Terry Smith (5)

Training the Cambodians would have been a better title as apart from those who trained them no one knows who the Bodes are, of course Bodes is short for Cambodians. In 1970 Cambodia had a military coup and the new Government was very anti-Communist. They went from a small army of 35,000 in march 1970 to a large army of 202,000 by january 1971, only 9 months. To train this army battalions were sent to South Vietnam to be trained by American, Australian and New Zealand trainers. This book is show more about the Australian component.

The book gives a good oversight of the war in Cambodia, how the battalions were trained, training operations carried out by the battalions in South Vietnam and the personnel who trained them. This is an excellent book on a very unusual topic. show less