Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Well, here goes for a try.

I was reading the "Notes" at the back of the book "Sideshow". It is a rebuttal from the Nixon Administration that Shawcross got it all wrong; that he had too much bias as a Leftie; that he overlooked some important documents in order to make his argument solid. To my way of thinking, nobody discusses what the Khymer Rouge were in their own right; or how did they garner so much power as to be able to do in the Lon Not Govt?. Sideshow argues that the Nixon-Kissinger Doctrine is what brought the Khymer Rouge to power. This last bit is somewhat believable because Kissinger would not stop the secret bombing until he was forced to by the Congress. He never apologizes for breaking the law and lying to Congress or to carrying on a "secret" policy vis-a-vis Cambodia without anybody knowing about it. Apparently, the Pentagon never questioned the procurement of much armaments either. From, my point of view, the period from 1970-1979, I was in N./E. Africa and India, I did not know about Cambodia. In fact, nobody in India was talking about anything other than their own political leanings. When I arrived in India, they were very much in with the Soviet Union; when I left India, they had decided to become a Democracy. Do I think they were watching the sideshow in Southeast Asia? Yes, I do. I think they were greatly influenced by the behavior of the Khymer Rouge. You know, Indians were also lost and in S-21. Asians never really talk very much about politics, or individual liberties, or rights because they have no tradition from which they can garner some experience to talk about these things. However, I feel the general concensus is that when Asians thought about the Khymer Rouge behaviors that were so alarming in their cruelty and that it was done in the name of Angka and Communism, they decided Democracy was a better choice.

Has this fated Cambodians for years to come? This is a very interesting question vis-a-vis China and Vietnam both Communist neighbors, today, to Cambodia.

These are my beginning thoughts for today.