McGovern's humanitarian intervention into Cambodia 1978

Just remembered reading in Samatha Powers' book A PROBLEM FROM HELL that George McGovern (ironically, given his leadership of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War & running on an anti-war platform during the 1972 election) proposed in 1978 a multilateral humanitarian intervention to remove the Khmer Rouge regime from Cambodia due to their horrendous genocidal atrocities against the Cambodian ppl, to be supported politically & militarily by the Carter admin. McGovern actually proposed a multinational intervention force comprising forces from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan & even Vietnam. Of course, the Carter admin criticised McGovern's proposal on the grounds that such multilateral military intervention was not "a live option", so that any attacks made by the US against the KR regime were exclusively in quite muted diplomatic language.

WI somehow McGovern's planned military intervention had in fact been implemented, with support from the US govt, sometime in 1978, before the Vietnamese launched their own unilateral invasion in Dec 1978/Jan 1979 after KR incusions ?
 
Seems to me that US "humanitarian" mission in Cambodia would be seen as US imperialism, raise the spectre of Vietnam, and bring condemnation in the UN. Its a very hard sell to convince people that its being done for pure and good reasons, not for US sphere of interest ones, and it even risks re-opening the conflict with Vietnam

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to kill the thread, I was just pointing out a problem that I imagine Carter had foremost in his mind

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
even without international condemnation, a US intervention in Cambodia would be a tough sell at home... this is much too soon after the end of the Vietnam War... the US was really in a deep and miserable funk at this time, and the desire to engage in foreign misadventures was very low...
 
Correct Dave, and If things go as per OTL in Iran, then ...
"President James Earl Carter became the 2nd President to resign from office in disgrace today. Vice President Walter F. Mondale will be sworn in as the nation's 40th President at noon tomorrow when Mr. Carter's resignation becomes effective."
 
What about simply sponsoring other countries? Hell, Vietnam did a pretty damn good job cleaning out the Khmer Rouge themselves. If Carter could get a few other countries involved, especially Thailand, the whole of SE Asia would look a lot nicer. They might even be able to wipe out Pol Pot once and for all, instead of letting him linger.
 
Top