Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 5.djvu/213

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011

militarily as well as from all other points of view. The creation of a separate Vietnamese Party will not therefore weaken the military cooperation between the three Nations in the fight they are waging against the imperialists. Later, however, if conditions permit, the three revolutionary Parties of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos will be able to unite to form a single Party: the Party of the Vietnam-Khmer-Laotian Federation." 99/

P. J. Honey stated in 1965 that one of the main requirements of DRV foreign policy was "to impose Communist Vietnamese rule over Laos and Cambodia," but noted that:

""It is open to debate whether this ambition for territorial aggrandisement springs from the expansionist nature of Communism, from the imperialist character of the Vietnamese people which has shown itself repeatedly through their history over the past millenium, or from the feeling that they had played the major role in driving out French colonial power and were therefore entitled to the fruits of their efforts. What emerges very clearly is that the actions of the Vietnamese Communists since 1951 are entirely consistent with the aim set out in the document [quoted above] ....

"North Vietnam shares a common frontier with Laos and undetermined numbers of North Vietnamese soldiers have been operating on Laotian territory for several years. Moreover, the nominal head of the Pathet Lao, Prince Souphanouvong, has spent more years in Vietnam than in Laos and is the husband of a senior Vietnamese Communist. For both reasons Laos presents her with the ideal circumstances for the pursuit of her expansionist aims. Additionally, the prosecution of the war in South Vietnam requires that men and supplies be infiltrated into that state, and eastern Laos provides the most secure and convenient route for such traffic ....

"Cambodia touches the territory of no Communist state and is, in consequence, not amenable to the same tactics as those employed in Laos . Instead, the Vietnamese Communist leaders have attempted to cement relations with the established, non-Communist government of Norodom Sihanouk in order to induce that government to create as many embarrassments and difficulties as possible for the rival Vietnamese regime in Saigon. By exploiting historic Cambodia antagonisms towards neighbouring Thailand and South Vietnam, they have achieved the rupture of diplomatic relations between Cambodia and these two states, but ... Norodom Sihanouk has reached the conclusion that China, not North Vietnam, will exercise the dominant influence over South East Asia in the years to come and has evinced a readiness to reach an accommodation with the Chinese, whose objectives do not necessarily coincide with those of the North Vietnamese at all points ... " 100/" Rh