Time to Remember

EVERY FEW YEARS or so, images of the horrible story of modern Cambodia seep into Western conciousness, only to give way after a while to the ongoing concerns of the day. But for the people of Cambodia, the nightmare is never-ending. First there was the murderous U.S. "sideshow" to the Vietnam War that took the form of B-52 raids on innocent civilians in the early 1970s. When the U.S. left Indochina in 1975, the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot took over and instituted a bloodbath in the name of one of the most insane ideologies to come to the face of the earth. And their bloody rule gave way in 1978 to that of the Vietnamese, who are determined to fight "to the last Cambodian" to realize their long-sought aim of dominion over all of Indochina. The continual fighting has given rise to one of the most acute famines of modern times, has created a permanent presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border, and has sent a veritable diaspora of displaced Cambodians out into the world.

Events of the winter have conspired once again to bring the plight of the Cambodians to Western attention. Here at home, a new movie. "The Killing Fields," tells the harrowing story of the friendship between New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant, Dith Pran, who was separated from his friend when the country fell in 1975 and who through his wits and luck survived through the three bloody years of Khmer Rouge rule that ensued.

And around the world a new outbreak of battles shows that the anguish so brilliantly depicted by the movie's makers continues to haunt Cambodia. This winter, as they have in each "dry season" since they invaded the country six years ago, the Vietnamese have launched an offensive aimed at wiping out the various Khmer rebel groups that continue to resist the puppet government they installed. The fighting was reported to have been particularly bloody this time, as the Vietnamese destroyed one of the rebels' main bases and pursued the insurgents over the border into Thailand.

Despite the Vietnamese onslaught, though, signs of an end to the fighting are nowhere to be seen, as the Cambodian people remain caught in a complex web of ages-old feuding and geopolitical intrigue. Inside the country, the fighting is at a standstill, analysts believe, as the leading non-communist group, the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (now at about 15,000 guerrillas) gains in strength, while the reviled Khmer Rouge, with its 30,000 fighters, continues to harass the Vietnamese occupiers.

This is the backdrop that provides the Cambodian people, and the world community, with a plethora of paradoxes. The two most important goals--getting rid of the Vietnamese and destroying the Khmer Rouge, militarily the strongest of the resistance groups--are mutually incompatible. There is not much any outside observer can do to help out the situation, but the United States refuses to do what little is possible to ameliorate things.

The easiest thing we could do would be to provide arms to the non-communist group struggling against the Vietnamese under the direction of former Cambodian premier Son Sann. He has made numerous--and so far unsuccessful--trips to the United States to raise support for his entirely worthwhile cause. Not only would such a move make sense morally, it would make sense strategically, because it would give Son Sann's group greater leverage in its marriage of convenience with the Khmer Rouge and former head of state, Prince Sihanouk. Given the Administration's rhetoric about fighting communism, it is hard to see why they won't take this simple step.

The Administration should also match its military option with diplomatic maneuvering to take advantage of its new-found friendship with the Chinese, who ought to be persuaded to drop their support of the Khmer Rouge, a product of their long-standing, virulent hatred of the Vietnamese. Such a move could lead to a new effort at rapprochement with the Vietnamese. They are being bled white by their costly occupation of Cambodia and would likely welcome the chance, on the right terms, to loosen the stranglehold presented by the increasing Soviet military presense in their country. The first step in this diplomatic offensive could be a move to drop recognition at the United Nations for the resistance forces, until they drop the Khmer Rouge, in favor of recognizing no government--a move which could be viewed as conciliatory by the Vietnamese.

No one should be under any illusions that such a policy will likely bring success. The Chinese-Vietnamese enmity may well be too bitter for either to allow the other to save face. The Vietnamese may be too arrogant to agree on reasonable terms with the United States. In the same way, the American bipolar view of the world could blind us to the possibility that the Vietnamese might be amenable to an agreement. And if no way can be found to minimize the influence of the Khmer Rouge forces, it seems to make little sense to ask the Vietnamese troops to leave. The best we could probably hope for under such a policy would be to have the Vietnamese leave the country with a government friendly to them in their place. The more likely result is continual stalemate in the country.

But at least we would be doing what little we could to encourage the Cambodian peoples' self-determination. As the bombs continue to fly in that country, and as the story of Dith Pran is recounted on movie screens across the country, that does not seem like too much to ask. Will it take another calamity to force Cambodia into our conciousness once again?