President Le Duc Anh meets UN Secretary General Boutros B. Ghali in 1995. (Photo: VNA) Phnom Penh (VNA) – Former President General Le Duc Anh’s death and hiscontributions to the Vietnamese revolutionary cause as well as helping Cambodiaget rid of the Pol Pot genocidal regime received media coverage in Cambodia.
Freshnews, one of the most popular news websites in Cambodia, notified in Khmerthat the former President of Vietnam died at the age of 99, and highlighted therole of General Le Duc Anh, former commander of the Vietnamese volunteersoldiers in Cambodia, in helping the country liberate from the genocidalregime.
It also recalled General Le Duc Anh’s great contributions to the liberation ofSouth Vietnam and national reunification.
In its front page, Phnom Penh Post said that former President Le Duc Anh’slegacy in Cambodia’s recent history remains a prominent one, with the generalbest remembered for his role in commanding Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to freethe country from the Pol Pot regime in 1979.
Besides, the newspaper stressed that he played a central role in formulatingthe five key points for the defence of the Kingdom against Pol Potre-infiltration and assisted in the development of the “K5 plan” that attemptedto seal guerrilla in-filtration routes along the Thailand-Cambodia borderbetween 1985 and 1989.
Meanwhile, Rasmei Kampuchea also published the biography of the formerVietnamese President.
While in the US, Washing Post said that General Le Duc Anh, as a deputy commanderof the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, played an important role in the fight to liberatethe South of Vietnam in 1975.
It described General Le Duc Anh as the architect of the offensive that endedfour years of brutal Pol Pot’s murderous rule in Cambodia.
The US newspaper underlined that General Le Duc Anh was a crucial catalyst forthe normalisation of relations between Vietnam and the US while serving asPresident of Vietnam during 1992-1997.
The two countries set up diplomatic ties in 1995, andthat year, he became the first head of state of Vietnam to visit the US whentraveling to New York to attend the United Nations’ 50th founding anniversarycelebrations.-VNA
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