Roots and legacy of the Khmer Rouge

October 14, 2009
By Gaffar Peang-Meth, Guest Commentary
UPI Asia Online

Washington, DC, United States, — Cambodia’s missteps in the pursuit of a foreign policy of neutrality led to the removal from power of the Cambodian head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in a U.S.-backed military coup in 1970, and the Vietnam War spread into Cambodia. The 1970s brought 35,000 to 40,000 Vietnamese communist forces onto 3,500 square kilometers of Khmer territory.

History is often recorded and interpreted according to ideological or political motives. It is common practice to cite declassified U.S. documents on the tonnage of bombs dropped on Cambodia as a catalyst for the rise and reign of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, and the ensuing brutality that resulted in the deaths of some 1.7 to 2.5 million people.

It is dreadful to imagine that from 1965 to 1973 the United States dropped more than 2.7 million tons of bombs on Cambodia. This is 17 times more than the tonnage dropped on Japan from 1942 to 1945.

But did Cambodians rush to join the mysterious Khmer Rouge, led by men they did not know, to fight the perpetrators? Or did they brave obstacles and hardships to join their revered god king, Prince Sihanouk, whose radio broadcasts from Beijing called on everyone in Cambodia to oppose the government that had unpardonably overthrown him?

Sihanouk, who quickly allied himself with the Khmer Rouge, once told reporters that he knew as long as he was useful to the Khmer Rouge they would keep and honor him in their struggle, and when his usefulness ended, they would “spit me out like a cherry pit” – which they eventually did.

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