PHNOM PENH: THE RETURN

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.......( continued )
....I cant describe what happened to me in Phnom Penh, I fell in love with the place, with its people, its strange beauty and its dark side, I eventually and unfortunatley began to run out of money and with rumours back home I had become a Col. Kurtz sort of figure, I reluctantly made my way home.

I left my heart in Phnom Penh.

when I got home I dabbled in a little bit more travelling while reading and learning as much about Cambodian history and culture as possible ( I have become somewhat of an expert, Now I know more about khmer history than my own countrys! )

Finally I made up my mind to return to Cambodia and my Khmer sweetheart and this is where this blog really begins.

I have read to some Cambodian blogs on this website and have been a little annoyed about how its history, which is usually the central theme, has been written and even rewritten, with facts been over looked or ignored, or taken straight from a guide book, so I will stick to the trend and begin with the run down on what happened here in the 70s, what really happened here, from what I have learned from books and locals and a girlfriend who lost family in the madness of the bombings and then the khmer rouge and then the famine that happened afterwards .
If anyone who reads this feels they have even more knowledge on the subject I would appreciate anything they would like to add but only if they can back it up with facts.

..AT 7.30 am on April the 17th 1975 the war in Cambodia was over.
It was unique war as no country had ever experienced such concentrated bombing. on this, perhaps the most peaceful land in all of Asia, President Nixon an Mr Kissenger released 100 thousand tons of bombs, the equivalent of 5 hiroshimas.
THe bombings where their own personal descision. illegally and secretly they bombed Neutral Cambodia back into the stone age.
I mean this quite literally- back into the stone age.
This bombing began as early as 1969 , the pilots where sworn not to even tell their superiors, and their logs where falsefied , this cover up was the begining of watergate.
The offical aim of these missions was to wipe out a Viet cong base that exsisted in the imagination of U.S generals .
Richard Nixons aim was "to show the Vietnamese how tough we really are" this was later known as the mad man theory of war.
The Cambodians who died would be known as "Collateral damage" and thier burning villages " friendly fire "
In 1970 America invaded Cambodia.
OUt of the inferno of the bombing came the Khmer rouge who never enjoyed a popular base in Cambodia, until Nixons madman theory of war.
THe bombings upset the balance of Royalist, republicans, and Communists and triggered a war which would leave 1million people dead.
The Khmer rouge accused Lon Nols government of being Lackys for the U.S.A, the peoples anger at the American bombings began to support the Khmer rouge who vowed to stop it. the King who had been overthrown in all the madness that followed the bombings by Lon Nol ,used the opportunity to voice his support for the Khmer Rouge, and return to Cambodia. thier ranks swelled even more.

Shortly after dawn on april the 17th, the bombings finally stopped, and then out of the forest came the victors, the KHMER ROUGE, whose power had grown out of all proportion.
THey entered the capital city phnom penh, they wore black and where mostly teenagers.
The people cheered them nervously, naivelly, after all the bombing and the fighting had finally stopped.

The horror began immediatley.

Phnom penh a city of 2.5 million people was forcefully emptied within hours, the people being marched at gun point into the countryside towards a totally new society, like nothing anyone had ever known

THE NEW RULERS WOULD CALL 1975 YEAR ZERO, the dawn of an age where their would be no family, no sentiment, no expression of love or grief, no medicine , no school, no books, no learning, no music, no song, no laughter, no religion, no holidays, no money only work and death.

the leader of this revolution was known as Pol pot. He saw himself as an heir to Angkor wat. In khmer rouge ideology, The word Communism was rarely used, instead there was the Angkor which demanded slavery in an agrarian society without towns or machines.

The Chinese backed pol pot as they saw Cambodia as future colony, which is how it already appeared on Chinese maps.

Monks where murdered as was anybody with an education, teachers, people who knew foreigners and anybody with a skill. only 1 lawyer was found alive. Things such as wearing glasses became a crime punishable by death. In toul sleng, People from the citys, seen as subhuman, where tortured to confess to imaginary crimes, including children and babies.
Only several people ever survived detetion in toul sleng.
Even the word sleep was banned, from year zero only rest could be used.

2 million people would die, a third of the population, before the Vietnamese intervened and overthrew the Khmer rouge in 1979...

Italic to be continued

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