From the moment the French imposed their boundaries on the Thai- Khmer border in the 19th century the region has been in dispute. Later, the border became a fault line in the Cold War. In the first of two articles on this Southeast Asian hotspot Eisel Mazard examined American support for Cambodian Communism and its influence on two decades of conflict. In this concluding essay, Mazard suggests that ideas of a ‘greater Thailand’ and military interests in maintaining low-level hostilities on the border are some of the reasons behind Thailand’s latest aggression against Cambodia.
