In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare

In early 1973, Norodom Sihanouk travelled down the Ho Chi Minh trail and back onto Cambodian soil for the first time since the coup. China Pictorial published a special issue of photographs to prove it. In the background of several of them stand men the prince had been told not to name.Time Period Covered: January to August 1973How much did Sihanouk know about the Khmer Rouge he was selling to the world? Why did the Paris Peace Accords bring peace to Vietnam but not Cambodia? What happened when the prince returned to Cambodian soil for the first time since the coup?In this episode, Lachlan begins a three-part exploration of one of the most important and brutal years of the Cambodian Civil War -- through the eyes of its top billing star, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Deposed, exiled, and installed in Beijing, the prince has become the face of a resistance movement that privately despises him -- and 1973 sees him wheeled out like never before.Three primary sources track the prince across these six months. His propaganda memoir, My War with the CIA, written with the infamous Wilfred Burchett, sells a rosy vision of the National Front's future Cambodia to a western audience -- one with no mention of the communists actually running the show. A special issue of China Pictorial documents his secret journey down the Ho Chi Minh trail and back into the liberated zones -- where the real power stands quietly in the background of the photographs. And a remarkable interview with the legendary Oriana Fallaci, in which the script falls away, and the prince says things you would not expect a man in his position to ever admit.Meanwhile, the ceasefire that was supposed to follow the Paris Peace Accords is dead on arrival in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge refuse to stop a war they are winning, and the American bombing builds toward its final crescendo.Sources:Norodom Sihanouk & Wilfred Burchett -My War with the CIAChina Pictorial 1973 -Samdech Sihanouk's Inspection Tour of the Cambodian Liberated ZoneOriana Fallaci -Interview with Sihanouk, New York Times 1973Norodom Sihanouk -Prisoner of the Khmer RougePhilip Short -Pol Pot: Anatomy of a NightmareMilton Osbourne - SihanoukDavid Chandler -Tragedy of Cambodian HistoryBen Kiernan -How Pol Pot Came to PowerNew York Times Book Review -James C. Thomson Jr., "Prince of Peace" 1973

At the beginning of 1972, Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces fought each other in the temple complex at Angkor. In Phnom Penh, a city swollen with refugees and rocked by bombings, the radios played Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea. It was the peak of Cambodia's golden age of music, and it had three years left.Time Period Covered: 1972How did a golden age of music emerge during the Cambodian Civil War? How did Lon Nol survive the fallout of Chenla II? What did the clashes between communists and government produce around Angkor?In this episode, Lachlan returns to the view from Phnom Penh as the Cambodian Civil War truly begins to live up to its name. The Khmer Rouge had amassed tens of thousands of troops and were challenging not only Lon Nol's struggling regime, but also their Vietnamese comrades in arms. Most notably, at Angkor -- where fighting will erupt around the temple complex at the beginning of the year.Meanwhile while the government lost more control of the countryside, Lon Nol continued to consolidate his own power. Sidelining much more capable politicians, while the United States stood idly by as his dastardly little brother, Lon Non, used violent and grubby means of propping up the new president - and his own position.The refugee crisis in Phnom Penh continues, and Lachlan looks into the different stories of individuals effected by the war who fled to the capital.And, the backdrop to all of this chaos? Cambodia's golden age of rock & roll.Dont forget to check out the complete history of Angkor on YouTube.Check out www.shadowsofutopia.com/support to help out the show -- or leave a review on the platform you are using! Thank youSources:Wilfred Deac -The Road to the Killing FieldsSutsakhan -The Khmer Republic at WarDavid Chandler -Tragedy of Cambodian HistoryShawcross -SideshowNew York Times -Various Reporting 1972Craig Etcheson -The Rise and Demise of Democratic KampucheaOral History Project -Brigham Young CollegeHaing Ngor -A Cambodian OdysseyJim Laurie -Last HelicopterDee Peyok -Away from Beloved LoverNew Cambodia Magazine 1972 -various issues

Finished up a complete re-do of the Angkor episodes into a new three part series. Here to clear up whats going on with that - easiest thing is to watch the full thing on YouTube, or go back to season one and listen to parts 1-3. Also support the show ! https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.htmlAlso check out the latest season of Who Killed Haing Ngor? out now

In February 1972 Richard Nixon flew to Beijing to shake Mao's hand. In May he went to Moscow. In between, North Vietnam launched the largest conventional offensive of the war and American bombers returned in force. All of it, in one way or another, was about how to leave Vietnam without appearing to lose it.Time Period Covered: 1971 to 1973How do you get out of a war without losing it? What did Nixon's opening to China have to do with Vietnam? And how much of 'peace' in 1972 was about diplomacy, and how much was about the election?In this episode, Lachlan examines the pivotal year of 1972. North Vietnam launches the Spring Offensive, the largest conventional campaign of the war, while American air power returns on a massive scale. At the same time, Nixon travels to Beijing and Moscow, reshaping the Cold War balance and strengthening his position at home.Behind the scenes, Henry Kissinger conducts secret negotiations in Paris. The Oval Office tapes reveal a colder logic: South Vietnam may not survive indefinitely, but if it lasts long enough, the United States can leave on its own terms. Cambodia, meanwhile, remains entangled in bombing, secrecy, and executive overreach, part of the same governing culture that produces Watergate.By January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords are signed. American prisoners are coming home. Nixon has won a landslide re-election on promises of peace.But the settlement leaves North Vietnamese troops in the South, freezes the battlefield in place, and offers no real solution for Cambodia.The war, in other words, is ending. Just not for everyone.Sources:Short Mao: The Man Who Built ChinaHastings Vietnam: An Epic TragedyMiller The Vietnam War: A Documentary ReaderVarious Recordings: Nixon Whitehouse 1971-2Shawcross Sideshow

In this extended interview, I’m joined by historian Matt Galway, author of Global Maoism, to unpack the intellectual, ideological, and historical foundations of Maoism and Cambodian communism.We begin with Galway’s academic background and how the Khmer Rouge became a central focus of his research, before moving into core Marxist concepts such as dialectics, contradiction, and why communists historically understood Marxism as a science rather than a belief system.From there, we turn to the Cambodian students in Paris, particularly Hou Yuon, examining the seriousness of their Marxist education, their intellectual commitments, and the long-term consequences of their ideological formation. We explore the “Three Ghosts,” the growing divide between intellectuals and the Khmer Rouge leadership, and how revolutionary paranoia hardened into purges.The conversation then widens to Maoism itself: the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Maoism’s distinctive features compared to orthodox Marxism-Leninism, and how Maoism evolved into a flexible, exportable revolutionary model. We conclude by discussing communism as a quasi-religious system, touching on Pol Pot, Buddhism, and how revolutionary ideology functioned in Democratic Kampuchea.

