Touching images of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers helping Cambodia escape genocide
VTC news•June 5, 2019 11:23
After 40 years, the memory of victory as well as the image of Vietnamese soldiers in the fight against the Khmer Rouge is still clear in the minds of Cambodian people.
Forty years ago, in exercising their legitimate right to defend the nation, the Vietnamese army and people along the southwestern border stood up and fought against the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime to defend national independence and protect the border, and also to help the Cambodian people overthrow the brutal Khmer Rouge, entering a new era of peace, harmony and national development.
The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot's leadership launched numerous attacks on Vietnamese territory from mid-1975, killing tens of thousands of civilians and burning down many villages. In this photo, Khmer Rouge gunmen enter the capital Phnom Penh in April 1975.
After launching a counter-offensive campaign to protect the southwestern border, in January 1979, Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and armed forces of the Cambodian United Front for National Salvation entered to liberate the capital Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge regime. In the photo, Vietnamese volunteer soldiers patrol the streets of Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979.
Vietnamese volunteer soldiers played an important role in building, training and supporting the Cambodian revolutionary forces to liberate the country from the Pol Pot genocide. "Vietnamese volunteer soldiers were always at the front line, supporting Cambodian soldiers in fighting," said Sin Khin, who fought alongside Vietnamese soldiers against the Khmer Rouge.
People in Ratanakiri, northeastern Cambodia welcome Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and Cambodian revolutionary armed forces in 1979.
The Khmer Rouge turned a high school into the infamous S-21 prison, where 17,000 people were imprisoned and tortured. After the liberation of Phnom Penh, Vietnamese troops arrived at the prison and took the surviving children to the hospital.
Vietnamese and Cambodian female soldiers chat for a moment.
Vietnamese volunteer soldiers continued to stay in Cambodia to support the new government in fighting against Khmer Rouge remnants. In this photo, a Cambodian soldier (left) and two Vietnamese volunteer soldiers outside Angkor Wat temple in 1982. (Photo: VNA)
A Cambodian woman in Xang Ke, Battambang province, gives flowers to a Vietnamese volunteer soldier before he left Cambodia to return home in the early 1980s. Photo VNA/VNS
Cambodian people bid farewell to Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Photo: VNA
Vietnamese soldiers protect the southwestern border. Photo: VNA
After 1986, realizing that the new Cambodian government could stand on its own, Vietnam gradually withdrew its troops and by 1989 had withdrawn all its forces.
Cambodian people stood on the side of the road to shake hands and thank Vietnamese soldiers as the troops departed for home.
Farewell ceremony for Vietnamese volunteer soldiers in Phnom Penh in 1989.
Vietnamese tank soldiers wave to Cambodian people standing on both sides of the road before withdrawing their troops in 1989.
Memorial Monument of the Cambodian 125th Brigade (Long Giao Commune, Cam My, Dong Nai), a place to commemorate the friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Cambodia in the victory over Pol Pot. Photo: Xuan Khu/VNA
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