That overstates the Soviet aspect and severely understates the Vietnamese aspect. For Vietnam, Cambodia is their near abroad. Saigon is barely 20 miles away fr

That overstates the Soviet aspect and severely understates the Vietnamese aspect. For Vietnam, Cambodia is their near abroad. Saigon is barely 20 miles away from Cambodia, and the Mekong is the lifeblood of Southern Vietnam, and Cambodian factions (the same ones the Chinese backed in the 1970s) had supported anti-Vietnamese insurgencies in Gia Lai. Cambodia and Laos became a buffer state for China+Thailand and Vietnam the same way Myanmar has become one for China, Thailand, and India.