In 1972 a Phnom Penh schools inspector named Ith Sarin spent nine months inside Khmer Rouge territory and came back to write about it. Around the same time a French scholar named Francois Bizot spent three months chained in a jungle camp called M-13, interrogated daily by Duch. Between them they left the two most detailed accounts of the Khmer Rouge before it took power, and they do not describe the same regime.Time Period Covered: 1971 to 1972Why would someone join the Khmer Rouge? How would people view the parts of the country now being run by the communists? What was M-13, and why is it so important?In this episode, Lachlan returns to one of the most invaluable insights into the prototype regime of Democratic Kampuchea and the countryside control of the Khmer Rouge: Ith Sarin's Regrets for the Khmer Soul, a detailed account of life under the communists for nine months, which is not as damning as some might expect.This is in sharp contrast to another memoir from this same period, Francois Bizot's The Gate, in which he recounts his imprisonment at M-13, the jungle prototype of Tuol Sleng.Woven through these two sides of the story is the evolution of the Khmer Rouge into a group taking over the functions of a state, and applying the blueprint of revolution they had settled on to the Cambodian population they controlled, which numbered in the millions.Check out my visit to M13 at YouTube or https://www.patreon.com/Sources:David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History Philip Short Pol PotIth Sarin Regrets for the Khmer Soul (available at https://www.mekongriverpress.com/)Francois Bizot The GateECCC Testimony Kang Gek Iev (Duch)Henri Locard Jungle Heart of the Khmer RougeNorodom Sihanouk My War with the CIABen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to PowerSophal Ear The Khmer Rouge Cannon (Phd Thesis)Ian Harris Buddhism Under Pol PotAlex Hinton Why Did They Kill? 

This episode is a follow-up to the two-hour discussion I had with historian Henri Locard. The video of that full conversation is available for free on Patreon right here (or just go to https://www.patreon.com/shadowsofutopia) - no sign up required.Henri Locard is a prominent scholar of the Khmer Rouge, he testified as an expert witness at the ECCC, and has written extensively on the subject. Most notably Pol Pot's Little Red Book, a collection of the slogans used by the Khmer Rouge, and most recently, Jungle Heart of the Khmer Rouge, a biography of Phi Phuon, Pol Pot's Jarai bodyguard. He also has an upcoming book about the extent of the Khmer Rouge prison system that he is looking to find a publisher for.Unlike last time, in our 'discussion', the focus is tighter. I ask Henri four main questions, particularly the ones that we hadn't got to last time, and while he still drifts a little in his answers (as he does), this is a more concentrated exchange that digs deep into how he sees Cambodia’s past and present.We talk about the meaning of the “Super Great Leap Forward,” the myths of the so-called “hydraulic city” and how they shaped Khmer Rouge policy, the true extent of the regime’s prison system (which Henri argues was more than three times what the ECCC has documented), and finally, what he believes is the single best book written about the Khmer Rouge.Henri has a habit of challenging accepted ideas about Cambodian history, but not in the revisionist way of minimizing the regime’s crimes. He re-examines long-held assumptions, particularly about just how widespread the brutality of the Khmer Rouge was. What makes his perspective powerful is his deep, lived connection to the country, and his long study of how the Khmer Rouge prison network worked. And as you’ll hear, the conversation begins in one place, loops back around, and then veers in an unexpected direction by the end.

You've seen The Killing Fields, you probably know that Haing Ngor, who played Dith Pran in the film won an oscar. You might also know that he was murdered in Los Angeles. But the version of that story you've known for years... isn't true.Patricia Nunan, or MP, is a veteran journalist who has worked for a variety of well regarded institutions. She is now tackling the murder of Haing Ngo - completely challenging the narrative that I had assumed was completely sorted since the late 90's.I urge you to subsribe to Who Killed Haing Ngor - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tKU5RgGYYrw71iGj7Q9s4Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-killed-haing-ngor/id1674928262Website: https://www.whokilledhaingngor.com/Instagram: who_killed_haing_ngor

He trained as a doctor in the Khmer Rouge's main hospital during the civil war and worked as a surgeon in Phnom Penh under Democratic Kampuchea. Asked what went wrong, his answer was that nothing did, not until 1977. He does not blame Pol Pot. He blames saboteurs, factions and the Vietnamese, which is exactly what the regime told him to believe, and he still does. In this bonus episode, I sit down to go through and explain an interview I recently conducted with an ex-Khmer Rouge doctor, who we will refer to as 'Uncle'.He lived through the events we have been covering so extensively in the last few episodes of the podcast: the start of the war, Sihanouk's call for his people to join the resistance against Lon Nol, the Vietnamese communists fighting in Cambodia, training to become a Khmer Rouge doctor in their primary hospital during the civil war, and then going on to become a surgeon in Phnom Penh during the regime's time in power.While he obviously has certain biases and beliefs about what the Khmer Rouge were, what went wrong, and why, this is still a fascinating piece of history to contend with. Hearing from the Khmer Rouge themselves about what they felt they were trying to accomplish, his own thoughts about communism, and his conviction that nothing was going wrong in the country until 1977. He did not blame Pol Pot but, like many Khmer Rouge, he instead blamed 'factions', bad actors, saboteurs, and those who were colluding with the Vietnamese.We get a very one-sided view of the story here, and I put it into context for you, and challenge the views this Khmer Rouge doctor had come to believe about their war, their time in power, and who was really responsible for what happened.I must extend a deep gratitude to Chhay Lim, who organised this trip, and organised contacts for me to be able to speak with. 

In this bonus podcast episode, I’ve invited veteran journalist Jim Laurie to reflect on a lifetime spent amid global upheaval. From the Nixon incursion into Cambodia to the oblivious tranquility of Phnom Penh before war erupted—Laurie shares his remarkable memories, including a poignant love story with a local woman, a comparison between the wars in Saigon and Cambodia, and the shock of revisiting Cambodia in 1979 to find destruction everywhere.This episode is enhanced by visuals, including archival footage, that bring his narrative powerfully to life. If you have the opportunity to watch on YouTube, you’ll gain an even richer experience.Watch it at https://youtu.be/hBSejgATaB8

In February 1971 Lon Nol suffered a stroke and was flown to Hawaii to recover. Many hoped he would not come back. He did, and by December the army under his command had suffered a defeat on Route 6 from which it never recovered.Time Period Covered: March to December 1971What was the political fallout from Lon Nol's stroke? How did race and religion become such a key theme of his regime? What led to the worst military defeat of the Cambodian Civil War?In this episode, Lon Nol returns to Cambodia after recovering from a mild stroke in Hawaii. While many hoped he might step aside, and that the US might provoke a change in leadership, Lon Nol remained in power. His little brother's influence grew, and his obsession with race and religion became even more pronounced. As the Vietnam War played out on Cambodian land, the carnage of American bombs became a regular occurrence. Meanwhile, politics in Phnom Penh leaned toward military dictatorship. By the end of the year, the Khmer Republic had to face its worst military defeat, one it would not recover from.Check out www.shadowsofutopia.com/episodes/ for maps and diagramsSources:Wilfred Deac The Road to the Killing FieldsCraig Etcheson The Rise and Demise of Democratic KampucheaSat Sutsakhan The Khmer Republic at WarElizabeth Becker When The War Was OverDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian HistoryHenry Kamm Report From a Stricken Land

