210. Letter From Singaporean Prime Minister Lee to President Carter1
Thank you for your letter of February 20,2 sharing your thoughts on recent developments in Indochina.
It was good that you had impressed on the dangers of escalating the conflict upon both the Chinese Vice-Premier and President Brezhnev. Nevertheless, the Chinese have decided to go ahead with their punitive expedition.3
Whatever their reasons, the Vietnamese had invaded and are in occupation of Kampuchea.4 This, as you have pointed out to President Brezhnev, had led to the Chinese punitive expedition. The United States has been seen to urge the parties to the conflict, China, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union which has a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Vietnam, to act with restraint to avoid widening the conflict.
The outcome of this crisis should be such that no government will be encouraged to upset the stable and peaceful structure of independent nations in Asia. By her invasion of Kampuchea, the Vietnamese had established a precedent—one fraught with danger for the rest of South-east Asia. The danger is most immediate for Thailand.
Vietnam had changed the “ground rules” of inter-state interference. Hitherto such interference has been covert, through subversion, arms supplies and the providing of sanctuaries. The Chinese have challenged this revision in the ground rules by an ally of the Soviet Union. They have chosen to run the grave risk of inviting Soviet punishment of the self-appointed punisher. World peace having been endangered to this extent, it is best to ensure that the resolution of the crisis should be such that all nations are left convinced that intervention by force on another is neither safe nor profitable.
Singapore, like her partners in ASEAN, must stay conspicuously neutral and impartial between the Communist contestants. However, this does not mean that we do not see the dangers for Thailand, and [Page 709] for the rest of ASEAN. Singapore and her partners in ASEAN have expressed concern and asked that all foreign troops in Kampuchea and Vietnam be withdrawn.5
Sincerely
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 17, Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, 9/77–2/80. Secret.↩
- The letter was transmitted in telegram 43143 to Singapore, February 19. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D790078–0536)↩
- See Documents 43–45.↩
- See Documents 36–39.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 40.↩
- Printed from an unsigned copy.↩