S3 Ep1: The Invasion (Part One): Counting Bodies Floating Down the Mekong

In April 1970, bodies began drifting down the Mekong into South Vietnam. They were ethnic Vietnamese civilians, killed by the forces of a Cambodian government that had held power for a matter of weeks. The new regime had declared war on an army it could not fight, and turned on the people it could reach instead.Time Period Covered: April 1970What was the crisis facing the new Cambodian government in April 1970? Why were the Vietnamese communities subjected to massacres? What circumstances led to a US invasion of Cambodia?In this episode Lachlan explores the horrible aftermath of the coup against Sihanouk, as a panicked new regime produces a pogrom against an innocent group of civilians. The communist Vietnamese armies take much of the countryside. Journalists disappear as they report on a Vietnam War that has spilled over the border. The Nixon White House faces a decision.SourcesChandler “Tragedy of Cambodian History”Short “Pol Pot”Shawcross “Sideshow”Kamm “Report from a Stricken Land”Sak Satsukhan “The Khmer Republic at War”Wilfred Deac “Road to the Killing Fields”Walter Isaacson “Kissinger”Kiernan “How Pol Pot Came to Power”Etcheson “Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea”