Lecture 21 : Cambodia

Vietnam was a French colony, which France tried to re-colonize in the 18th century. This attempt fails
because the North Vietnamese managed to overthrow the French. Then comes a proxy us
government. This govt is backed by USA. The leader of this govt is a tyrant! The same govt who set
him up realizes he is becoming embarrassing and has him assassinated. This assassination is by the
super power. Then comes a large scale invasion – USA enters Vietnam. This turns messy because
north Vietnamese use guerrilla tactics. USA doesn’t want to lose troops hence they take to the air
and start carpet bombing Vietnam. Then they try to implement phoenix i.e. targeting civilians and
killing them. A loss of public backing from USA finally leads to a pull out.

It leads to extremism in Cambodia. It starts with colonization – proxy govt – tyrant – ruler
assassinated – invasion – ground – air – attack against civilians – morale drop – pull out – leave
behind an even bigger mess. THIS SAME CHART is applied in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion.

In the case of Vietnam - The result of this is faced by the neighbouring country of Cambodia. In the
case of Afghanistan – the alqaeda was born. Both these episodes had disastrous consequences.
Events in Cambodia have just been documented in paintings. These were painted by people who
suffered in this regime. 1975 – 1978 – people suffered tremendously. A Cambodian man – by the
name of Saleth Sar/Polpot lived from 1925-998. PP/SS grew up in Cambodia – a country which was
most known for a particular tourist attraction – the famous temples of Angkor. These are sacred to
Hindu’s and Buddhists. Since 800 years, Cambodia has been Buddhists. These temples were built by
a series of kings in 12 century AD. These kings call themselves the Khmer.

We don’t know if they were following the Hindu faith, but they used to host a lot of Hindu travellers.
The Angkor temples are a metaphor for Shiva’s resting pace. Shiva rests on the top of a mt called mt
mandera. It is signified by 4 smaller peaks which surround it. surrounding mount mandera is the
milky cosmic ocean. There is also a massive boat which surrounds this complex. The approach roads
to this 5 peak structure is via the causeways. On both sides of the bridge there is a a hand rest hence
you can hold it as you walk. As you lay your hands – you will see there are figures carved on these
handles. This scene represents the story – the churning of the cosmic ocean. Mt Mandera was the
churning rod, and the rope used to churn was Vasukhi. Gods and demnons were holding the snake at
the mouth and tail respectively to churn.

They key point being – there is an enormous body of water which is most needed to grow rice. To SS
this was the only significance of this monument. SS/PP was born in a richa house – a kulak’s son. As
he grows older – before he can really finish schooling the country ruling Cambdoai i.e. French are
involved in the 2nd world war. Most people in Cambodia had just one school to attend which was in
the capital of Cambodia – Phnom Pehn. SS/PP is one of the lucky few to get educated in French. The
French educators also promise him that if you are top 30 in school you will get a free scholarship to
study further in Paris. He wasn’t exceptionally bright but others were even dumber.

He goes to paris and finds a new world. There are many schools of political thought here, and he is
most influenced by Marxism. Even today – the French till today are greatly influenced by
communism. They have a very strong communist party. He comes back from his higher studies att he
start of the 1950. Even though he wants to implement communist ideas in his country, Cambodia
has undergone a monarchy since the French had left. This king was Norodom Sihanouk. When he
came to power he was 9. SS/PP decides that the king needs to be overthrown, and the country
needs to turn communist. The king however was against communism. He had the resources of the
whole nation at his disposal. SS understands that he will not be able to make it work. SS’s
development as a communist coincides with vietnam’s war against the French. He decides to join
the vietnamin. They tell him that because this is a Vietnamese struggle, and your not a Vietnamese,
the only role we can offer you is to work on our rice plantations. This will be your service to us.

Polpot gets obsessed with the idea that communism is related to rice production. Polpot even from
Vietnam made a lot of sacred pilgrimages to Angkor in Cambodia. What he has learnt from him his
time there is that rice needs water. The fact that ancients had a temple constructed with so much
water – he just assumes that in the day of the khmer there was a lot of rice production, hence this
water was for that purpose only.

He decides that if and when he comes to power, he would make people purify themselves by
growing rice. When he came to power, 2 million people died because of this. He went from being a
simple peasant to a communist killer.

VIDEO

The name given to his followers is Khmer = Cambodia’s past. Rouge = Revenge (in French). They are
called the Khmer Rouge. He is very proud of the same. The year the Americans pull out, Polpot
launched completely crazy missions. His idea of equality was absolute and in order to achieve this –
he almost went completely mad.

VIDEO

His right hand man – “Nuon Chea “ gave an interview to the BBC. He hold equal responsibility for
what happened. He still hasn’t been held accountable and is living a happy life in Cambodia.

VIDEO

Cambodians were dying in American raids. The Ho Chi Min trail had been carved through Cambodia.
Cambodia had been demilitarized – and America still insisted on bombing it on its way to Vietnam.
All those people who got bombed in these raids, the remaining families joined polpot in his rebellion
thereby making his party reach so much further.

