A bit of history

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Soi Dog
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A bit of history

Post by Soi Dog »

Can we rename this section Cambodian Culture, History and Language?

Anyway....just days before the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in Dec. 1978, a few Western journalists and academics were allowed to come to Cambodia and interview Pol Pot in Phnom Penh (an extremely rare occurrance). The lead foreign interviewer was apparently selected for his pro-Khmer Rouge/pro-Marxist reporting over the previous years.

Very shortly after the interview, one of them (Malcolm Caldwell from the UK) was shot dead in his PP hotel room, as was his assailant. After reading some of Caldwell's KR-sympathetic nonsense and his glossing-over the reported mass atrocities, I'm sure there were quite a few anti-KR/pro-Vietnamese Cambodians who wanted him dead.

Interesting to hear Pol Pot was confident the US would come to his aid against the impending Vietnamese invasion. Unfortunately (shamefully), he did eventually get US support, but only after his troops were routed and pushed out of most of the country by the well-trained and effective Vietnamese forces.
Reporter recalls Caldwell's slaying by KR
Tue, 31 March 2015
Shaun Turton
Retired American journalist Richard Dudman yesterday recounted details of the attack on his travelling party during a 1978 trip to Cambodia, telling the Khmer Rouge tribunal he narrowly dodged being shot before finding British academic Malcolm Caldwell gunned down in his room.

Dudman, 96, a former St Louis Post-Dispatch Washington bureau chief, was among the first Western writers to visit Cambodia during Pol Pot’s reign, arriving in December 1978 with Marxist scholar Caldwell and fellow American journalist Elizabeth Becker, then of the Washington Post, who testified as a tribunal expert in February.

The trio, invited by Democratic Kampuchea leaders, was given a tightly controlled tour of the country before being afforded rare interviews with Pol Pot on their last night in Phnom Penh, just weeks before Vietnam toppled the regime.

Considered a friend of the regime, Caldwell, 47, was murdered hours after his own private meeting with “brother number one” in circumstances still shrouded in mystery.

Testifying yesterday as a witness via video link from the United States, Dudman – who spent 40 days as a captive of the Viet Cong in 1971 and reported from the region a dozen times during the Vietnam War – recalled being woken by gunshots and running to Caldwell’s room.

“I discussed with him what we thought was going on and we decided that we didn’t know and we’d stay in our rooms and hope that it all blew over,” he recalled.

“I started back, but then a young man came, heavily armed.… At some point he pointed his pistol at me and fired a shot and missed me, but I ducked inside my room, slammed the door and stood to one side, and then there were some shots that came through the door.”

Hearing more shots, Dudman waited two hours behind his bed before Cambodian diplomat Tiounn Prasith arrived and revealed Caldwell’s fate.

“[Cadwell] was lying, obviously dead, with a gaping wound in his chest; he was inside the room, but on the threshold … appeared to be the same young man who threatened me, and he was dead, too, in a pool of blood.”

Noting the “many theories”, Dudman – whose journalism career spanned more than three decades and included the Cuban revolution, the Watergate scandal and the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy – said he didn’t know why, or by whom, the group was targeted.

Dudman recalled, during their meeting, Pol Pot repeatedly stated Vietnam would invade but the United States would help Cambodia win.

Confronted with Becker’s criticism of his dispatches, which were less critical of the Khmer Rouge than hers, Dudman said he had remained sceptical and reported what he had seen.

However, he said he had changed his opinion from that expressed in a 1990 New York Times op-ed questioning whether Pol Pot was a mass murderer. He said he now believes the evidence supported mass murder.

Dudman’s testimony continues today.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/reporter-r ... slaying-kr
prahkeitouj
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Re: A bit of history

Post by prahkeitouj »

[quote="Soi Dog"]Can we rename this section Cambodian Culture, History and Language?



Interesting to hear Pol Pot was confident the US would come to his aid against the impending Vietnamese invasion. Unfortunately (shamefully), he did eventually get US support, but only after his troops were routed and pushed out of most of the country by the well-trained and effective Vietnamese forces.