In this episode, I talk with journalist and author Sebastian Strangio about the border tensions between Cambodia and Thailand that have escalated in July 2025. Sebastian is the Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat and one of the region’s leading journalists. He’s a former reporter at the Phnom Penh Post, and the author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia (re-released as Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond) and In the Dragon’s Shadow, a study of China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia. We start with the political figure who has shaped Cambodia for decades, Hun Sen, and trace how his rise from Khmer Rouge defector to Prime Minister led to the creation of a powerful political dynasty. We then look at the handover of power to his son, Hun Manet, and what that has meant for Cambodian politics in the last two years. From there, we shift focus to Thailand and explore the structure of Thai politics today. Who holds power? How have coups and party shifts shaped its modern system? And how does that compare to Cambodia’s more centralized model? This helps us understand one of the key triggers of the current crisis: a leaked phone call between Hun Sen and former Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. We then move into the border dispute itself. We look at the long history of territorial claims, colonial-era maps, and temple flashpoints like Preah Vihear and Ta Moan. And we ask how this latest confrontation fits into broader patterns of nationalism, political theatre, and regional rivalry. Finally, we explore what role public opinion and media narratives are playing on both sides of the border. 

Hello everyone, I've put together a quick look at the long history of the Thai Cambodia border dispute to compliment what I'm sure many of you are reading and watching in newspapers and on television. The escalation is far from good, and I hope it simmers down back to - as I'll discuss - a normal state of not-quite-peaceful.I cover the history from 900 CE to 2025, and everything from the 1794 retrocession of Battambang, the Franco-Thai War, Sihanouks ICJ case in 1962, Khmer Rouge border clashes and spies, to the more recent disputes about Preah Vihear.Much of this is based off of a recent bonus episode I made for Patreon, so for those that have listened to that, apologies for some of the overlap.www.shadowsofutopia.com/support 

In late 1970 the Khmer Republic launched its first major offensive of the war, an attempt to reopen Route 6 and relieve the town of Kompong Thom. It was the first test of whether Lon Nol's army could actually fight.Time Period Covered: June 1970 to January 1971How did the Khmer Republic try to take back control of Cambodia? What was Operation Chenla I, and what did it reveal about the Cambodian army? What was the 'Lon Nol line'?In this episode, we follow the Lon Nol government as it attempts to prove that the Khmer Republic can fight and win. After the initial chaos of the coup and the brief US incursion, Cambodia's leaders launch their first large-scale offensive: Operation Chenla I. We look at how the Cambodians, with American and South Vietnamese support, attempt to open Route 6, retake lost territory, and secure the Lon Nol strategy.Please see this link for Chenla Offensive Visuals and Maps: https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/episodes/the-khmer-republic-chenla-oneSources:Wilfred Deac The Road to the Killing FieldsCraig Etcheson The Rise and Demise of Democratic KampucheaSat Sutsakhan The Khmer Republic at WarVarious New York Times Articles June 1970CBS News September 4 1970Ros Sereysothea (song)David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian HistoryHenry Kamm Report From a Stricken LandHaing Ngor Surival in the Killing FieldsPresidential Briefings 1970 (CIA reading room)Lon Nol - Nixon Correspondance (Office of the Historian)

On April 3rd, 1970, a former maths teacher named Kaing Guek Eav walked out of prison in the general amnesty that followed the coup. He is better known as Duch. Within a year he would be running a jungle prison called M-13, and within five, the interrogation centre at Tuol Sleng.Time Period Covered: April 1970 to July 1971Why was Duch released from prison on April 3rd, 1970? How did Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge transition from small guerrilla enclaves to administering huge areas of Cambodia? What exactly was 'Independence Mastery', and why was it so central to the Khmer Rouge mindset?In this episode, we pivot from Lon Nol's takeover to the Cambodian communist perspective, exploring how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge navigated the chaotic months following the coup. We follow Duch's unexpected release from prison, track Pol Pot's return journey from Beijing and Hanoi, and see how the Khmer Rouge began absorbing millions of Cambodians into so-called 'liberated zones'. Along the way we look at the principle of Independence Mastery, the uneasy alliance with the Vietnamese, and the early precursor to S-21 known as M-13. We also uncover the paranoid mindset driving the Khmer Rouge's suspicion of outside influence, including alleged assassination plots and forced confessions, shadows of the horror to come.SourcesChandler - Tragedy of Cambodian History and Voices From S21Short - Pol PotKiernan - How Pol Pot Came To PowerECCC Archives - Duch Trial 2009Heder - Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese ModelEdwards - CambodgeHarris - Buddhism Under Pol Pot

On April 30th, 1970, Richard Nixon went on television to announce that American and South Vietnamese troops were crossing into Cambodia. He called it an incursion, not an invasion, and promised it would be brief. Within a week four students were dead at Kent State, and within two months the Americans were gone again. The war they left behind was not.Time Period Covered: May to June 1970Why did Nixon invade Cambodia in May 1970? What impact did the 'Cambodian Incursion' have on the war in Vietnam? How did it affect Cambodia?In part two of our discussion of the situation in Cambodia after the coup, we see how the Nixon White House responded to the crisis. Lachlan asks whether the decision Nixon and Kissinger made was the right one, or whether there was a right one at all. We look at the circumstances that brought about the decision, what options were on the table, and the impact of Nixon's speech announcing the 'incursion'. Then we look at the Cambodia Campaign itself, the fighting that overtakes much of the country, and the outcomes this had in the short and long term.Sources:Chandler “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”James Sterba "G.I's in Cambodia" (New York Times)

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”

Season Two covers fifteen years and more than thirty hours, from a newly independent Cambodia in 1955 to the coup that ends Sihanouk's rule in March 1970. This episode is the whole arc in one sitting.Time Period Covered: 1955 to 1970How does the Communist Party of Kampuchea form, and how does a schoolteacher named Saloth Sar end up leading it?What happened to Tou Samouth?Why did the Khmer Rouge want a 'super great leap forward', and what did the original one do to China?What does Theravada Buddhism have to do with communist ideology?Why did Sihanouk cut off the United States, and why did he change his mind?How did the Vietnam War begin, and how did Cambodia get pulled into it?What was the Samlaut Rebellion, and who actually started it?How does a communist movement with almost no weapons decide to start a war?What happened at Hue and My Lai in 1968?Why did Nixon bomb a neutral country in secret?Were the CIA behind the coup against Sihanouk?This recap is for anyone who wants a refresher before Season Three, or a way into the series without listening to fifteen years of history in full. It covers the formation and slow growth of the Cambodian communist movement, the ideological currents reaching Cambodia from Moscow and Beijing, the collapse of the American position in Vietnam and its spread across the border, and the political unravelling that ends with Sihanouk deposed and the country at war with itself.