VIDEO

Even after the American bombing, the recruits were disgruntled villagers. In 1964 – the king who had
been against polpot is overthrown by the US in a coup. Now he realizes that the only way he can get
back to power is by allying himself with the khmer rouge. He makes a visit to their camps, and this is
filmed for proaganda. People across Cambodia see their own king going to these camps, gets
influences and more and more people join the khmer rouge.

VIDEO

Initially, when the khmer rouge win and take control of pnoph pehn overthrowing the American
govt. People go out into the streets and start celebrating. This is a smart thing t do, because if the
coup has won, and you don’t side up with them they will obviously harm you. Some of these people
– waving things – handkerchiefs and shirts etc – don’t realize that they were wearing soldiers
uniforms and this was backed by the Americans. They are killed immediately. Everybody is told that
they have to leave Pnomph Pehn as it is going to be bombed by the Americans.

The whole city is evacuated, with 1000’s of people in hospitals, women giving birth. Nothing matters.
Those who cant move are left to die. The idea is to take everybody to the countryside – away from
the city – to cultivate rice and purify themselves. The city was a cymbol of capitalism. The
countryside was for communists. Leave all the vehicles behind, hence roads aren’t needed. Dig up –
grow rice. Schools aren’t needed - dig up corridors and basketball courts and grow rice. It was an
extreme attempt to take civilisation abck to the ddark ages.

He literally said this was a start of new Cambodia – it was day 1 of year 0. No more old calendar, no
days not months no weeks. Holiday every 10th day, no concept of exhaustion. Everybody will work
HARD. Equally HARD. Money no longer holds any relevance. PP said money only has value till society
agrees it has value. It has no intrinsic value. People threw their cash into the street – as being found
with cash meant you were being capitalist. This would lead to instant execution.

VIDEO

Nuon Chea – his responses were completely silly. He actually suggested that Polpots
conscience was clear with no justification for the same.

VIDEO

Nobody cooked individually. There was 1 kitchen – 2 meals – same meals – same quantity – every
day. This meal is rice gruel – mash rice water and lightly salted. There are orchards next door with
fruits. One bite out of the fruit – you are killed instantly in public. How can you want to eat
something tastier when everybody else was making do? Stealing wasn’t as bad as individualism.

Also, there was no concept of love any longer. Not romatic love, but there was no concept of
children and parent love either. Because parents would obviously want better for their own child
and this went against the rules. Children too were to be brought up by the party itself. Hence there
is no affection. The party would raise people uniformly. The party decides who this child will marry
for everybody’s interest.

Thin for thin, fat for fat – people were executed for being either. Unusually tall or short – killed.
Disability. Any difference which made you stand out from the crowd – you were trying to be
individualistic. There had to be ABSOLUTE EQUALITY.

The party did have funds for the purpose of import export because they needed to buy weapons.
Hence, fruits were exported out. According to Polpot – the Angkor temples were a proof of the fact
that such a system existed, that the khmer kings fed the whole world with rice – and he was just
trying to do the same.

He made a 10-12 year old child the head of the disctrict who would enure equality and he would
decide whether you would live or die based on whether you would conform or not. The idea being
children are the most pure and their decisions are incorruptible. The party members would carry
out the child orders. This system was similar to what Mao had created. These kids decided who
would eat who would not.

VIDEO

The downside of this is that even if everybody is cultivating rice – there is nobody monitoring the
system. They needed dams. People cultivating rice were pulled out to make dams. After a year,
polpot asks for the results. Do they have enough to food the world? The answer was that Cambodia
had a famine and did not even have enough to feed themselves.

According to polpot – the plan wasn’t wrong. The famine was happening because of corrupt
elements in the party. A campaign was launched – “If it is rotten – it should be destroyed”. The
second year of Polpots reign had a great purge against the party.

VIDEO

This school – S21 exists as a memoriam museum to what had happened. People were brought her
eon being suspected for teachery along with their whole family. 1 corrupt person = their whole
family is corrupt. You were documented, photographic evidence would be kept. Each person had to
wear an icard pinned to shirts. In some cases, also pinned to skins.

VIDEO

Simultaneously – in 1978 – Polpot also launches a campaign against the Cambodian army. 100,000
army people are executed along with the party purge. Vietnam asks the US to hault this madness, as
this is something you created. The UN wants to intervene, however the US isn’t for intervening
because that would highlight their role in creating this madness.

North Vietnamese general Giap has to finally take action. He takes over and restores peace. Polpot
takes to the jungles along with Nun Cheo. After polpot did people start getting some sense of
normalcy. Across Cambodia – farmers were working on the killing fields where 2.7 million people
had died.

VIDEO

Cambodia was a horrific aftermath of the Vietnam war. The paintings shown of this time was brutal.
Paintings depict how children were killed. They were tossed in the air and they fall on the edge of
the bayonet. Infants were also dashed against trees. These paintings are depessing but they are the
only legacy of what happened in Cambodia. This region still has corpses. It is impossible to know who
these people are.

Cambodia was a cold war mistake made by a super power.