Uncharitably Slanted

General Le Duc Anh, the Vietnamese commander who removed Pol Pot from power in Cambodia, has died at the age of ninety-eight and has received an expectably tight-lipped encomium in the free and fearless Press. Anh served in the Vietnam War as deputy commander of the National Liberation Front, which some Vietnamese portrayed as an indigenous movement even though it was in fact Vietnamese. At the end of 1978 Anh tarnished his record yet further, invading Cambodia and ousting Pol Pot's régime, to the immeasurable detriment of democracy, the peace process and Western values. Ironically, Vietnamese complaints of Cambodian incursions into a neighbouring country sounded very much like American complaints of Vietnamese incursions into Vietnam; which doubtless explains the squeals of moral indignation from the USA and its allies over Pol Pot's removal. Later, as president of Vietnam, Anh supposedly played some sort of role in normalising relations with Washington, although it was in fact President Clinton who established formal diplomatic ties.