Quora Answer: Why Did Singapore Support Cambodia against Vietnam’s Invasion in 1979?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why did Singapore support Cambodia against Vietnam’s invasion in 1979?”

ASEAN, not Singapore, did not set out to support Cambodia against Vietnam.  At the height of the Cold War, ASEAN reacted, or perhaps, overreacted, accordingly, and sought to limit what they saw as Vietnamese aggression, and the spread of Communism.  They considered the possibility that the Vietnamese would roll into Thailand, and there were border clashes at the height of the fighting.  As such, they adopted the strategy of bogging the Vietnamese war machine in Cambodia by arming and funding every group fighting the Vietnamese.  The old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” played out here, and that means they also funded the deposed Khmer Rouge.

The problem that commentators have now is that they are looking with the benefit of hindsight at events that occurred 40 years ago.  Things are a lot clearer now.  Also, we must never conflate political interest with morality.  There is no such thing.  Morality and humanitarian aid is the card governments play to gain popular support.  This is always about power and influence.