On March 18th, 1970, while Norodom Sihanouk was abroad, the Cambodian National Assembly voted unanimously to remove him from power. The men behind it expected to stabilise the country. Within weeks Sihanouk had joined a resistance front alongside the communists he had spent years hunting, and Cambodia was in a civil war it would not survive intact.Time Period Covered: 1969 to 1970Were the CIA responsible for the coup against Sihanouk? Why did Lon Nol and Sirik Matak finally make a move against the prince? What did Sihanouk's removal from power mean for the Khmer Rouge?In the final episode of this season, Lachlan covers the circumstances surrounding the plot to remove Norodom Sihanouk from his position as head of state. Lon Nol and Sirik Matak will take advantage of the problem of Vietnamese troop presence on Cambodian land and turn it into a political necessity to oust the prince. They would make several miscalculations, and the plan would largely backfire, as Sihanouk joins a resistance front with who he thinks are the Khmer Rouge, as well as the Vietnamese, and receives Chinese aid. Lon Nol's new government will have to resort to terrible measures to try and deliver on their promises.SourcesChandler “Tragedy of Cambodian History” and “Brother Number One”Short “Pol Pot”Shawcross “Sideshow”Heder “Cambodian Communism”Sihanouk “My War With The CIA”Osbourne “Sihanouk”Jagel “Khmer Nationalist”Haing Ngor “Survival in the Killing Fields”Kamm “Report from a Stricken Land”

In March 1969, American B-52s began bombing Cambodia, a neutral country, in an operation so secret that even the Air Force's own reporting system was falsified to hide it. The campaigns were codenamed Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert and Supper. The menu would run for fourteen months.Time Period Covered: 1968 to 1969How did Cambodia become the 'key' to Nixon's plan to end the Vietnam War? What was the secret bombing of Cambodia? How many bombs did the US drop on Cambodia? What factors led to the end of Sihanouk's leadership of the country?In this episode Lachlan looks at the gradually degrading situation in Cambodia, and the destabilisation prior to a change in the White House that will only make matters worse. We look at Sihanouk's movies, the Cambodian economy, and the Khmer Rouge as they continue their 'armed struggle' across the country. Nixon's ascension to power is explored, his plans for a quick end to the Vietnam War, and the role Cambodia could play in producing this. The bombing, done in secret, is explained, as well as some comments on the general discourse around the idea of 'bombs over Cambodia' and the correction Kiernan made in his cowritten article.Check out the YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/8QdRvpbMr_w?si=vTEurMs6dDEmjjHISourcesShort “Pol Pot”Chandler “Tragedy of Cambodian History”Shawcross “Sideshow”Mark Atwood Lawrence “Concise History of the Vietnam War”Kiernan “How Pol Pot Came To Power”Osbourne “Sihanouk”Heder “Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese Model”Article Linkshttps://quillette.com/2023/12/07/kissinger-and-cambodia/https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/cambodian-genocide-program/us-involvement/united-states-bombing-cambodia-1965-1973Supporthttps://www.patreon.com/shadowsofutopia

How many journalists were able to set foot in Cambodia before the revolution, during the revolution and after the revolution?Not many.Elizabeth Becker is one of those people. In 1973 she began covering the war in Cambodia, in 1978 she was part of a three person delegation which saw the first western journalists to enter into Democratic Kampuchea. There she was witness to, as she describes it a "Twilight Zone" version of Cambodia.She also met Pol Pot. The end of her trip ended in tragedy as one member of the delegation was murdered the same night.A fictionalised version of that story is the subject of Rithy Panh's new film Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot, and I got to speak to Elizabeth about her newest book "You Don't Belong Here", as well as her story and work in Cambodia, witnessing the effects of the 1973 US bombing campaign, her tour of Democratic Kampuchea and much more.Please NoteAt the beginning of the interview, Elizabeth references a review by David Chandler from 1987 and what it meant to hear this critique in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals. She also gives her reasoning behind why she thinks that criticism was given. I had failed to mention to her before the interview or at the time that I had worked with David previously, which I regret. However, I feel it is necessary to mention that Chandler had later recommended "When the War Was Over" in his 'top five books' that someone should read about Cambodia. This was amongst high praise and the reasons he gave for his initially critical review in the late 80s:"She manages to tell the dramatic sides, the painful aspects, she builds up a very clear and moving picture. She worked in Cambodia in the early 1970s so she got a feel for the country, she understood what had been damaged and how people were affected. It is a very effective book and I believe that it will stand up to the test of time. I had reservations initially because she wasn’t an insider, and like so many writers she goes into the story through the dark side of the Khmers, the spooky nature of the land and people- in this way foreshadowing Philip Short. I don’t buy into that at all. It’s a small reservation I have, but otherwise this is a wonderful book." That recommendation can be found at https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-books-cambodia/ Please visit https://www.patreon.com/shadowsofutopia to watch the video of the interview.

On the morning of March 16th, 1968, the soldiers of Charlie Company entered the hamlet of My Lai expecting to meet a Viet Cong battalion. They met villagers eating breakfast. Over the next four hours, more than 500 civilians were killed. Nobody fired at the Americans that morning, and only one man ever went to prison.Time Period Covered: December 1967 to March 1968What role does the Tet Offensive play in the My Lai Massacre? What circumstances in troop deployment and officer training influenced what happened? Why were more than 500 civilians murdered by Charlie Company?In this episode, Lachlan confronts the horrors that occurred in My Lai on the 16th of March 1968. He attempts to answer why more than 500 civilians were killed, what the context of these killings was, as well as the role that officers such as William Calley had in producing the massacre.For Photos and Maps of the My Lai Assault please visit https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/episodes/tet-part-two-the-my-lai-massacre** Be advised of a mistake in the episode. Hugh Thompson did not receive the "Medal of Honour", but a US Army Soldier's Medal. I meant this as a generality but forgot there is a genuine "Congressional Medal of Honour". Apologies. **SourcesThe Peers Inquiry of the Massacre at My Lai 1970Edward Miller The Vietnam War: A Documentary ReaderWilliam Thomas Allison My LaiThe Vietnam War Geoffrey War and Ken BurnsThe Vietnam War Mark Atwood LawrenceAnatomy of US and South Korean Massacres In the Year of the Monkey Heonik Kwon

Lachlan sits down with Matt Madden, translator of Chan Samoeun’s Prisoners of Class. The book, having been recently released in English for the first time, is an amazing example of a Khmer Rouge survivor memoir. They discuss Matt’s journey in finding the original book, meeting the author and translating it over many years. The book itself, including amazing details and descriptions of the world of the ‘life slave’ in Democratic Kampuchea, are discussed and thought about, as well as the contributions to the work that Matt has produced. Please go out and get yourself a copy of the book, the best place to do so is from https://www.mekongriverpress.com/ where you can preview the book, get access to the supplementary material, as well as purchase various editions.   Please take the time to leave a rating or review wherever you get it from! 

