ASEAN and the Third Indochina War

H2 History - syllabus 9174, 2027

What this lesson teaches

  • I can judge how well ASEAN built stability, security and economic cooperation in the region over time.

    Syllabus 9174, Paper 2, Theme III, Learning Outcomes. evaluate the outcomes of ASEAN's efforts in building regional stability and security and promoting regional economic cooperation over time

Make a guess

Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978. How do you think ASEAN responded?

  1. It accepted the new government as legitimate.
  2. It led a diplomatic campaign at the UN against the occupation.
  3. It sent an army to drive Vietnam out of Cambodia.
Show the answer

It led a diplomatic campaign at the UN against the occupation.

ASEAN condemned the use of force and kept Cambodia's UN seat away from the Vietnamese-backed government.

ASEAN led the diplomatic campaign against Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia, which was its greatest Cold War success, though members differed.

When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978, ASEAN condemned the use of force against a sovereign state. Thailand became a frontline state, with Vietnamese troops on its border and hundreds of thousands of refugees.

ASEAN led an annual campaign at the United Nations calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces. It organised the International Conference on Kampuchea in 1981 and helped form the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1982, which kept Cambodia's UN seat.

Members did not fully agree. Thailand and Singapore took a hard line. Indonesia and Malaysia feared that China, not Vietnam, was the greater long-term threat, as their 1980 Kuantan Principle showed. ASEAN kept unity by compromise.

From 1988, Indonesia hosted the Jakarta Informal Meetings, bringing the Cambodian parties together. The final settlement, the Paris Agreements of 1991, followed changes in great-power relations, but ASEAN had kept the issue alive and shaped the terms.

UN campaign
Annual resolutions calling for withdrawal from 1979.
International Conference on Kampuchea
1981.
CGDK
1982.
Jakarta Informal Meetings
1988 and 1989.

Real examples to use

UN vote, 14 November 1979

ASEAN's resolution calling for foreign forces to leave Cambodia passed 91 to 21, with 29 abstentions. Similar resolutions passed every year through the 1980s.

Kuantan, March 1980

Suharto and Malaysia's Hussein Onn met in Kuantan and sought a settlement that would also limit Chinese influence, showing that members did not see the threat the same way.

Jakarta Informal Meeting, July 1988

Indonesia brought the Cambodian parties and Vietnam together for the first time at Bogor, opening the talks that led to the Paris Agreements of 23 October 1991.

Worked example: Assessing ASEAN's role in resolving the war

How constructive was ASEAN's role?

  1. Success: kept Vietnam isolated diplomatically; built the resistance coalition.
  2. Success: hosted talks through the Jakarta Informal Meetings.
  3. Limit: depended on China and the USA for pressure on Vietnam.
  4. Limit: the settlement came after Soviet and Chinese policies changed.

Watch out for this

ASEAN fought a war to remove Vietnam from Cambodia.

ASEAN used diplomacy, not force. Its tools were UN votes, conferences and support for a resistance coalition.

Check your understanding

What was the Kuantan Principle of 1980?

  1. A plan for an ASEAN army to drive Vietnamese forces out of Cambodia
  2. An agreement to admit Vietnam into ASEAN once it left Cambodia
  3. A sign that Indonesia and Malaysia saw China as the bigger long-term threat
Show the answer

A sign that Indonesia and Malaysia saw China as the bigger long-term threat

Right. It showed differences within ASEAN.

Sources and context

Background reading for this chapter.

  • The USA stays out of the Sabah dispute

    Paraphrase of an action memorandum from Assistant Secretary of State William Bundy to Secretary of State Rusk, 20 May 1968.

  • A CIA assessment of ASEAN

    Paraphrase of a CIA paper, "Regionalism in Southeast Asia: The Growth of ASEAN", 1 January 1981.

  • The USA should consult ASEAN

    Paraphrase of a memorandum from the Director of the State Department's Office of Regional Affairs, East Asia, 31 January 1977.

  • Thailand considers an ASEAN response

    Paraphrase of a telegram from the US embassy in Bangkok to the State Department, 4 January 1979.

  • Lee Kuan Yew on ASEAN's position

    Paraphrase of a letter from Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to President Carter, 1 March 1979.

  • the founding aims, 1967

    Paraphrase of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration), signed by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, 8 August 1967.

  • the leaders report progress, 1977

    Paraphrase of the Joint Communique of the Second ASEAN Heads of Government Meeting, Kuala Lumpur, 5 August 1977.

  • an American intelligence assessment, 1981

    Extract from "Regionalism in Southeast Asia: The Growth of ASEAN", a research paper by the CIA's National Foreign Assessment Center, 1 January 1981, published in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, volume XXII, document 149. A US government document in the public domain.

  • a free trade area, 1992

    Paraphrase of the preamble and Article 2 of the Framework Agreement on Enhancing ASEAN Economic Cooperation, adopted by the six ASEAN heads of government at the Fourth ASEAN Summit, Singapore, 28 January 1992.

  • bold measures after the crisis, 1998

    Paraphrase of the Statement on Bold Measures, issued by ASEAN leaders at the Sixth ASEAN Summit, Hanoi, 16 December 1998.

  • Vietnam joins ASEAN, 1995

    Extract from the Joint Communique of the 28th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Bandar Seri Begawan, 29-30 July 1995, paragraph 2, as circulated by Brunei Darussalam to the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council (UN document A/49/953-S/1995/652).

  • ASEAN welcomes Laos and Myanmar, 1997

    Paraphrase of paragraph 2 of the Joint Communique of the 30th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 24-25 July 1997.

  • the American Secretary of State on Burma, 1997

    Extract from an address by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, Los Angeles, 23 July 1997, the day before she left for the ASEAN meetings in Kuala Lumpur. Released by the State Department, 24 July 1997. A US government document in the public domain.

  • Cambodia must wait, 1997

    Paraphrase of paragraph 15 of the Joint Communique of the 30th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 24-25 July 1997, written after fighting in Phnom Penh between the forces of Cambodia's two co-prime ministers in early July.

  • narrowing the gap, 2000

    Paraphrase of the Chairman's Statement of the Fourth ASEAN Informal Summit, Singapore, 24 November 2000, on the Initiative for ASEAN Integration.

  • a cartoon about expansion, 1997

    An original cartoon drawn for these notes in the style of a regional newspaper cartoon published in late July 1997, after ASEAN admitted Laos and Myanmar and postponed Cambodia's entry. It is not a copy of a real cartoon. The words of the figure at the window echo Source C.

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