Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia

One of the most horrifying but insightful books I've ever read. This titan of journalism delves into how an entire nation was used as a pawn in a power game, sadly that power game resulted in genocide that was ignored and tolerated with many of the regime remaining in positions of power and escaping prosecution. Having lived and worked in Cambodia and see foreigners ignorance of the situation - this would be one of the first books I'd recommend but it does need to be accompanied with a warning that it really will cause you to reevaluate things

Read this 25 years ago. Amazing book. This edition, which i bought for a friend, is a disgrace. It looks like a piece of photocopied sh1t bought on khao san road. Don't buy; get a decent, older second-hand edition.

This is far and away the best book on the Cambodian campaign waged by Nixon during the Vietnam War. It contains meticulous research, a wealth of data and some good insights. The appendix to the book, with Kissinger's rebuttal and the author's reply, are particularly useful.I would have given five stars but for the palpable political bias that transpires throughout the book. The author hates the guts of Nixon and Kissinger, and anything the U.S. ever did in this book is always inevitably wrong. This emotional approach detracts from the necessary detachment and cold blood I think is indispensable in any historical research work, especially when focussing on topics as controversial as this one.

Very good book. Shame on them,

... The world is diminished by the experience." William Shawcross concludes his excellent book with the previous succinct summation of his 400 plus page indictment of the policies and actions of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon in regards to Cambodia. Of particular interest is the 50 or so pages of additions at the end, regarding Kissinger's reaction to the book - there is no real rebuttal, or listing of factual errors, it is all classic Kissinger dissembling. Sadly, the book remains achingly relevant today: one of the prime reasons stated for the invasion was to "save the lives of American troops," the same rationale President Obama just used in refusing to release photos of prisoner abuse at Gitmo.In January, 1994 I walked through S-21, the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Aside from the caretakers, I was the only one there. The exhibits are mainly the haunting pictures of the torture victims. The nightmare of the Cambodian auto-genocide, in which a third of the population died within four years, was finally ended by the Vietnamese invasion in 1979. The agonizing question is why, in two countries with similar experiences in fighting a long war under the bombs, did this happen in Cambodia and not Vietnam. Shawcross gives some of the most likely reasons we'll ever have: "That summer's war provides a lasting image of peasant boys and girls, clad in black, moving slowly through the mud, half-crazed with terror, as fighter bombers tore down at them by day, and night after night whole seas of 750-pound bombs smashed all around (p 298). Even more telling, Shawcross latter says: "All wars are designed to arouse anger, and almost all soldiers are taught to hate and to dehumanize their enemy. Veterans of the combat zone are often possessed of a mad rage to destroy, and to avenge their fallen comrades. It does not always happen, however, that victorious armies have endured such punishment as was inflicted upon the Khmer Rouge. Nor does it always happen that such an immature and tiny force comes to power after its country's social order has been obliterated... then giving power to a little group of zealots sustained by Manichean fear." I remember some who thought of Cambodia, pre-war, as an idyllic paradise, with the priorities in the right place. The author wisely quoted a more cautionary note by quoting a French archaeologist, Bernard-Philippe Groslier: "beneath a carefree surface there slumber savage forces and disconcerting cruelties which may blaze up in outbreaks of passionate brutality."A much younger and more morally astute Christopher Hitchens wrote an excellent book entitled  The Trial of Henry Kissinger  But it is Shawcross who has compiled the most damning evidence. Kissinger cynically used journalists (who were often all too accommodating) while behind their backs was contemptuous of them. Cambodia was just one of the many pawns on his chessboard. Shawcross reminds the reader of Kissinger's rationale behind his belief that he had the right to overthrown the democratically elected government of Chile: "I don't see why a country should be allowed to go Communist through the irresponsibility of its own people." (p 304). One of the disappoint revelations that Shawcross makes is that Theodore White, whose "Making of the President" books I have always admired considered the invasion of Cambodia to be one of the two major achievements of Nixon's rule. (p 171).In the "Plus ca change..." category, on how history continues to repeat, consider that the author documents how it was John McCain's father, the Admiral who was Commander in Chief of Pacific forces would give energetic lectures about the "threats" to the United States that members of the press dubbed him the "Big Red Arrow Man." (p 136). General Abrams hyped, like Rumsfeld would a generation latter, that the Vietnamese communists had a headquarters that was a "reinforced concrete bunker, 29 feet underground, that housed about 5,000 officials and technicians. And recently Condi Rice defended George Bush with exactly the same rationale that Nixon told David Frost in an interview: "Well, when the President does it; that means that it is not illegal." (p 159). The "divine right" of Kings lives on!Overall, Shawcross has written the sine qua non of books on the Cambodia tragedy. It is hard to be `judicious and balanced" when confronted with these events, but the author does provide the essential, measured account. A vital read, for then, and now.(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on May 27, 2009)

This is a superb account of how US escalation of the Vietnam conflict led to the destruction of Cambodia and how the extent of US cross-border bombing was illegally concealed by the Nixon administration. It is remarkable that practically all of the heavyweight histories of the Vietnam war make little mention of this aspect of the conflict.In addition to extensively referenced details of the history, the appendices to the book contain numerous literary critiques of 'Sideshow' that appeared in the popular press. These make fascinating reading and several defensive pieces originating from those close to Kissinger, together with the author's refutation, read like the closing arguments from high-court barristers.For a coherent and comprehensive guide to a much neglected aspect and rather shameful episode in the US involvement in Indochina, read this book.

As this is a rather large publication it will take time to read so jumping in now with a review is a little premature. The era holds a great deal of interest for me and am looking forward to completing it

If you have an interest in the Vietnam War and the Kmer Rouge with the USA involvement then this is the only book you need to read