South Vietnamese (ARVN) War in Cambodia (1970 -1973)

In 1970, President Nixon, Thieu, and Lon Nol authorized offensives to drive out the NLF (Viet Cong), PAVN, and Khmer Rouge out of Cambodian territory. The US made limited advances while the ARVN drove even deeper, making contact with the Cambodian Army (FANK). The US withdrew troops and added more B-52 bombing raids into the country well into 1973, when most US troops left. Under the US bombings in Cambodia, the FANK made gains with joint operations with ARVN forces, but not after getting 10 battalions decimated by PAVN and NLF forces. Gradually the fighting was given over to the Khmer Rouge when the PAVN and NLF focused more on their offensives from bases in Eastern Cambodia after 1972. According to a Soviet Government document, the North Vietnamese did come back to aid the Khmer Rouge one last time (when their leadership was skeptical over Khmer communist leadership) by giving them more weapons and supplies to take the capital Phenom Penn from the FANK. Despite what Western stu