Phnom Penh, Feb. 5 (FN) -- The US foreign policy is simple: you obey to Washington, you are a good guy; you try to remain independent, you are a bad guy and the US duty is to overthrow you. The regime change is achieved by wars (Serbia, Irak, …) or through organized “spontaneous” revolutions. On behalf of democracy and human rights, indeed (like in Ukraine, Honduras, …). Today, like before 1970, US politicians don’t like those who rule Cambodia. And they want to impose a regime change in favor of local clients. So they try as they did in 1970.

John Sydney McCain II and III, played a significant role in the expansion of U.S. involvement in Cambodia.

During the Vietnam war, the father, John Sidney McCain II, as admiral, was appointed by President Johnson Commander-in-Chief Pacific Command (CINCPAC) and commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theatre from 1968 to 1972. He was a stalwart supporter of President Nixon’s  policy towards Cambodia. McCain II played an important part in the militarization of U.S. policy towards Cambodia, helping to convince Nixon and Kissinger to launch the 1970 Cambodian invasion.

As CINCPAC, he had establish a personal relationship with general Lon Nol, the man who led the 18 March 1970 coup against Norodom Sihanouk. He made intense efforts to prop up his friend, paying frequent visits to Phnom Penh. He used to speak about that conflict as "my war". When Lon Nol suffered a stroke in early 1971, he recuperated at McCain's guesthouse in Honolulu.

The son, John Sidney McCain III, Senator (R-AZ) since the nineties, has dedicated his political life to support Cambodian individuals whose dream is to become the puppets of the USA.

John McCain III served in the United States Navy as a naval pilot until 1981. During the Vietnam war, he was thinking that the "civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war"). In 1967, he was involved in the Operation Rolling Thunder which took responsibility for real crimes against humanity. The CIA itself estimated that approximately 1,000 casualties had been inflicted on the North Vietnamese population per week, or approximately 90,000 for the 44-month operation, 72,000 of whom were civilians.

Conservative in home politics, McCain is seen as a hawk in foreign affairs. He is well known as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI) for his involvement in the failed coup against democratically elected president Chavez in Venezuela in 2002 and his cooperation with Islamic terrorist groups within the framework of the "Arab Spring" in Libya and Syria and with extreme-right groups during the "Colour Revolutions" in Eastern Europe.

After 1993, as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), he expressed strong support to the politicians opposed to the rulers of Cambodia. IRI provided financial and technical support to the party led by Sam Rainsy and to the so-called "Cambodian centre for Human Rights" (CCHR) led by Kem Sokha, even after this last transformed CCHR into a political party. McCain had regular meetings in Washington DC with these populist Cambodian politicians, who are well known for their racists and xenophobic statements and their will to overthrow the government by launching demonstrations.

Since 1998, these two populist politicians have consistently used such methods to exacerbate tensions and create chaos. That led to the killing of innocent Vietnamese civilians by infuriated crowds. For such records, they were decorated and honoured by Senator McCain: on September 5th 2002, in Washington DC, Senator John McCain, Chairman of the IRI, decorated Sam Rainsy with the Price of Freedom on behalf of IRI and the extreme right organisation Heritage Foundation. Senator McCain stated that Sam Rainsy was « a true hero for the entire world».

What is the credibility of a Senator that used to support and congratulate Cambodian politicians who play their opposition role by daily using insults, defamation and calls to racial hate, who publish fake maps and fake treaties trying to convince the people that the country has lost parts of its territory, who deny the crimes committed during the Pol Pot regime in S21 security centre, who put deliberately an end to the "culture of dialogue" proposed by the Prime Minister?

Here is the man whose resolution asking for sanctions against the Cambodian people was adopted recently by the US Senate. Here is the man who signed with others a letter requesting a few days ago the US Ambassador to the UN to isolate Cambodia on the international stage. Like the West did during the eighties.

These are facts and they are undisputable.
Raoul M. Jennar, PhD
Doctor in Khmer Studies