When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Rare Piece. Cambodia / Kampuchea Defense Medal - 1st Class
3rd Indochina War Medal - Anti Khmer Rouge Operations
Vietnam - Anti Khmer Rouge War - Invasion of Cambodia - Very Rare Original.
VC Awarded.
In May 1977 the Vietnamese Army invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia) to remove the fanatical regime of Pol Pot and his supporters, The Khmer Rouge.
After two years Phnom Penh was in the hands of Vietnam and a puppet government was established. The Vietnamese army would stay in control of this section of Cambodia for the next ten years. This medal was bestowed by the Puppet Government to certain officers of the People's Army of Vietnam. It is named the 'Friendship Decoration'.
This medal, 1st Class was awarded to members of the Vietnam Army (Viet Cong) for heroic combat operations against the Khmer Rouge
Rare MEDAL
Whilst the Khmer Rouge and the Viet Cong had been allies during the American War (2nd Vietnam War) and the French Indochina War the treatment of the Khmer Rouge of their own people immediately upon the fall of Phnom Penh and their later treatment of ethnic Vietnamese led to the Vietnamese Army (PAVN) to invade Cambodia in May 1977.
Cambodia by now known as Kampuchea and under the fanatical and monstrous control of the Khmer Rouge was desperately in need to outside assistance. After two years of fighting the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese established a puppet government in Phnom Penh. This government controlled mostly the eastern sector of the country and the war was to continue for another 10 years until the eventual fall of the Khmer rouge in 1989 (although they still maintained small pockets of resistance into the mid 1990's.).
