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Title: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 by Ben Kiernan ISBN: 0-300-09649-6 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Spare them, no profit; remove them, no loss
Comment: Ben Kiernan's reports of eye-witnesses of the genocide by the inhuman Pol Pot regime is terribly shocking, to say the least. You need a strong stomach to read this relentless slaughtering of men, women, children and BABIES. It is quite frankly emotionally and humanly really depressing.
One gets cold in the back when one sees what pure totalitarian ideology and raving racism are capable of, when implemented by a party (or one man) which wields total power in a single country.
Ben Kiernan is right when he states that 'the two important themes in the history of the Pol Pot regime are the race question and the struggle for central power by the French-educated Pol Pot group'. All means (relentless infighting and killing) justified the end (take total power).
There is however a third theme: ideology. Total power allowed the implementation of pure ideological policies.
Pol Pot's regime was racist, e.g. the liquidation of the Cham people and the ethnic Chinese. This was real ethnic cleansing. But there was more. Ethnic Khmer who came from other countries were considered as enemies and were coldly liquidated.
It was also a totalitarian regime that turned the whole Cambodian country in a monstrous concentration camp. All communication between people was paralyzed: 'know nothing, hear nothing, say nothing'.
Criticizing the infallibility of the Angkar was a crime punishable by the death penalty. But inside Angkar nepotism was rampant.
The similarities with the Stalinist USSR regime are overwhelming.
Ben Kiernan stresses rightly the impact of the destabilizing US bombings of Cambodia (about 150000 civilian deaths). Part of the Khmer peasantry was alienated and turned to the Red Khmer.
More, the US supported the Pol Pot regime and, into the bargain, secretary of State Brzezinski tried to get international support for Pol Pot, because he was an enemy of Vietnam. Mind-boggling.
This book should be read as a reminder of the murderous sufferings inflicted on a largely innocent population by a totalitarian and blind ideology, IMPORTED FROM THE WEST.
This should hopefully never happen again. Although we know that, I agree on a lesser scale, some aspects of Pol Pot's dreadful regime are still raging in some parts of the world.
A depressing, but must read.
I also recommend David Chandler's excellent biography of Pol Pot 'Brother Number One'.
Rating: 3
Summary: Very academic
Comment: The three stars are awarded for the detailed content of the book- it's only good point. The style is very academic, lacking life and fails to captivate. Despite the book being named after him, Pol Pot is hardly mentioned in it's 465 pages. Furthermore the book isn't self contained- if you want to know how Pol Pot came to power, you'll have to read another of Kiernans books. Here he paints an incomplete picture, merely informing us of US governments prominent role (surprise, surprise..), whereby Nixon had 150,000 civilians killed in illegal bombings, which were capitalised on by the Khmer Rouge to get mass support. The book also basically ignores what happened after Pol Pots fall, thus leaving it seemingly incomplete. Also, you'll need to know about the Vietnam war and Mao's China, as Kiernan doesn't bother to briefly explain either, despite them being pivotal in this context.
What the book does excel at is it's main focus- the role of racism in Pol Pots exceedingly bizarre, deranged and horrific strain of communism, which consisted of an intense xenophobia, especially focused against other communist countries. Still, this doesn't make up for the stale writing style. Overall, this book is not for the casual reader, and is more suited to those who know a fair amount about Cambodia in this era.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very useful, even essential reading for Cambodia devotees.
Comment: A follow-on to the author's "How Pol Pot Came to Power". Provides numerous leads for any student of Cambodia to pursue in field research on the history of Modern Cambodia. Ben Kiernan reaches many sources not easily accessed by others.
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Title: Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison by David Chandler ISBN: 0520222474 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Brother Number One: A Political Biography by David P. Chandler ISBN: 0813335108 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors by Dith Pran, Kim Depaul, Ben Kiernan ISBN: 0300078730 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: When the War Was over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution by Elizabeth Becker ISBN: 1891620002 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: First They Killed My Father : A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung ISBN: 0060931388 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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