Cambodia's relations with the United States and the People's Republic of China: |b The Cold War in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The study of Cambodian foreign policy is instructive in several ways. The history of Cambodia's relations with the United States and China illustrates the many problems confronted by both the Big Powers and the small neutrals in their inter-relations. Prince Norodom Sihanouk is for the Department of State an "enfant terrible," whose intentions, I believe, are misunderstood in Washington. Perhaps the failure of American policy in Cambodia, a genuine neutral, suggests misconceptions and misunderstandings underlying our relations with the neutrals, which today constitute the largest group of nation-states.