United States' secret war

Towards the end of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia.  The secret war started with a massive bombing campaign followed by tens of thousands of troops. It was an illegal war because the US did not get Congressional approval like it did later for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The purpose of the early blanket bombing campaign was to stop the supply routes of the Vietcong enemy. More tons of bombs fell in Cambodia and Vietnam during this period than all of the bombs used by the US in World War II against Germany and Japan.  Militarily it was a failure.

Before I left for Cambodia, a friend said that I would be very impressed by the beauty of the country. When I asked when he had traveled there, he said that he was deployed in Cambodia during the 1970s. He said that soldiers traveled deep into the country and could visit pretty much anywhere in Cambodia.