Victory of self-defense and friendship

Having fulfilled their duty to help their friends, the Vietnamese volunteer army withdrew to the farewell and regret of the Cambodian people.

Immediately after the South was completely liberated, successfully ending the resistance war against the US to save the country (April 30, 1975), our country had to deal with the invasion war from the Southwest by the genocidal Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime at the border.

The country entered a new war.

From May 1975 to June 1978, Pol Pot's army continuously carried out hundreds of armed invasions along the entire southwestern border. The peak was when they mobilized dozens of main force divisions to deploy along the border and boldly used battalion and regiment levels to attack deep into our country's territory, killing, burning, and committing many crimes against our people.

Specifically, on May 1, 1975, Pol Pot sent troops to invade many places in Vietnam's territory from Ha Tien to Tay Ninh ; then they sent troops to occupy Tho Chu island, shot and killed many people and captured 515 others.

After the above serious aggressions, the Party and State of Vietnam always expressed their wish that Vietnam and Cambodia negotiate and sign a border treaty between the two countries in the spirit of respecting each other's independence, sovereignty , and territorial integrity, continuing solidarity and strengthening brotherhood between the people of the two countries.

However, due to their extreme nationalist nature, the Pol Pot group rejected it and, with the support of foreign powers, continued to carry out many hostile actions against Vietnam. In just the last few months of 1975 and early 1976, the Pol Pot army continuously committed more than 250 territorial violations, robbed rice, buffaloes, and cows, and killed many Vietnamese people.

In early 1977, Pol Pot's army launched another attack on our border posts in Bu Prang (Dak Lak), Mo Vet area ( Long An ) and some places in Tay Ninh, Dong Thap, and An Giang .

The most serious was from April 30 to May 19, 1977, Pol Pot's army used a division-sized force to attack Vietnam along the entire border of An Giang province, killing 222 people, injuring 614 people, capturing 10 people, burning 552 houses, stealing 134 tons of rice, destroying hundreds of hectares of rice ready for harvest; looting many people's properties...

In June 1977, the Pol Pot group issued a resolution considering Vietnam "the number one enemy, the eternal enemy" of Cambodia and from here, they brazenly expanded the conflict into a war of aggression against Vietnam.

In the last months of 1977, Pol Pot's army launched many major attacks on the border from Kien Giang to Tay Ninh. In Tan Lap commune (Tan Bien district, Tay Ninh province) alone, on September 25, 1977, Pol Pot's army burned down 400 houses, killing more than 1,000 civilians.

After our army launched a punitive attack on the invasion along the entire border, pushing their troops back across the border, on December 31, 1977, the Pol Pot group unilaterally announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

From here, they openly spread propaganda to slander Vietnam, considering Vietnam a threat to Cambodia, linking the process of betraying and invading Vietnam with the purges of legitimate forces.

domestic.

They rapidly built more combat divisions, and at the same time mobilized 13/18 infantry divisions close to the Vietnamese border, conducting provocations, explorations, and preparing for new invasions. In the first months of 1978, Pol Pot used 5 main divisions and 5 local regiments, with artillery support, to take turns attacking deep into Vietnamese territory.

In particular, in Ba Chuc commune (Tri Ton district, An Giang province), 7km from the Vietnam-Cambodia border, on April 18, 1977, Pol Pot's army forced people into a pagoda, then shot and killed them in extremely barbaric acts, killing 3,157 people, mostly the elderly, women and children, including more than 100 families whose entire family was killed.

From May 1975 to July 1978, Pol Pot's army killed more than 5,000 Vietnamese civilians, injured nearly 5,000 people, captured and abducted more than 20,000 people; hundreds of schools, hospitals, medical facilities, churches, pagodas were burned down, buffaloes and cows were robbed and killed, crops were destroyed; tens of thousands of hectares of land and rubber plantations in the southwestern border region of Vietnam were abandoned; approximately 500,000 Vietnamese people who had long lived in the border region with Cambodia had to leave their homes, land, and fields to flee deep into the interior to seek refuge.

Forty years after the Vietnamese Volunteer Army and Cambodian people overthrew the Pol Pot genocidal regime, on November 16, 2018, the International Special Court tried the crimes of this regime in Cambodia. Accordingly, Nuon Chea (92 years old) and Khieu Samphan (87 years old) received life sentences for the crimes they committed against the Vietnamese and Cambodian people during the period 1975-1979. This is not only the almost final verdict on the crimes against humanity of the Pol Pot regime but also affirms Vietnam's just fight on Cambodian territory.

