N. Vietnam had their eyes on Cambodia all along, but had to buy their time during the conflict with the U.S.

After so many years of digging through the Soviet archives, Mr. Morris forgot to double and triple check his supposedly 'facts' and got carried away with believing everything he read from the basements in Moscow.

The problem with Morris analysis is that it left out the Beijing angle. The Vietnam-Cambodian war was driven more from China than from Vietnam and the Soviet. The CCP has a lot of influence and control over this war which was barely accounted for in this book.

There's also another problem with an analysis based solely on ideological ground i.e. communist regime wages war because they can, because they are evil, warlike and undemocratic. Besides being not very useful in pedagogical terms, this of course left out the more important historical analysis that Vietnam and Cambodia has a long history of many small wars. And the Vietnam-Cambodian war could be viewed as an attempt to continue Vietnam's territorial expansion that began from the 17th century.

Mr. Morris assessments in the book should be read in light of his other 'hysterical' pronouncement of having found a document in Soviet archives showing that Hanoi had deceived on POWs. The timing of his finding was also perfectly coincide with an impending congressional vote on improving US-Vietnam relationship.

T.N.

After so many years of digging through the Soviet archives, Mr. Morris forgot to double and triple check his supposedly 'facts' and got carried away with believing everything he read from the basements in Moscow.

The problem with Morris analysis is that it left out the Beijing angle. The Vietnam-Cambodian war was driven more from China than from Vietnam and the Soviet. The CCP has a lot of influence and control over this war which was barely accounted for in this book.

There's also another problem with an analysis based solely on ideological ground i.e. communist regime wages war because they can, because they are evil, warlike and undemocratic. Besides being not very useful in pedagogical terms, this of course left out the more important historical analysis that Vietnam and Cambodia has a long history of many small wars. And the Vietnam-Cambodian war could be viewed as an attempt to continue Vietnam's territorial expansion that began from the 17th century.

Mr. Morris assessments in the book should be read in light of his other 'hysterical' pronouncement of having found a document in Soviet archives showing that Hanoi had deceived on POWs.

T.N.