In the early hours of January 31st, 1968, communist forces attacked more than a hundred cities and towns across South Vietnam at once. In Hue, the old imperial capital, they stayed for four weeks. When the city was retaken, mass graves held the bodies of at least 2,800 civilians.Time Period Covered: 1968What did the Tet Offensive achieve? How was the Battle of Hue waged? Why were almost 3,000 people murdered by the Viet Cong?This episode covers the Tet Offensive of early 1968. Lachlan links the media coverage of the event, with the extreme scenes in Saigon, to the reality of the offensive and what the communists hoped to achieve. In Hue, perhaps the most stunning battle of the offensive took place, as for four weeks the city was occupied by the NVA and NLF. During this time, as a brutal campaign of house-to-house combat took place, the communists embarked upon a reign of terror to reshape the city they had taken.SourcesEdward Miller The Vietnam War: A Documentary ReaderNha Ca Mourning Headband For HueThe Vietnam War Geoffrey War and Ken BurnsThe Vietnam War Mark Atwood LawrenceVietnam Max HastingsThe Viet-Cong Strategy of Terror Douglas PikeHue Mark Bowden

On January 17th, 1968, the Khmer Rouge attacked a military post at Bay Damram in Battambang province. It was the official beginning of their armed struggle, launched by a movement with almost no weapons. The phrase they used for it was a revolution waged with empty hands.Time Period Covered: 1967 to 1968How did the CPK develop their plan to genuinely start a war in Cambodia? Why did Sihanouk seek rapprochement with the United States? How did the bombing of Cambodia begin?January 1968 will prove to be a pivotal month for Vietnamese, Cambodian and American interests in the war. This episode details how the Cambodian communist movement finally began an armed struggle against the Sihanouk government, how the United States negotiated a deal to bomb Cambodia, and how the Vietnamese began a counter attack against the Saigon regime.SourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a NightmareDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number OneBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power and Peasants & Politics in KampucheaMilton Osbourne SihanoukSteve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese ModelElizabeth Becker When the War was OverNic Dunlop Lost ExecutionerECCC Case 001 Witness Testimony 2009Shawcross Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of CambodiaCIA FOIA

Between 1966 and 1969, teenagers with armbands beat their teachers to death in Chinese schoolyards, and roughly a million people died at the hands of their own countrymen. Mao had asked for it. Less than a decade later, the Khmer Rouge would put children in charge of adults for reasons that were not unrelated.Time Period Covered: 1964 to 1969What led to Mao's launching of a 'cultural revolution' in the People's Republic? What were the aims of this movement? Why did perhaps a million people die at the hands of their countrymen in less than four years?In what could be considered a belated part two to the episode introducing Maoism and the Great Leap Forward, Lachlan revisits China and attempts to explain the Cultural Revolution. Officially launched in 1966, this period of chaos, an example of a cult of personality being used to destroy a system and replace it with a kind of perpetual revolution, would lead China into a near state of anarchy.Radical young Maoists, organised into groups of Red Guards, terrorised those they considered insufficiently loyal to the ideological mandate set by Mao. SourcesPhilip Short MaoFrank Dikotter The Cultural Revolution: A People's HistoryAndrew Walder China Under MaoRichard Baum Lecture Series

Special guest Matthew Jagel joins Lachlan to talk about his new book: Khmer Nationalist. The book is an exploration of Cambodian history using Son Ngoc Thanh as the central focus, and they join up to talk about Cambodian nationalism, the influence of Imperial Japan, Sihanouk's antagonism, the Khmer Serei and the CIA. Visit https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501769337/khmer-nationalist/  to purchase the book or find Matthew on social media at https://twitter.com/matthew_jagel?s=20  or listen to Matthew's podcast "Napalm in the Morning" on Itunes and Spotify.Visit www.shadowsofutopia.com/support to contribute to the show.

On April 2nd, 1967, in the Samlaut district of Battambang province, a group of villagers killed two soldiers collecting rice. What followed was not a rebellion so much as a reprisal, and Sihanouk decided he knew exactly who was behind it. He was, for the most part, wrong.Time Period Covered: 1967What was the Samlaut Rebellion, and how did it start? Who was responsible for this outbreak of violence? What leads to Khieu Samphan disappearing overnight?In the first part of an explanation of how the Cambodian Civil War begins, Lachlan looks into the circumstances that lead to an outbreak of violence in the province of Battambang. Then, on April 2nd, 1967, a series of murders turns into a genuine eruption of peasant unrest and government reprisal: the Samlaut Rebellion. But who started it? Was it the Khmer Rouge, as Sihanouk thinks, and just who are these Cambodian communists in his eyes?We also explain the roles of three Cambodian intellectuals that will play a prominent role in the Khmer Rouge, but a tactical decision to put them as the 'face' of the movement rather than the 'actual' leadership: "The Three Ghosts". Khieu Samphan, Hu Nim and Huo Yuon.SourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a NightmareDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number OneBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power and Peasants & Politics in KampucheaMilton Osbourne SihanoukSteve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese ModelElizabeth Becker When the War was OverNic Dunlop Lost ExecutionerECCC Case 001 Witness Testimony 2009

In March 1965, American aircraft began a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that would run for three and a half years. In the same period, Pol Pot walked out of the jungle to Hanoi and Beijing, and came back with a different idea of what Cambodian communism was for.Time Period Covered: 1964 to 1967How does the 'Vietnam War' begin? How did the Communist Party of Kampuchea get its name? Why did Sihanouk start making so many movies in the 1960s?In this episode, Lachlan revisits Vietnam as LBJ wages war upon the North and the Viet Cong. Pol Pot leaves the jungle to visit Hanoi and Beijing, and changes the direction of Khmer communism. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, Sihanouk begins losing his magic touch as various quarters become less enamoured with his policies. The Cambodian Civil War approaches, as the war in Vietnam begins to spread.SourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a NightmareDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number OneBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to PowerMilton Osbourne SihanoukSteve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese ModelEdward Miller The Vietnam WarMark Atwood Lawrence A Concise History of the Vietnam WarDemocratic Kampuchea Livre Noir