Exercise the right of self-defense

In response to the Pol Pot group's war of aggression, on May 23, 1977, the Central Military Commission issued a directive to military regions and provinces in the South to exercise their legitimate right to self-defense, resolutely fight to prevent and repel, defeat all invasion plots and tricks, and resolutely protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Fatherland.

Following the direction of the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff, Military Region 9 launched a counter-attack campaign from April 5-25, 1978, pushing Pol Pot's troops back across the border and restoring areas occupied by the enemy. In the direction of Military Region 7, from April 6-9, 1978, we counter-attacked and pushed the enemy out of the Loc Hoa area and Highway 13B, then developed the fight to capture the high points: 82, 102, 100, 94, 95, 107, 117.

Based on the situation between us and the enemy, on May 26, 1978, the Politburo and the Central Military Commission met and decided to resolutely counterattack and actively and continuously attack the enemy with all forces, assigning the task to the provinces to mobilize human resources, assets, and means of transport to serve the war.

Then, in early December 1978, the Politburo and the Central Military Commission approved the determination to launch a general counter-offensive and strategic offensive to destroy Pol Pot's army along the entire border, while being ready to support the revolutionary armed forces and the Cambodian people in their uprising.

On December 24, 1978, the 4th Army Corps and some units of Military Region 7 were ordered to counterattack the enemy in the Ben Soi area (Tay Ninh), starting a general counterattack and offensive along the entire border. After several days of fighting, on December 28, 1978, we launched a decisive offensive to destroy and capture all enemy troops.

Meanwhile, the armed forces of Military Region 9 with Division 330 took the lead in counterattacking the enemy in the areas of Go Ruoi, Go Viet Thuoc, Go Chau Giang, and Duc Go Suong, chasing the enemy back across the border; at the same time, stepping up counterattacks, restoring the entire areas of Roc Xay, north of Ha Tien.

In the direction of Gia Lai and Kon Tum, from December 28-30, 1978, Military Region 5 coordinated with Army Corps 3 and Army Corps 4 to basically complete the task of fighting the enemy's encroachment, reclaiming land, and urgently preparing to switch to pursuing the enemy at the request of friends.

On December 31, 1978, the 2nd Corps and Military Region 9 opened fire on the enemy in the Vinh Te Canal area, completely liberating the last part of the Fatherland occupied by the enemy. Following that, in response to the urgent call of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, under the direction of the Politburo and the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense organized troops to coordinate with the Cambodian revolutionary armed forces to launch an attack to liberate the capital Phnom Penh.

Five days later, on January 7, 1979, the capital Phnom Penh was completely liberated. Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and Cambodian armed forces continued to attack and liberate the remaining provinces, saving the Cambodian people from genocide.

Meaning

The victory of the counter-offensive war to protect the southwestern border marked a timely and flexible transformation in the art of warfare of our army.

From the initial passivity in terms of combat targets, battle formations and border defense force arrangements, we promptly learned from experience, were proactive, flexible, and quickly transformed from primarily defensive operations, gradually shifting to counter-offensive operations, moving towards general counter-attacks and strategic offensives to largely destroy enemy forces and win victories.

The victory of the counterattack to protect the southwestern border also means that we proactively exercised our legitimate right to self-defense, we fought back and pushed the invaders out of our country. It is a victory of the noble international spirit of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought, and of the tradition of building and defending the country for thousands of years of our people.

On January 7th this year, it is exactly 45 years since the war ended. We have had 45 years of living in peace, freedom, independence and happiness. We cherish and are grateful and have special feelings to show our gratitude to those who have fallen, those who have left behind a part of their bodies and youth in the fight against the genocidal regime of Pol Pot.

It is also a moment for the people of the two countries to realize the great value of peace as well as the friendly and cooperative relationship in the spirit of respecting each other's independence, autonomy and territorial sovereignty between Vietnam and Cambodia.

The genocide in Cambodia from 1975 to early 1979 was an unprecedented phenomenon in modern Southeast Asia. Comparison before and after shows: The Holocaust by Nazi Germany in 4 years (1941-1945) killed about 5 million Jews out of a total of more than 7 million people (accounting for 60-75% of the Jewish population in Europe); the genocide by the Pol Pot regime, which was in power for only 3 years, 8 months and 20 days (1975-1979), killed more than 2 million Cambodians (equivalent to 25% of the country's population).

HOANG KHAI

(According to military documents)

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