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Interesting vids of those times with cool backing khmer music I thought.

It's an interesting video but not at all representative of what was going on in the country at the time. By 1974 the Khmer Republic was in its last throes. US air support had been stopped, the capital was surrounded and there were many massacres of villagers, there were constant rocket attacks on the city and a huge number of refugees from the countryside thronged the streets.


Feb 1974, Cambodian children scavenge amidst the ruins left by the fierce insurgent Khmer Rouge rocket and artillery attack on a shanty town on the edge of Phnom Penh.

Clutch Cargo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:29 pm Interesting vids of those times with cool backing khmer music I thought.

Good stuff, the city looks cleaner and better than it is now.

cabron wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:48 pm Good stuff, the city looks cleaner and better than it is now.

Only because it's totally misleading. There were over a million displaced civilians in the city, huge problems with food supply as all roads and the Mekong were cut off, the hospitals were full of dying and mutilated people, and rockets were raining down regularly. How could that be better?

^^
I wonder who produced these vids? Likely Lon Nol govt propaganda?

Clutch Cargo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:02 pm ^^
I wonder who produced these vids? Likely Lon Nol govt propaganda?

It's hard to say, I'm not sure even the Lon Nol government wanted to paint such a rosy picture as they were dependent on aid. There is of course a tendency for people to try and paint any period before Pol Pot as golden, which seems to have some merit but not when you get into details. All sides were savage. Many journalists and local observers have described what they called a "surrealism" in the Cambodian Civil War (1970-75). What they meant was that there was an almost complete disconnect between what was going on in the bistros and private clubs in the capital and what was going on not far away at the front. This is what we are seeing in the "Modern Society" video. I loved watching it, but Japanese beer, Hi-Fi and nice record shops just seem out of place considering what was going on. I'll post some photos from Phnom Penh in 1974, not to spoil the buzz but just as a sort of counterpoint. I will have to post them in the Darknet as they are very heavy. Child soldiers, collecting decapitated enemy heads, massacres of whole families, rocket attacks with carnage on the streets of Phnom Penh.

That's a shame, it's really well done, nice handheld, great track and a good vibe. It shows how powerful media can be while showing a place that seems to be on par with the rest of the world at the time. Too bad everything was destroyed

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 10:01 pm I'll post some photos from Phnom Penh in 1974, not to spoil the buzz but just as a sort of counterpoint. I will have to post them in the Darknet as they are very heavy. Child soldiers, collecting decapitated enemy heads, massacres of whole families, rocket attacks with carnage on the streets of Phnom Penh.

Did you forget about this? I'm curious to see the other side of the story.
Though fully understand if you don't feel like digging them up, sounds a bit horrid.

Now I see some interest in the topic I will get onto it.

I didn't know ABA had a branch here in 1974.