The Khmer Rouge did not sell communism to Cambodian peasants in the language of Marx. They sold it in the language of Theravada Buddhism, using its grammar, its vocabulary and its habits of thought, to carry ideas that had nothing to do with it. That translation is one of the most under-examined reasons the revolution worked.Time Period Covered: 1963 to 1965Who was Nuon Chea? What does Buddhism have to do with Khmer Rouge ideology? Why did Sihanouk sever ties with the United States?In this episode we explore the impact of the fateful year of 1963 in Cambodia, as well as the circumstances the new Cambodian communist leadership were dealing with in the Vietnamese jungle. We also look at the difference between two influential future leaders of Democratic Kampuchea, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, as they play quite different roles for the organisation.This episode also explores the relationship between Theravada Buddhist language, grammar and thought, and the way this was used by the Khmer Rouge to transplant communist ideas into Cambodian minds.Finally, the episode concludes by explaining the reasons surrounding Sihanouk's distancing from the US and eventual cutting off of aid and relations between the two countries.SourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a NightmareDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number OneBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to PowerMilton Osbourne SihanoukSteve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese ModelNorodom Sihanouk My War with the CIAAlex Hinton Why Did They Kill?Show Contenthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.html 

On June 11th, 1963, a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down at a Saigon intersection, was doused in petrol, and set himself alight without moving or making a sound. The photograph went around the world. Five months later Ngo Dinh Diem was dead, and three weeks after that, so was John F. Kennedy.Time Period Covered: 1961 to 1963What is Agent Orange, and why did the Kennedy Administration decide to use it? How did Diem's regime collapse? What was the Buddhist Crisis?In the final part of our exploration into the beginnings of the 'Vietnam War', we look at the circumstances surrounding the early Kennedy years and how a 'prudent' approach to South Vietnam resulted in a number of problems, both immediate and in the future. We look in depth at Operation Ranch Hand, the decision to use defoliants in South Vietnam, and how the Diem regime becomes a no longer viable partner for the US and their wider strategic interests. We explain the Buddhist Crisis and the self-immolation of Quang Duc, and the competing visions of a new South Vietnam. Finally the coup against Diem, Kennedy's assassination, and the return of Pol Pot to the jungles of Vietnam represent a new chapter in the coming historical hurricane.SourcesChristopher Goscha Vietnam: A New HistoryFredrick Logevall The Embers of WarEdward Miller The Vietnam War & Reinterpreting the Buddhist Crisis (Modern Asian Studies November 2015)Neil Sheehan The Pentagon PapersGeoffrey Warner The United States and Vietnam 1945-1965 (International Affairs October 1972)William Buckingham The US Air Force and Herbicides in Southeast AsiaShow Contenthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.htmlSupporthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.html

In 1954 a CIA officer named Edward Lansdale arrived in Saigon to help build a country. What he helped build was a police state run by one Catholic family in a Buddhist nation, and within a decade the United States would arrange its destruction.Time Period Covered: 1954 to 1961How did a succession of US administrations become stuck in Vietnam? How did Diem's policies create the conditions for insurgency? What did the early activities of the NLF look like?In part two of our exploration of the path to the Second Indochina War, we focus on early American efforts to create a stable regime in South Vietnam. The activities of the CIA and Edward Lansdale in the aftermath of Geneva introduce this relationship, as well as the growing realisation in some quarters that perhaps Diem was not the best person for the job of leading the country. We look at the 'paradox' of Vietnam, why escalation slowly continued in the face of private doubts. NLF operations in the Mekong Delta are discussed from the point of view of those staging these actions, as well as those civilians affected by the authoritarianism of Diem and the intimidating tactics of those who wished to overthrow him. SourcesChristopher Goscha Vietnam: A New HistoryFredrick Logevall The Embers of WarEdward Miller The Vietnam WarNeil Sheehan The Pentagon PapersGeoffrey Warner The United States and Vietnam 1945-1965 (International Affairs October 1972)Show Contenthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.htmlSupporthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.html

The Geneva Accords divided Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel and promised elections within two years. The elections never happened. Instead, two states set about building themselves in opposite directions, and both killed a great many of their own people doing it.Time Period Covered: 1954 to 1963What occurred in a divided Vietnam in the aftermath of the Geneva Accords? How did so many die during the North Vietnamese 'Land Reform Campaign'? Why was South Vietnam described as an 'emerging fascist state'?In this first part of a mini-series on the origins of the Vietnam War, Lachlan investigates state building in the divided Vietnam. Exploring the ideology and benefactors of the separate regimes, we touch upon the thousands who died during the efforts to revolutionise the North, as well as similarly draconian methods to consolidate power in the hands of one family in the South.SourcesChristopher Goscha Vietnam: A New HistoryBen Kiernan Viet NamEdward Miller The Vietnam WarAlec Holcombe Mass Mobilisation in the Democratic Republic of VietnamShow Contenthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.htmlSupport https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.html

In July 1962, the secretary of the Cambodian communist party, Tuo Samouth, left his house in Phnom Penh at night and never came back. Nobody has ever established with certainty who killed him. What is certain is who replaced him.Time Period Covered: 1960 to 1963How did Pol Pot become leader of the Khmer Rouge? What did prominent communists like Khieu Samphan do in Sihanouk's Cambodia? Were there limits to Sihanouk's power and tightrope act?We begin with a reflection on how Cambodian history can permeate even seemingly mundane spaces, before looking in on a secret communist seminar led by the new leader of the Khmer Rouge. This episode revisits some loose ends left as the Cambodian communists began taking their own steps toward a movement independent of the Vietnamese, as well as how the roles in that party began taking shape. We learn about the mysterious death of Tuo Samouth, and the circumstances that precede the vitally important year of 1963.Sources Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History, Brother Number One, A History of CambodiaBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power Milton Osbourne SihanoukElizabeth Becker When the War was OverNorodom Sihanouk My War with the CIAShow Contenthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.htmlSupporthttps://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.html

One of the Khmer Rouge's central slogans called for a 'super great leap forward'. The original had killed somewhere in the order of forty-five million Chinese people less than two decades earlier, and the Cambodians knew that. They intended to do it faster.Time Period Covered: 1949 to 1962Why was one of the most prominent slogans of the Khmer Rouge about a 'super great leap forward'? What is Maoism, and why did the People's Republic of China provide a new ideological source for the world? Why did the USSR and the PRC split in the 1960s?This episode could be considered the third instalment in the history of communist ideology in the series. Lachlan discusses the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China, Mao, Maoism, and the circumstances surrounding the Great Leap Forward and its terrible consequences. The Chinese communists will provide the Khmer Rouge not only with material and economic aid once they come to power, but also with an ideological framework, a program, that the Cambodians will seek to recapitulate. This is an explanation of that program, as well as another hugely important factor in the coming chaos in Indochina: the ideological schism between the USSR and the PRC known as the Sino-Soviet Split.SourcesPhilip Short MaoJulia Lovell Maoism: A Global HistoryRichard Baum The Fall and Rise of ChinaFrank Dikotter Mao's Great Famine

The Communist Party of Kampuchea was founded in 1960 at a secret congress held in a room above Phnom Penh's railway station. Among the men who came out of it with senior positions were a schoolteacher named Saloth Sar and a man who would later be known as Nuon Chea. In public they were teachers, students and clerks. The party's very existence was a secret, and would stay one for another seventeen years.Time Period Covered: 1955 to 1960How does the Communist Party of Kampuchea form? How does Saloth Sar become a married man and teacher? What are the consequences of Sihanouk's neutral foreign policy?As peace broke out over Cambodia in the wake of the First Indochina War, the fledgling communist movement had to learn to survive in a newly independent country under the rule of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Numbers dwindling and unable to openly resist the government, the 'revolutionary organisation', as they began calling themselves, found an avenue for recruits in the schools of Phnom Penh. The man who would become Pol Pot became a teacher.Meanwhile, in an attempt to navigate a neutral path for Cambodia in the Cold War era, Sihanouk opens relations with China as well as the United States. This agenda will have consequences, as the CIA begins trying to undermine his government and even seek his removal. The resulting 'Bangkok Plot', a series of conspiracies against him, will be explained.SourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a NightmareDavid Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History, Brother Number One Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to PowerMilton Osbourne SihanoukElizabeth Becker When the War was OverNorodom Sihanouk My War with the CIAPeter Froberg Idling Song for an Approaching StormCraig Etcheson Overview of Hierarchy of Democratic KampucheaShow Content https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/dramatis-personae.html

This bonus episode covers roughly two thousand years of Cambodian history in a single sitting, from the Khmer Empire through to independence from France in 1953. It is a summary of everything in Season One, for anyone who wants a refresher before the series moves into the 1950s and 60s, or a way in without starting from episode one.Time Period Covered: Pre-history to 1955This bonus episode is for those who would like to remind themselves of the topics covered in the first season of the podcast, or for new listeners who might want a simple overview of Cambodian history as it relates to the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.This is an introduction to the themes of the series as a whole, the aims of the podcast, the Khmer Empire, the conditions relating to Cambodia's modernity and the French colonial period. The growth of nationalism, the events of the Second World War and efforts toward independence, including the early stages of a Cambodian communist movement, are also revisited.SupportInterview

On May 7th, 1954, a French garrison in a remote valley in northwest Vietnam surrendered to the Viet Minh after fifty-six days under siege. Dien Bien Phu ended French Indochina. It also set the terms of a peace conference in Geneva where Cambodia's communists would find they had no seat, and no allies willing to give them one.Time Period Covered: December 1953 to July 1955How does the First Indochina War end? What do the Geneva Accords mean for Cambodia? Who wins the 1955 Cambodian general election?Cambodia faces Viet Minh assaults around the country as the First Indochina War comes to its climax, but the French will suffer their most stunning defeat at Dien Bien Phu. World powers will convene to find a solution to the conflict. The resulting 'peace' will marginalise the Cambodian communist movement at the expense of the Vietnamese one, and Sihanouk will create a new political movement.Google Maps View of Dien Bien PhuSupport the showSourcesPhilip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian HistoryBen Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power Milton Osbourne Sihanouk Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History

In 1953, King Norodom Sihanouk launched a one-man international campaign to force France out of Cambodia, a performance one French general described as 'that of a madman, but a madman of genius'. By November 9th, it had worked.Time Period Covered: January - December 1953How does Cambodian Independence Day originate in November 1953? What does the First Indochina War look like in Cambodia? How does a young Pol Pot 'join the maquis'?Almost out of the blue, the Cambodian king will claim independence for his country and end almost a century of French colonial rule. Meanwhile, the First Indochina War will bring its ruin to the Cambodian countryside, and Saloth Sar will join the communist struggle against the French in the jungles.Sources Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History Milton Osborne Sihanouk Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History Ben Kiernan Viet Nam Edward Miller The Vietnam War

In 1951, on Vietnamese initiative, the Indochinese Communist Party was dissolved and reorganised along national lines. Among its successors was a small, obscure organisation called the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party. It would eventually become the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the party of the Khmer Rouge.Time Period Covered: 1947 - 1953How did the First Indochina War become part of the Cold War? When did the Khmer students studying in Paris become communists? What influenced Saloth Sar to become a revolutionary?This episode explains the way the first 'Vietnam War' began developing into something recognisably part of the Cold War. We also trace the path of the young Pol Pot as his studies in Paris come under the rising influence of communism. Cambodian politics and the return of Son Ngoc Thanh produce a change in the rule of King Sihanouk, and the early developments of what will become the Khmer Rouge's ideology begin taking shape.Sources Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History Milton Osborne Sihanouk Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power Edward Miller The Vietnam War

Between 2006 and 2012, Craig Etcheson worked as an investigator for the prosecution at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the UN-backed tribunal set up to try the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge. He has been studying the regime for more than thirty years, was a founder of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and testified at the tribunal as an expert witness.In this conversation we discuss his book Extraordinary Justice: Law, Politics, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunals and get into some of the complexities involved in this 'experiment', as he puts it: the shortcomings of the tribunal, interference from the Cambodian government, and the status of the cases still being heard.A conversation for anyone wondering what justice for the Cambodian genocide actually looked like, who was put on trial and who never was, and why it took three decades to happen.

In October 1949, a young scholarship student named Saloth Sar arrived in Paris. Back home, armed resistance to the returning French was gathering under the banner of the Khmer Issarak, and across the border the Viet Minh were already at war. The paths that open in these five years will lead, eventually, to the Khmer Rouge.Time Period Covered: 1945 - 1950What does the anti-colonial scene look like in Cambodia? Who are the Khmer Issarak, and how do nationalists and young Cambodian students relate to this movement as well as the growing war in Vietnam with the returning French?In this episode we trace the path that Saloth Sar, the young Pol Pot, takes to Paris, as well as the very important developments in Cambodian and world history taking place at this time. Resistance to French colonialism takes the shape of the Khmer Issarak, a banner which includes many different groups and figures, some open to communist ideology and some staunch nationalists. Leaders such as Dap Chhuon, Prince Chantaraingsey, Puth Chhay and Son Ngoc Minh are discussed, as well as the circumstances around the beginning of the First Indochina War. Meanwhile, Saloth Sar is introduced to communist ideology in Paris, and a group of students including Ieng Sary, Thioun Mumm and Keng Vannsak begin organising themselves along Marxist lines.Sources Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History Milton Osborne Sihanouk Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History Ben Kiernan Viet Nam Edward Miller The Vietnam War

On the night of March 9th, 1945, Japanese forces across Indochina moved against the French administration they had coexisted with for five years. By morning the colonial order was suspended, and Cambodia found itself (briefly, and almost by accident) independent.Time Period Covered: 1939 – 1945What is the Umbrella Revolt in Cambodia? How do nationalists like Son Ngoc Thanh react to the rise of Imperial Japan? And how does Norodom Sihanouk become king in 1941, at nineteen years old?This episode is an in-depth discussion of the events in Cambodia and Vietnam once the French presence in Indochina was diminished by Imperial Japan. Cambodian nationalism becomes a genuine force within the country. Monks protest, and some join revolutionary movements. The young men and women who will eventually form the core of the Khmer Rouge witness the world transform radically in just six years. The rise of the Viet Minh, the declaration of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the famous speech Ho Chi Minh makes to mark the occasion conclude the episode.Sources Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History and A History of Cambodia Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power and Viet Nam Milton Osborne Sihanouk Ho Chi Minh Declaration of Independence Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History

