Sihanouk Trail

Sihanouk Trail
Cambodia
Cambodia
Type	Logistical route
Site information
Controlled by	People's Army of Vietnam
Site history
Built	1965–1966
In use	1966–1975
Battles/wars	Operation Menu Cambodian Incursion Operation Patio Operation Freedom Deal
Garrison information
Garrison	3,000–10,000

The Sihanouk Trail was a logistical supply system in Cambodia used by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and its National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) allies during the Vietnam War (1960–1975). Between 1966 and 1970, this system operated in the same manner and served the same purposes as the much better known Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese) which ran through the southeastern portion of the Kingdom of Laos. The name is of American derivation, since the North Vietnamese considered the system integral to the supply route mentioned above. U.S. attempts to interdict this system began in 1969.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk had ruled Cambodia adeptly since he had wrested independence from the French on 9 November 1953. He had accomplished this task by deft political maneuvering between both the left and the right to achieve what no other ruler or political group in Indochina had managed, a relatively bloodless transition to independence. During the next ten years, while the conflicts in neighboring Laos and South Vietnam heated up, Sihanouk managed to sustain his delicate domestic political balance while at the same time maintaining his nation's neutrality (guaranteed by the 1954 Geneva Conference that ended the First Indochina War).

This was no small accomplishment considering that Cambodia was wedged between its perennial enemies: Thailand to the west and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) to the east, both of whom were increasingly supported by the United States (U.S)

Sihanouk came to believe that communist triumph in Southeast Asia was inevitable and that Cambodia's military was incapable of defeating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), even with U.S. support. If Cambodia (and his rule) was to survive, he would have to make a bargain with the devil. On 10 April 1965 he broke off diplomatic relations with the U.S. and swung politically to the left. To gain foreign support, both economic and political, Sihanouk turned to the People's Republic of China. One of the terms of the agreement between Sihanouk and Premier Zhou Enlai was that Cambodia would allow the use of its eastern border by the North Vietnamese in their effort to reunify the two Vietnams.

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Wikipedia