The interest in the related thread about education and history in Cambodia of the Khmer Rouge period prompts the same question about the Vietnamese Occupation of Cambodia. Unlike many of the foreign posters here I have married into a family of survivors of the Pol Pot regime and Vietnamese "liberators" who tried to introduce a kinder gentler form of communism. Without going into detail, I would like to know how this is presented in school or university from our(and I borrow the correct words) most welcome Cambodian additions to this forum, i.e. Samoouth and Little Salary.

I absolutely had never learned about Vietnamese Occupation of Cambodia at school from primary to high school. What i learned was the Victory Day of Cambodia over Khmer Rouge 7 January 1979. We were taught Vietnam was behind our Victory. They came to liberate us. We were only taught about good things of Vietnam. Nothing about the negative parts of Vietnam Occupation was taught at school.

However, we also don't learn much about our Victory Day, 7 January, but since every year our country celebrate it, so we could hear all the propaganda of the ruling party. They never forgot to say that the Victory Day was the biggest achievement of the ruling party (Cambodian People Party) especially the three Excellency HE, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin who had asked Vietnam to come to help us.

#The negative parts of Vietnam Occupation in Cambodia
What i had been told by the older people especially my family and teacher, ( Note, this was not taught at school), Vietnam occupied Cambodia in 1979-1989. At that time, everything was under control by Vietnam. It organised and made all the decisions and stuffs and our administrative works. No doubt, Cambodia was a communist country since then until the first and fair election funded and organised by UNTAC took place. What i heard from them, they didn't happy with it. They hated communist as at that time, they couldn't study other foreign languages beside Vietnam and Russian. They were abused by the Vietnam army, especially young Cambodian girls. Vietnam solider could take any young Cambodian girls with them without the permission from the family. Not to mention, they also could take any thing they want from the households. In Phnom Penh, i am living close to Vietnam community. I knew one Vietnamese veteran. I always asked him about the Vietnam occupation in Cambodia. He told me all the things. He said, at the time, Cambodians were afraid them (Vietnam soldier so much. They could take whatever they wanted. He quoted, one day he and his friends were patrolling in the community then he saw one dog. So, he just took it in front of the owner and brought it to his place (for eating). The owner didn't say anything to them. In addition, They banned people from speaking other languages beside khmer and Vietnam. My family told me that they couldn't speak Chinese for a long long time, they almost forgot it. The worst part of Vietnam Occupation was that when they left Cambodia, they brought a lot of valuable things from Cambodia especially the valuable things in our Royal Palace and our Cement factory in Kampot to Vietnam.

Oh sorry for late to reply, taabarang.

If you talk with old people, they will say that 7 January was their second birthday. I was born later than 1979 so what I knew is from listening, watching and reading. my parents told me that If we haven't had that day we would have never seen the world again. When I was in primary school, text books said that Viename is our bestfriend, million years bestfriend. But I couldn't find the reason more than they came into Cambodia territory and fought with Kampuchea democracy. Many doubts in my brain, because Pol Pot regime did not included in History subject yet. I wondered why they help us? what was K5? Why too many people died? Why when I read books were written in English never said that Vietname help us,but they said that Vitetname interfered our territory? What was Paris treaty? All those questions I couldn't get from school, but I got from books.

Thank you both very much for your honest replies and Sanouth a special thanks for a detailed and lengthy description. I shall reply later when I have more time with what the jas jas in our village have to say about their experience here.

prahkeitouj wrote:Oh sorry for late to reply, taabarang.

If you talk with old people, they will say that 7 January was their second birthday. I was born later than 1979 so what I knew is from listening, watching and reading. my parents told me that If we haven't had that day we would have never seen the world again. When I was in primary school, text books said that Viename is our bestfriend, million years bestfriend. But I couldn't find the reason more than they came into Cambodia territory and fought with Kampuchea democracy. Many doubts in my brain, because Pol Pot regime did not included in History subject yet. I wondered why they help us? what was K5? Why too many people died? Why when I read books were written in English never said that Vietname help us,but they said that Vitetname interfered our territory? What was Paris treaty? All those questions I couldn't get from school, but I got from books.

K5 was really bad. it was just another small pol pot regime.

Samouth wrote:

prahkeitouj wrote:Oh sorry for late to reply, taabarang.

If you talk with old people, they will say that 7 January was their second birthday. I was born later than 1979 so what I knew is from listening, watching and reading. my parents told me that If we haven't had that day we would have never seen the world again. When I was in primary school, text books said that Viename is our bestfriend, million years bestfriend. But I couldn't find the reason more than they came into Cambodia territory and fought with Kampuchea democracy. Many doubts in my brain, because Pol Pot regime did not included in History subject yet. I wondered why they help us? what was K5? Why too many people died? Why when I read books were written in English never said that Vietname help us,but they said that Vitetname interfered our territory? What was Paris treaty? All those questions I couldn't get from school, but I got from books.

K5 was really bad. it was just another small pol pot regime.

Very interesting. I had never heard of K5 before. I had to look it up online just now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K5_Plan

Thank you both for teaching us about that.

My father was a policeman then during K5. He had been ordered to join it. So my mom asked him to resign, so he did. That's why he is still alive. Otherwise, he would have die by malaria or landmine. Again, it is really sad that it is not included in our history class. Many Cambodian didn't know about K5. Note, all the sensitive things related to the current government members had never been taught at school and it will never be taught i guess.

I wish I could get a copy of this book, but can't seem to find an English language version it anywhere online, new or used. The author and former Cambodian PM was on death's door in Singapore not long ago after suffering a stroke.

Soi Dog wrote:I wish I could get a copy of this book, but can't seem to find an English language version it anywhere online, new or used. The author and former Cambodian PM was on death's door in Singapore not long ago after suffering a stroke.

Right, he was the former prime minister after Khmer Rouge. He is still alive and now he is the member of CNRP. I hope there is a translation version for this book.

Thanks Samouth and Soi Dog for your contribution. Many young people don't him.