[quote]
Where can I find information of this idea?
កុំស្លាប់ដូចពស់ កុំរស់ដូចកង្កែប
Soi Dog
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Re: A bit of history

Post by Soi Dog »

prahkeitouj wrote:
Soi Dog wrote: Interesting to hear Pol Pot was confident the US would come to his aid against the impending Vietnamese invasion. Unfortunately (shamefully), he did eventually get US support, but only after his troops were routed and pushed out of most of the country by the well-trained and effective Vietnamese forces.
Where can I find information of this idea?
I took that part from the article I posted above quoting one of the journalists who survived the attack in the PP hotel.
Dudman recalled, during their meeting, Pol Pot repeatedly stated Vietnam would invade but the United States would help Cambodia win.
After the Vietnamese invasion, the US, Thailand and China, unfortunately, all supported the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese and supported the KR to be recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Cambodia. Very embarrassing and shameful foreign policy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/16/ ... mer-rouge/
taabarang
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Re: A bit of history

Post by taabarang »

The shame and embarrassment belong not only to the named countries, but to the UN as well, which recognized the Pol Pot regime long after they were struggling in the NW. It is also worth reading the book, Brother Enemy,(written if I remember correctly by an Indian journalist named Chanda. According to him, two years after the war Vietnamese govt. was seeking to establish ties with the US, based on their mutual fear of China and complications of Soviet involvement.
As my old Cajun bait seller used to say, "I opes you luck.
prahkeitouj
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Re: A bit of history

Post by prahkeitouj »

Soi Dog wrote:
prahkeitouj wrote:
Soi Dog wrote: Interesting to hear Pol Pot was confident the US would come to his aid against the impending Vietnamese invasion. Unfortunately (shamefully), he did eventually get US support, but only after his troops were routed and pushed out of most of the country by the well-trained and effective Vietnamese forces.
Where can I find information of this idea?
I took that part from the article I posted above quoting one of the journalists who survived the attack in the PP hotel.
Dudman recalled, during their meeting, Pol Pot repeatedly stated Vietnam would invade but the United States would help Cambodia win.
After the Vietnamese invasion, the US, Thailand and China, unfortunately, all supported the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese and supported the KR to be recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Cambodia. Very embarrassing and shameful foreign policy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/16/ ... mer-rouge/
Thank you, SD for the interesting article. Yes, It was shameful forein policy during Cold War. It was also disability of UN to deal with the genocide in Cambodia.
កុំស្លាប់ដូចពស់ កុំរស់ដូចកង្កែប
Samouth
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Re: A bit of history

Post by Samouth »

prahkeitouj wrote:
Soi Dog wrote:
prahkeitouj wrote:
Soi Dog wrote: Interesting to hear Pol Pot was confident the US would come to his aid against the impending Vietnamese invasion. Unfortunately (shamefully), he did eventually get US support, but only after his troops were routed and pushed out of most of the country by the well-trained and effective Vietnamese forces.
Where can I find information of this idea?
I took that part from the article I posted above quoting one of the journalists who survived the attack in the PP hotel.
Dudman recalled, during their meeting, Pol Pot repeatedly stated Vietnam would invade but the United States would help Cambodia win.
After the Vietnamese invasion, the US, Thailand and China, unfortunately, all supported the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese and supported the KR to be recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Cambodia. Very embarrassing and shameful foreign policy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/16/ ... mer-rouge/
Thank you, SD for the interesting article. Yes, It was shameful forein policy during Cold War. It was also disability of UN to deal with the genocide in Cambodia.
I guess they knew that Cambodians were dying and suffering, but they just supported that fuck up government instead of taking action.
បើសិនធ្វើចេះ ចេះឲ្យគេកោត បើសិនធ្វើឆោត ឆោតឲ្យគេអាណិត។

If you know a lot, know enough to make them respect you, if you are stupid, be stupid enough so they can pity you.
MekongMouse
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Re: A bit of history

Post by MekongMouse »

Yep, it never has anything to do with saving lives. The KR fought the Vietnamese communists. The enemy of your enemy is your friend seems to be the pervasive logic of modern diplomacy. Politicians will always present decisions to fight or not fight as ethical, but they are always pragmatic or personal. Psychopaths run the world...
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