[Vietnamization: Paris Peace Agreements] Singapore: we were adamantly against the principle of invasion; it was national interest

I will always remember Stephen Solarz with great warmth despite his unfortunate "miracle on the Mekong" comment re a recent election (2003?). I need to think hard how I first met him... it was while I was living in Washington, D. C. post-law school writing my memoir, I think , in 1999. He invited me for coffee on one occasion and then to share in a Thanksgiving meal with his family at his McLean home; he asked then Singapore ambassador Madam Chan Heng Chee to give me a ride as she was the only other guest; I had met her earlier at a sit-down reception hosted by Cambodian ambassador Eng Roland. I remember asking her pointedly why Singapore played such a prominent role in the Paris Peace Agreements. To paraphrase her: Singapore being such a small country land-wise, we were adamantly against the principle of invasion; it was national interest. During the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, she was part of the Singapore team at the UN in New York.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreements, 23 Oct. 1991. I was in my first semester of my first year at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service and followed the news on Cambodia in The Washington Post -- with tears almost everyday of the coverage because it was my first encounter with updated real-time news of Cambodia. From the time I escaped Cambodia in autumn of 1979 till Oct. 1991, I received literally no news about Cambodia.

Seen and heard on Ms. Theary C. Seng's Facebook accounts: 
www.facebook.com/theary.c.seng

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