Part One The above picture, as terribly upsetting as it is, with the innocent child incapable of comprehending, nor perhaps being instinctively aware of the mortal danger in which its mother finds herself, is just one of the many mugshots taken for the files of the Democratic Kampuchean security service, the Santebal. After having a [...]
By the middle of 1945, it was becoming clear to anyone who cared to pay attention that Imperial Japan was doomed. With it, the status of those Khmer nationalists who had colluded with the Japanese in disarming the Vichy French administration became increasingly uncertain. Son Ngoc Thanh, who had returned from Japan early in 1945 [...]
Another new post from another new author. As the Democratic Kampuchea side of things is already well covered here, I’m hoping to add some information on the margins – the political context, the Sangkum, what came before and what developed afterwards, in an effort to look at the forces in opposition to which Democratic Kampuchea [...]
The offer to contribute to this blog dedicated to the history of Khmer Communism and the culmination of some of its tendencies in the state of Democratic Kampuchea, came to me unexpectedly, but it is probably something that I almost readily agreed upon, due to feelings of competence to do so. Democratic Kampuchea has occupied [...]
Here’s some more film footage below, taken from a French documentary on Democratic Kampuchea. I’m unsure as to its content though, regarding the footage used. Identifying what is exactly official government footage and that which was filmed during the visit made by Yugoslav journalists, including Nikola Vitorovic, in 1978. You see, I haven’t been lucky [...]
Dap Prampi Mesa Chokchey Glorious April 17 (Non-versified translation) Bright red blood, which covers the towns and plains Of Kampuchea, our motherland, Sublime blood of workers and peasants, Sublime blood of revolutionary men and women fighters! The blood changes into unrelenting hatred And resolute struggle, For on April 17, under the flag of revolution It [...]
The slow death of a shrinking republic. From the 15th of August 1973 forward, both foreign and Khmer observers witnessed the growing war between the Khmer themselves, that is between the FANK of the Khmer Republic and the forces of the Khmer Communists. The land, the high seas, the rivers and lakes, the skies clear [...]
One of us must kill thirty Vietnamese … So far, we have succeeded in implementing this slogan of one against thirty … We need only two million troops to crush the fifty million Vietnamese, and we would still have six million people left. Radio Phnom Penh broadcast, 10 May 1978 Well, the DK government’s confidence [...]
This is just a bit of filler until new and hopefully better posts appear in this New Year. Being the nerd that I am, I own several old copies of publications which some might say border on the kitsch, although unintentionally. Below are snippets taken from the second of three September 1976 editions of the [...]
This, readers (and there are quite a few), will be the last post until we’re into the new year, and so far I think I’ve got enough encouragement to carry on with this small project, or historical hobby, in my spare time. I think it was a reviewer of Ben Kiernan’s comprehensive world study of [...]
