Cambodian Civil War

In 1968, the Khmer Rouge officially launched a nation-wide insurgency across Cambodia. Even though the government of North Vietnam had not been informed of the Khmer Rouge's decision, its forces provided shelter and weapons to the Khmer Rouge after the insurgency began. North Vietnamese support for the Khmer Rouge's insurgency made it impossible for the Cambodian military to effectively counter it. For the next two years, the insurgency grew because Norodom Sihanouk did very little to stop it. As the insurgency grew in strength, the party openly declared itself to be the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

Columbiad: (pronounced cull-UHM-bee-ad) Smoothbore heavy artillery which lobbed shot and shell; used in coastal fortifications. By the end of the Civil War, the columbiad was rendered obsolete by rifled, banded artillery.

Slavery: A state of bondage in which African Americans (and some Native Americans) were owned by other people, usually white, and forced to labor on their behalf.

Republican Party: A political party created in the 1850s to prevent the spread of slavery to the territories. Eventually Republicans came to oppose the entire existence of slavery. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. Very few Southerners were Republicans.

Agriculture: The science of growing crops or raising livestock; farming.

Cotton-Clad: Gunboats using stacked cotton bales to protect themselves from enemy fire.