Office of the Historian

20. Intelligence Assessment Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency1

GC 78–10037
Washington, March 1978

THE THAI-CAMBODIA BORDER: THE INSURGENCY FACTOR

Key Judgments

Since gaining control of Cambodia in April 1975, the new Khmer government has been involved in a series of border clashes with neighboring Thailand. The earliest incidents stemmed from problems encountered by the Khmer Communists in consolidating their control and from apparent misunderstandings over alignment of the border.2 The continuation of the clashes, however, suggests that other and more deep-seated reasons are responsible for the ongoing border troubles.

• Recent official Thai and Cambodian statements that the border clashes stem primarily from demarcation problems are probably “for the record” only, to divert attention from other causes.

• [1½ lines not declassified] evidence, clearly show that most clashes are rooted in clandestine operations that each country uses to support dissidents in the other. Specifically:

—Clashes in the Watthana Corridor area and increasingly along the Dangrek Range almost certainly are linked in part with Cambodian operations supplying Thai Communist insurgents operating in Thailand’s Prachin Buri Province.

—Most clashes at points along the southern third of the boundary appear to be associated with Thai support of Khmer dissidents occasionally operating in Cambodia.

• Given the likelihood that both Bangkok and Phnom Penh will persist in supporting insurgents operating in each other’s territory, border clashes can be expected to continue; neither side, however, is likely to allow them to escalate into more serious confrontations.

[Omitted here is the body of the intelligence assessment.]

  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Transnational Issues, Job 79T01050A: Production Files, Box 7, Folder 5. Secret; [handling restriction not declassified]. Prepared in the National Foreign Assessment Center.↩
  2. The appendix provides a detailed examination of the border and its alignment variations. [Footnote in the original.] The appendix is attached but not printed.↩