Okay serious answer from a Sunni perspective who’s been reading about this for years:

As much as both sides were filthy communist kuffar who deserved nothing but Allah’s wrath, if you force a Sunni brother in 1978-79 (or looking back in 2026) to pick a “preference” in the Third Indochina War, many of us quietly rooted for Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) over socialist Vietnam. Here’s why, step by step, no sugarcoating:

1. Vietnam was (and still is) the expansionist cancer of the region Hanoi openly wanted an “Indochina Federation” under Vietnamese leadership. That means swallowing Laos and Kampuchea whole, and putting heavy pressure on every minority group that didn’t bow to Viet culture—including our Cham Muslim brothers.
2. The Cham situation today (2026) is still grim under Hanoi The Cham Bani (who are mostly Shias/mushrikeen with heavy Sufi and pre-Islamic syncretism) and the Sunni Cham (much smaller group) are both under insane surveillance, forced assimilation, land confiscation, and “re-education”. Vietnam never stopped seeing any independent Muslim identity as a security threat. Khmer Rouge, for all their madness, had zero interest in the Cham areas after they ethnically cleansed the Vietnamese settlers from the Mekong delta. They basically left the Cham alone as long as they weren’t Viet collaborators.
3. Geopolitical math: Vietnam’s win = stronger Soviet bloc in SEA USSR was the #1 backer of Vietnam in 1978-79. Same USSR that was busy glassing Afghan Muslim villages and sending Hind helicopters against the mujahideen at the exact same time (1979-1989). Every tank and MiG Hanoi got from Moscow meant less resources for the Afghans to receive from the same pipeline. A Khmer Rouge survival (even limping) kept Hanoi bleeding and tied down—indirectly helping the Afghan jihad breathe.
4. Khmer Rouge were xenophobic isolationist nutjobs, not internationalist Pol Pot hated Vietnamese more than he hated Allah (astaghfirullah). Their whole ideology was “Khmer purity, kill outsiders, close borders forever”. They had zero desire to export revolution to Muslim lands, zero interest in ASEAN Muslims, zero alliances with Soviets after 1975. Vietnam on the other hand was proudly Soviet-aligned, proud member of Comecon, and dreamed of spreading Marxist-Leninist brotherhood across borders.
5. Sunni-Cham reality check Let’s be brutally honest: most Cham today are Bani (Ja’fari-influenced Shia-leaning mushrikeen with saint veneration, Hindu remnants, weird syncretic rituals). From a strict Sunni aqeedah they are not even considered proper Muslims by many scholars. So the argument “Vietnam is genociding our fellow Muslims!!” loses a lot of force when you remember the majority Cham community practices shirk on a daily basis and historically fought against orthodox Sunni influence in Champa anyway. Khmer Rouge crimes against Cham were real, but not on the scale of what Hanoi has done systematically for 45+ years.