Why did Communist Vietnam invade Communist Cambodia？ (Animated History Documentary)

The Cold War is often presented as two near-unified blocs competing against each other for global dominance – the democratic capitalist world on the one hand and the communist world on the other. And whilst we all know that the nations within them didn't always get along, open warfare between members of those blocs was rare. One notable example of this is when communist Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of its communist neighbour Cambodia, in spite of Cambodia's help during its war against America. So what exactly led to this? Why did Vietnam invade its neighbour, former ally and co-revolutionary, and what did it want to achieve? So as you'll know, Vietnam spent the 1960s divided into two halves, the North being communist and the South being capitalist. These two were supposed to remain distinct nations, but it wasn't long before fighting erupted, America got involved, and so, Vietnam War. Whilst this was ongoing, neighbouring Cambodia was also embroiled in a civil war in which both communist governments aided the other where they could. North Vietnam eventually conquered the South as the Americans were leaving, and unified the country under communist rule. About two weeks before the Northern Vietnamese victory over the South, Pol Pot had put an end to the Khmer Republic and established a communist government in Cambodia, which was renamed to Democratic Kampuchea, whose government is better known as the Khmer Rouge. So initially, these two governments celebrated their neighbours' success, and roughly four seconds later went back to hating each other. Why? Well, there were two main reasons for this animosity. The first was that Vietnam had historically invaded and subjugated Cambodia, which people there remembered. And even during the communist insurrection against the French, the resistance was dominated by the Vietnamese, which led to some resentment. The second reason was Cold War politics. As you'll know, China and the USSR had previously had a falling out, and whilst Vietnam had been supported in its war primarily by the USSR, the Khmer Rouge had received most of its support from China. As a result, the two were worried about being victims of invasion by the other if things got heated. So, after taking power, Pol Pot wanted to reset Cambodian society. This meant that it was time to purge everyone who potentially could have opposed him or communist rule. He targeted, and I use the term very lightly, former political and military leaders, religious minorities, ethnic minorities, and this purge would soon be known as the Cambodian Genocide. Because within a four year period, it saw the untimely end of about a quarter of Cambodia's pre-Pol Pot population. As a part of this purge, and in order to shore up his popularity, Pol Pot called upon Cambodians to resist the Vietnamese, whom he claimed were planning on conquering the country. By 1978, thanks to help from China, Cambodia's military had grown in strength. And so, it launched border raids into Vietnam with the hope of bullying them into submission. And to the surprise of exactly one person, this didn't work. Pol Pot decided that this failure wasn't down to him invading a much stronger neighbour, but was in fact down to betrayal. And so, it was obviously time for another purge, this time of the army and the government again. And some of those who were targeted fled to Vietnam. And not long after this, their new protectors, with its much stronger military, launched an invasion to remove Pol Pot. The reason being to establish a neighbouring government that was both more friendly and much less mass murdery. The invasion didn't take very long, and Pol Pot's government collapsed in about two weeks, and Vietnam then installed a puppet government. The Vietnamese were seen as both liberators and invaders by the Cambodians. And given how objectively dreadful Pol Pot was, the international community saw the Vietnamese invasion largely as a humanitarian one. Vietnam had hoped to leverage this with the hope of obtaining international recognition for Cambodia's new government. However, this didn't happen because China was worried about Vietnam conquering former French Indochina, which would then place a powerful Soviet ally on their southern border. And the West opposed it for two reasons. The first being that watching communist governments fight each other was always hilarious, and two, it would require them to acknowledge that Hanoi's communist government had done a good thing, which obviously wasn't going to happen. After a decade of fighting against guerrilla resistance, the Cold War was coming to a close. And so, Vietnam announced that it was going to leave Cambodia. And the Cambodian government agreed that it would reform under the supervision of the United Nations. A peace treaty was agreed, some of the nation's former politicians were allowed to return, Cambodia restored its monarchy, and reformed itself into the modern nation of Cambodia which still exists to this day. I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my Patrons, James Bizonette, Skye Chappell, Katoitska, Yudhwan Wang, Wyan Hockey, Anthony Beckett, Blue Cardinal, Alex Schwinn, AF Firefly, Spencer Lightfoot, Captain Psydog, The McWhopper, The Flying Deutschland, Gustav Swann, Robert C. Perkins, Shuenin, Michael Holbert, Castle Bravo, Marvin Casal, Winston K. Wood, Rod D. Martin, Spinning Three Plates, Andy McGeehy, Camoon Nguyen, Danny Atanasio, Mirza Ahmed, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, HE from Stav Hav, Arthur Hosey Jr, Kalitro, Remco Hoisman, Jim Struenberg, Bet Kabot, Charles I and Lord Beak.