Vietnam and Cambodia

Recent events in Cambodia, even if reports exaggerate the magnitude of killings and enslavement, are so terrible that a number of commentators have seized upon them to call into question the validity of opposition to the American role in Vietnam. The argument made by such writers is that South Vietnamese governments supported by the U.S. were no doubt corrupt and repressive, but never to the point of the present Cambodian government’s total regimentation and even, apparently, genocide; hence, they say, it was appropriate to support the anti-Communist South Vietnamese as a “lesser evil” whose victory would at least have prevented the horrors of Communist Cambodia. They also taunt opponents of the Vietnam war who had been outspoken in criticizing South Vietnamese repressions while failing to be equally outspoken about what is now happening in Cambodia.

We think the issues raised here are sufficiently important to warrant a discussion among those who...