ABSTRACT
Cambodia represents an opportunity to achieve "the first liberation" of any country from communism. This chapter presents an alternative scenario to that which is usually presumed. Namely, the possibility of a "solution" to the Cambodian problem that stems from the North rather than the West, from a detente between Hanoi and Beijing rather than the current de facto collaboration in Thailand of Beijing and Washington. The possibility of mutual concessions can be considered under: ideological, economic, military, and geopolitical. The coalition's military strategy must be a commitment to attrition in which will success stem from other pressures as well — the international and domestic costs for Vietnam and popular opposition in Cambodia. The factor that upset Vietnam's balancing act was Cambodia. Pol Pot was lavishly welcomed in Beijing in September 1977, while a Khmer Rouge mass raid took place secretly over the Vietnam border.
