Read more
This provocative analysis of U.S. relations with Cambodia from the 1950s to the present illuminates foreign policy issues that remain especially pertinent in the aftermath of the Cold War, as we attempt to formulate new approaches to a changed but still threatening international situation. Based on interviews with more than 100 diplomats, journalists, and scholars who have been involved with the Cambodian peace process, Michael Haas' book brings to light new information on a complex chain of events and casts doubt on official accounts of U.S. policies toward Cambodia.
Haas sorts through the tangle of misinformation, anti-communist hysteria, secret operations, and other policy miscalculations that he contends were instrumental in defeating the unaligned government of Prince Sihanouk and setting the stage for the Khmer Rouge takeover and massive slaughter in Cambodia. He examines the strategic assumptions underlying U.S. efforts to sustain the Khmer Rouge after its defeat by Vietnam in 1979, and the unraveling of that policy when the unilateral withdrawal of Vietnamese troops eliminated any reasonable justification for it. Haas attributes U.S. failures in Cambodia to a combination of the idealistic desire to remake the world in a democratic image, a belief in U.S. omnipotence, and the realpolitik tradition of using power to advance U.S. commercial and security interests whenever they seem to be threatened. Through the method of options analysis, Haas proposes a model of international relations based on self-determination and democratic principles. Urging reflection on the lessons of Cambodia as policies are developed for the 1990s, this book will be important reading for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and academics with an interest in foreign policy analysis and conflict resolution, communism, and Southeast Asia.
List of contents
Preface
Creating the Khmer RougeThe U.S. Role in Elevating Pol Pot to Power
The Mythology of U.S. Policy toward Cambodia
Sustaining the Khmer RougeScenarios for Cambodia in the Early 1980s
The U.S. Role in Preserving Pol Pot
Marginalizing the Khmer RougeScenarios for Cambodia in the 1990s
A Campaign to Oppose the Return of the Khmer Rouge
Beyond CambodiaToward a New US Foreign Policy
Appendix: Options Analysis
References
Index
About the author
MICHAEL HAAS, Professor of Political Science at the Univeristy of Hawaii at Manoa for 34 years, took early retirement in 1998 to devote full time to writing and research./e Since his first trip to Asia in 1971, he has visited nearly every country in the region, serving in temporary appointments in Bangkok, Manila, and Singapore. He is the author of more than 200 publications, including 20 books.