In April 1917, the German government put Vladimir Lenin on a train and sent him into the collapsing Russian Empire, calculating that a revolutionary might take Russia out of the war. Within five years there was a new kind of state on the map. Among the many colonised people watching from afar was a young Vietnamese man working in Paris under the name Nguyen Ai Quoc.Time Period Covered: 1917 – 1939How do you build a society out of the theories of Marx and Engels? Who was Lenin and why is he such an important communist figure? How did communism come to Indochina?Beginning with Lenin's arrival in 1917, this episode is a discussion of the evolution of Marxism from theory to practice, and the new version of the doctrine this creates: Marxism-Leninism. The Russian Revolution represents the entrance of a new civilisation onto the globe, one fuelled by the energy of communism, and a young Ho Chi Minh sees in it a way for his country to be freed from colonialism. The reign of Lenin gives way to Stalin, and terror, as we expand our vocabulary of communism in order to better understand the actions of the Khmer Rouge.

'To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss.' That was one of the sayings of Angkar, recited by Khmer Rouge cadre to prisoners across Democratic Kampuchea. The ideology underneath it took shape more than a century earlier, in the factory towns of industrial England.Time Period Covered: 1842 – 1900Who are the proletariat? Who wrote the Communist Manifesto? What was the context in which it was written?This episode is an introduction to the ideas of Marx and Engels, and more broadly to 'communism'. We begin with some common phrases used by the Communist Party of Kampuchea and their cadre that highlight the ideology of the movement. We then depart Southeast Asia for Europe in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and look at the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as they form a new view of history based on economics and class, and forecast revolution.Sources Friedrich Engels The Condition of the Working Class in England Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels The Communist Manifesto Henri Locard Pol Pot's Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar

In April 1925, a French resident named Félix Louis Bardez walked into the village of Kraang Laav to collect unpaid taxes. He was beaten to death, along with his militiaman and his interpreter. The trial that followed tells you more about how the protectorate actually worked than any amount of colonial paperwork.Time Period Covered: 1880 – 1938What did French control of Cambodia look like? How did this 'protectorate' function? What are the origins of Cambodian nationalism? And what was life like for your average Khmer in the early 20th century?In this episode, Lachlan covers the early reactions to French rule, the treatment of the Khmer by the imperial power, and how the protectorate functioned in practice. The Bardez killing opens onto a discussion of the culture of the Khmer living outside the major towns and cities, based on May Ebihara's groundbreaking fieldwork at Svay.The episode continues the early life of Saloth Sar and his family, and introduces Son Ngoc Thanh and Nagaravatta, the first Khmer-language newspaper.Sources David Chandler A History of Cambodia Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare May Ebihara Svay: A Khmer Village in CambodiaEpisode ContentMapGoogle Maps Image

In 1860 a French naturalist named Henri Mouhot, in the region collecting beetles and birds, was guided to the ruins at Angkor. He died of fever in Laos the following year, and his journals were published posthumously in Paris and London. Within three years Cambodia was a French protectorate.Time Period Covered: 1789 – 1887What happened in the years leading up to the French colonisation of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam? How did Cambodian rulers become so dependent on either Siam or Vietnam for protection?In this episode, Lachlan bridges the gap between Cambodia's 'middle period' and the dawn of French colonisation. We begin with the French Revolution and its links with the eventual Khmer Rouge revolution, then explore the imposition of Vietnamese control on Cambodia in the 19th century — the 'years of calamity', and the influence of that period on the psyche of a country dominated by an ascendant Siam and Vietnam.Then Mouhot's journey, and the different ways in which the French conquered Cambodia and Vietnam. We also have an introduction to the early years of Saloth Sar, otherwise known as Pol Pot.SourcesDavid Chandler A History of Cambodia Henri Mouhot Travels in Siam, Cambodia and Laos Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare

If you have read one book about Cambodia, there is a good chance David Chandler wrote it. A History of Cambodia has been the standard introduction for four decades, Brother Number One remains the essential biography of Pol Pot, and Voices from S-21 is the definitive study of the Khmer Rouge's central prison. He has testified twice as an expert witness at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, against Duch in Case 001, and against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in Case 002/01.I had the privilege of sitting down with Professor Chandler at his home in Melbourne to discuss the current state of Khmer Rouge historiography, his thoughts on the tribunal, whether the crimes of the Communist Party of Kampuchea can properly be called genocide, and his experience of visiting the country in 1981, so soon after it reopened to the outside world.David was Professor Emeritus at Monash University, where I first met him in 2011.

In the 1590s a Spaniard and a Portuguese, Blas Ruiz and Diogo Veloso, arrived in Cambodia and came close to taking the country over. It ended in a massacre and a farce, and it was Europe's first serious attempt at the place. The next one, two centuries later, worked.Time Period Covered: 1500 – 1825How will the forces of imperialism and colonialism come to the region of Indochina? What role will Europeans play in shaping what will eventually become the state of Cambodia?In this episode, Lachlan relays the ridiculous story of Ruiz and Veloso, and spends some time on what the larger forces of colonialism looked like around the globe at this time.The attention then shifts to France. The story of Pigneau de Béhaine, a French missionary stationed in Vietnam, sets up the long and tangential relationship between Vietnam and France — the conflict inside Vietnam, and the eventual unification of the kingdom under Emperor Gia Long with the missionary's help. The episode ends with 'the master's tea', the infamous Cambodian folktale about Vietnamese cruelty to the Khmer that can still be heard today.SourcesL.P. Briggs 'Spanish Intervention in Cambodia', T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 39, 1950 David Chandler A History of Cambodia Alex Hinton Why Did They Kill?

After Angkor was abandoned, the Khmer court moved south to the Mekong and spent the next four centuries surviving. By the eighteenth century, Cambodian kings were being installed and removed by Bangkok or Hue, and sometimes paying tribute to both at once. This is the part of Cambodian history that almost nobody covers, and it sets the terms for everything that follows.Time Period Covered: 1431 – 1800How did the Khmer go from a civilisation which dominated most of mainland Southeast Asia to a reduced vassal state of either the Siamese or the Vietnamese? Why did the capital move from Angkor? And why are the Vietnamese the 'hereditary enemy' of the Khmer?In this episode, Lachlan covers the 'middle period' or 'dark ages' — the move south, the courts at Longvek and Oudong, and the slow closing of the vice between Siam to the west and Vietnam to the east.The second half is a brief history of Vietnam: the long march south, the Trinh and the Nguyen, and a political culture built on entirely different foundations to the Khmer one. This eastern neighbour plays a vital role in the story of the region in the 20th century, and no history of the Khmer Rouge works without it.Sources David Chandler A History of Cambodia Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History