Former President Le Duc Anh’s contributions grab international headlines

President Le Duc Anh meets UN Secretary General Boutros B. Ghali in 1995

Former President General Le Duc Anh’s death and his contributions to the Vietnamese revolutionary cause as well as helping Cambodia get rid of the Pol Pot genocidal regime received media coverage in Cambodia.

Freshnews, one of the most popular news websites in Cambodia, notified in Khmer that the former President of Vietnam died at the age of 99, and highlighted the role of General Le Duc Anh, former commander of the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers in Cambodia, in helping the country liberate from the genocidal regime.

It also recalled General Le Duc Anh’s great contributions to the liberation of South Vietnam and national reunification.

In its front page, Phnom Penh Post said that former President Le Duc Anh’s legacy in Cambodia’s recent history remains a prominent one, with the general best remembered for his role in commanding Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to free the country from the Pol Pot regime in 1979.

Besides, the newspaper stressed that he played a central role in formulating the five key points for the defence of the Kingdom against Pol Pot re-infiltration and assisted in the development of the “K5 plan” that attempted to seal guerrilla in-filtration routes along the Thailand-Cambodia border between 1985 and 1989.

Meanwhile, Rasmei Kampuchea also published the biography of the former Vietnamese President.

While in the US, Washing Post said that General Le Duc Anh, as a deputy commander of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, played an important role in the fight to liberate the South of Vietnam in 1975.

It described General Le Duc Anh as the architect of the offensive that ended four years of brutal Pol Pot’s murderous rule in Cambodia.

The US newspaper underlined that General Le Duc Anh was a crucial catalyst for the normalisation of relations between Vietnam and the US while serving as President of Vietnam during 1992-1997.

The two countries set up diplomatic ties in 1995, and that year, he became the first head of state of Vietnam to visit the US when traveling to New York to attend the United Nations’ 50th founding anniversary celebrations.