Cambodian campaign

BelligerentsSouth Vietnam
United States
State of Cambodia
ThailandNorth Vietnam
Viet Cong
Khmer Rouge
GRUNKCommanders and leadersII Corps
Lữ Mộng Lan
III Corps
Đỗ Cao Trí
IV Corps
Nguyễn Viết Thanh†
Trần Quang Khôi
Richard Nixon
Creighton W. Abrams
Lon Nol

Hoàng Minh Thảo

B2 Front
Phạm Hùng (political)
Hoàng Văn Thái (military)
Nuon Chea
Norodom SihanoukStrength 58,608
50,659 ~40,000Casualties and losses 638 killed
3,009 wounded
35 missing
338 killed
1,525 wounded
13 missing 11,369 killed
2,328 captured
(includes civilians according to a CIA official)

The Cambodian campaign (also known as the Cambodian incursion and the Cambodian liberation) was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia in mid-1970 by South Vietnam and the United States as an expansion of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War. Thirteen operations were conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) between April 29 and July 22 and by U.S. forces between May 1 and June 30, 1970.

The objective of the campaign was the defeat of the approximately 40,000 troops of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) in the eastern border regions of Cambodia. Cambodian neutrality and military weakness made its territory a safe zone where PAVN/VC forces could establish bases for operations across the border. With the US shifting toward a policy of Vietnamization and withdrawal, it sought to shore up the South Vietnamese government by eliminating the cross-border threat.

A change in the Cambodian government allowed an opportunity to destroy the bases in 1970, when Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed and replaced by pro-U.S. General Lon Nol. A series of South Vietnamese–Khmer Republic operations captured several towns, but the PAVN/VC military and political leadership narrowly escaped the cordon. The operation was partly a response to a PAVN offensive on March 29 against the Cambodian Army that captured large parts of eastern Cambodia in the wake of these operations. Allied military operations failed to eliminate many PAVN/VC troops or to capture their elusive headquarters, known as the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN) as they had left a month earlier, but the haul of captured materiel in Cambodia prompted claims of success.