Tuol Sleng and the Cambodian Genocide: Background

This authoritative book... traces the origins and trajectory of the Cambodian Communist movement and sets the ascension of Pol Pot's genocidal regime in the context of the conflict between colonialism and nationalism. A new preface bring this edition up to date.

This edition of Ben Kiernan's definitive account of the Cambodian revolution and genocide includes a new preface that takes the story up to 2008 and the UN-sponsored Khmer Rouge tribunal. "The most detailed history to date of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. . "

"From April 1975 to the beginning of the Vietnamese occupation in late December 1978, the country underwent perhaps the most violent and far-reaching of all modern revolutions. These six essays search for what can be explained in the ultimately inexplicable evils perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. Accompanying them is a photo essay that provides shocking visual evidence of the tragedy of Cambodia's autogenocide."

" Ponchaud, a missionary who lived among the Khmer for 10 years learning their language, customs and religion, traces in a first-person account the roots of the revolution and the role the U.S. and other foreign powers played, and presents portraits of the revolution leaders. He describes the evacuation of Phnom Penh, stories from refugees of the horrors they experienced, and includes official radio & print communiques of the revolutionary government." Year Zero refers to the Khmer Rouge's concept of establishing a regime that begins a totally new society.

Collection of 8 documents revealing the inner workings and plans of the Angkar, or party organization. Includes The Party's Four-Year Plan to Build Socialism in All Fields, Abbreviated Lesson on the History of the Kampuchean Revolutionary Movement, and the forced 105-page confession of the Minister of Information Hu Nim (arrested April 1977, executed July 1977.)

(English version online begins on page 5 of "Democratic Kampuchea, A Workers' and Peasants' State in South-East Asia,"
Print versions in English (+ KNM2064.51976 .A6 1976b ) and French (Pamphlet JQ Cambodia 11) are in the Library Annex,

National United Front of Cambodia (Kampuchea) committee members included Hu Nim, Chau Seng and Khieu Samphan of the Khmer Rouge,with the backing of the US and South Vietnam. in the fight against anti-Communist self-proclaimed president Lon Nol .

Color and black & white photos of the Battle of the Mekong and the taking of Phnom Penh; of soldiers and civilians working in agriculture, handicrafts, transport, industry. "The whole nation has regained its soul and written with its bright red blood the historic page of the new era." Photo descriptions in English and French.

Six chapters and a conclusion chapter; beginning with "The Annexationist Nature of Vietnam" and ending with "The Activities of Vietnam for Achieving its Objective Aiming at Annexing and Swallowing Kampuchea from 1975 to Now."

(In French). Chapters on history and events pre-1975; the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Phnom Penh; the destruction of traditional culture; life in the countryside and in the army; Vietnam's invasion; the discovery of Tuol Sleng and the murder of thousands there; the aftermath and recovery. Many original black & white and color photos. Bibliography has valuable list of of many of the French, German, English, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Polish news reports, organized by title of periodical.

Essays include "S-21, the Wheel of History, and the Pathology of Terror in Democratic Kampuchea" by David Chandlar; " Purity and Contamination in the Cambodia Genocide" by Alexander Laban Hinton; "Memories of the Pol Pot Era in a Cambodian Village" by May Ebihara; "Hun Sen and Genocide Trials in Cambodia: International Impacts, Impunity, and Justice" by Steve Heder; "Documenting Genocide: Lessons from Cambodia for Rwanda" by Susan E. Cook.

Journalistic investigation into how the U.S. government's interference in and bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War turned the peaceful country into a horror of devastation, contributing to the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. New ed. contains Kissinger's own responses to the accusations in this book.

Vol. 1 has substantial section on Cambodia, containing essays on causes & consequences, perpetrators, victims, bystanders and international reaction; a Timeline; A-Z topical entries; Documents (14 primary sources, including Nixon Doctrine 1969, Pol Pot speech 1977, U.S.-Cambodian Justice act 1994, Sydney Schanberg on Dith Pran, Jon Swain on Downfall of Phnom Penh, Judgement of the Tribunal Aug.19, 1979); Bibliography.

[This book] is one of the first anthropological attempts to analyze the origins of genocide. In it, Alexander Hinton focuses on the devastation that took place in Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979 under the Khmer Rouge in order to explore why mass murder happens and what motivates perpetrators to kill. Basing his analysis on years of investigative work in Cambodia, Hinton finds parallels between the Khmer Rouge and the Nazi regimes.Hinton considers this violence in light of a number of dynamics, including the ways in which difference is manufactured, how identity and meaning are constructed, and how emotionally resonant forms of cultural knowledge are incorporated into genocidal ideologies.

Drawing on a range of previously unexplored sources, including more than 1300 internal government and party documents, this book recounts the history of Cambodia from 1979 and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, through the Vietnamese occupation to 1991, when peace accords resulted in UN-administered elections.