# Rise of the Khmer Rouge

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rise-of-the-khmer-rouge/491282>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 30, 2009, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rise-of-the-khmer-rouge/491282 "2009-03-30T09:42:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/First_Amongst_Daves)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rise-of-the-khmer-rouge/491282/1 "2009-03-30T09:42:11Z")

</div>

With the talk about President Obama refusing to allow troops to chase Taleban across the Pakistani border, I’m reminded of a story I read somewhere years ago that bombing across the Cambodian border in the Vietnam War destabilised the Cambodian government and allowed the Khmer Rouge to seize the country.

Any views on this? (I figured GD was a better spot for ths topic than GQ.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rise-of-the-khmer-rouge/491282/2 "2009-03-30T17:04:06Z")

</div>

Short answer: no. It was a popular idea back in the day but not well justified by evidence.