Why did students protest the invasion of Cambodia?

Answer 1

The U.S. invasion of Cambodia occurred almost immediately at the end of the hugely unpopular war in Viet Nam. The invasion was mostly conducted by air attacks, in which the United States flew almost 4,000 sorties and dropped more than 540,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia. Our aim was the ouster of Prince Nordom Sihanouk from power, and it was achieved by the imposition on Cambodia of a government led by Lon Nol and supported by the United States which avoided, for a small time, the eventual takeover of the country by forces of the Khmer Rouge or Khmer Communist Party led by Pol Pot, who would eventually slaughter more than a million of his countrymen, including almost all of those Cambodians who had any formal education.

The reaction of American college students was at first muted, because most of the American operations in Cambodia took place in very strict secrecy. However, when the rumors of the Cambodian invasion turned into palpable knowledge of its existence, many American college students who had been active in the movement against the war in Viet Nam protested and displayed great anger against the Nixon Administration and the architect of the invasion, Dr. Henry Kissinger.

Answer 2

A mixture of resignation and support, though leftists used it as an excuse to stage more rioting.