On the present date of January 7, 2009; the nation of Cambodia celebrated its 30th anniversary of freedom from the Khmer Rouge. While many people have their doubts since Vietnam invaded Cambodia and helped the National United Front for National Salvation, it was inevitable [the invasion] since the Western Countries did nothing to stop the genocide.

For those who wanted to know about the genocide in Cambodia, the following information is provided. Cambodia was governed by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot from the 17th of April 1975 to the 7th of January 1979. During this time while the West danced its way to the disco era, people were dying in Cambodia. The same West and United Nations that promised that genocide would never happen.

It is weird that the Western Countries talked about human rights but did nothing to stop the slaughter of two million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge. People died on the journey from cities to countryside while others starved to death. Who cannot forget the Tuol Sleng prison where the majority of the 15,000 people housed in what was a former school died by bludgeoning? The nation of Cambodia also suffered from cultural genocide as centuries of culture and history was destroyed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

It was a miracle that the sacred building of the people of Cambodia Angkor Wat was not destroyed. According to reports from people I knew who were able to escape from Cambodia, the National Library and the National Television Station was destroyed by dynamites and bombs. Vietnam also suffered from constant incursions into its territory by the Khmer Rouge including the killing of people in border towns.

Vietnam attempted to dialogue with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge during their period of power but the attempts resulted fruitless. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge continued to violate Vietnamese Territory. Finally, the patience of Vietnam and the increasing genocide was too much to bear. On December 1978, Vietnam and the National United Front for National Salvation invaded Cambodia and were able to capture the then ghost town of Phnom Penh on the 7th of January 1979.

I was able to listen to the news of the war between Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge by shortwave radio. I would listen to China Radio International and the Voice of Vietnam [as well as Radio Phnom Penh] for whatever information]. The only thing that I heard from Radio Phnom Penh was a recorded message from Pol Pot until the arrival of the Vietnamese and the National United Front for National Salvation at the city.

The road to reconstruction [including the occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam] was never going to be easy. The nation of Cambodia still had to undergo many years of war before peace took hold in 1993. Regardless of what ocurred, the act of doing nothing would have left the world without Cambodia and its rich culture.