The 1970 US and South Vietnamese Cambodian Campaign targeted Cambodia. The campaign consisted of joint and parallel operations launched into eastern Cambodia between April and July 1970 during the Vietnam War.
US and South Vietnamese leaders aimed to attack North Vietnamese and Viet Cong base areas and supply caches located across the border. The operations followed political upheaval in Cambodia, where Prince Norodom Sihanouk had been removed and Lon Nol’s government was fighting communist forces. President Richard Nixon presented the intervention as an effort to disrupt the enemy’s cross-border sanctuaries and support South Vietnam’s Vietnamization strategy.
The campaign captured large quantities of weapons and supplies, but it did not destroy the communist leadership headquarters known as COSVN. The incursion also intensified opposition to the war in the United States. Cambodia should not be confused with Laos, which was another neighboring country heavily involved in the wider conflict and the target of separate US and South Vietnamese operations.