[Vietnamization: Military] Vietnam, Cambodia "defence cooperation in order to...foil plots to weaken their relations"

 Vietnam Net | 1 June 2016

Hun Sen ‘Unpredictable and Easily Angered,’ CIA Files Say

 The Cambodia Daily | 23 January 2017

Vietnam realized its 1985 public pledge to withdraw its forces—estimated at 130,000 to 140,000—from Cambodia by 1990 was “unrealistic” due to the ineptitude of their Cambodian counterparts.

“Development of PRK institutions has been slow and erratic,” the assessment says. “The government is still dominated by Vietnamese advisers, the Army remains politically unreliable and tactically inept.”

As a result, the Vietnamese would have to take covert measures in order to conceal its influence after its withdrawal, it says.

“Hanoi appears to recognize that the PRK’s weakness renders its withdrawal timetable unrealistic, and we believe it will have to use subterfuges, such as incorporating Vietnamese troops into Cambodian units, to conceal its presence beyond 1990,” it says.

“In the meantime, we expect Vietnam to promote aggressively an image that the PRK is making rapid progress toward internal self-sufficiency in hopes of eroding international support for the Cambodian resistance,”

[A living, working outline]

-  1994 coup attempt

-  March 1997 assassination attempt of Sam Rainsy

-  July 1997 coup détat 

-  1998 pre- and post elections crackdown, especially violent standoff in front of the Cambodiana Hotel

-  2003 pre- and post election crackdowns

-  2008 pre- and post election crackdowns

-  trumped up court cases against Sam Rainsy 2009

-  August 2013 plot to assassinate Sam Rainsy 

-  Dec. 2013 violent crackdown against peaceful protesters

-  January 2014 Veng Sreng killings

-  2015 court cases and imprisonment

-  2016 court cases and imprisonment