Wikipedia

Cambodian genocide denial

Denial of the Cambodian genocide (1975–79)

Similar to Holocaust denial, Cambodian genocide denial is the belief that the Cambodian genocide (Khmer: ហាយនភាពខ្មែរ or ការប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ខ្មែរ) did not happen or was not as bad as commonly believed.

Background

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1973: End of intervention in Indochina

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A pro-Viet Cong protest in Chicago ahead of the DNC on August 10, 1968.
 
An event held by students of the University of Massachusetts in support of the prosecuted anti-war Communist Party USA leading figure Angela Davis. Photo taken in Boston, 1970.

In 1973, the U.S. government withdrew troops from Indochina following two decades of intervention, which had become unpopular at home, with years of anti-war protests, led by pro-communist forces with significant academic influence.[1]

1975: Fall of Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam to communism

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By 1975, American public opinion turned against further intervention in Indochina.[2][3] The anti-communist governments in Laos,[4] Cambodia and South Vietnam[5] collapsed in April 1975 under the renewed onslaught of the Warsaw Pact-armed Pathet Lao,[6] Khmer Rouge and Viet Cong respectively, which was quickened by American public opposition to further military aid to the said governments.[2][7] The 1973 Paris Peace Accords – intended to end the Indochina Wars – failed as a result of the communist forces breaking the Accords.[2][8]

1975 – 79: Cambodian genocide

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A photograph depicted Khmer Rouge victims at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, September 22, 2016.
 
Skulls from victims of the Cambodian genocide.
 
July 30, 1979: An Indochinese refugee with his belongings secured in between his teeth, climbed a cargo net to the deck of the combat store ship USS White Plains, AFS-4. The ship was picking up 29 refugees from a 35-foot wooden boat.

Following communist takeover in Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam, millions of civilians perceived as enemies of communism were subject to tortures, massacres, forced labor and genocides,[9] notable of which was the Cambodian genocide having killed as many as 3,000,000 (1⁄3 of the Cambodian population),[9] or forced into exile as boat refugees[3][9] – 400,000 of whom died in the South China Sea before they could reach anywhere.[10]

Academia

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On the debate about the Cambodian genocide, American political scientist Donald W. Beachler remarked,[2]

Many of those who had been opponents of U.S. military actions in Vietnam and Cambodia feared that the tales of murder and deprivation under the Khmer Rouge regime would validate the claims of those who had supported U.S. government actions aimed at halting the spread of communism. Conservatives pointed to the actions of the Khmer Rouge as proof of the inherent evils of communism and evidence that the U.S. had been right to fight its long war against communists in Southeast Asia.

Despite the abundance of verified testimonies from Cambodian refugees and foreign witnesses, Cambodian genocide denial within academia was widespread in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia etc.[11][12]

Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman

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With the transnational academic-cultural network tied to their status in Western academia,[13] American scholars Noam Chomsky (1928 – ) and Edward S. Herman (1925 – 2017) published several books making the survivors look bad,[13] opposing the genocide classification and the confirmed death toll of the Cambodian genocide,[13] which influenced hundreds of millions worldwide into doing the same.[13]

Gareth Porter

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In 1976, American historian Gareth Porter (1942 – ) co-authored the book Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution with George Hildebrand in which he denied that one million Cambodians had already been killed by the Khmer Rouge. On May 3, 1977, Porter repeated his denial at the Solarz hearing in the U.S. Congress.[14]

Historians have been critical of Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution. Particularly, historian Bruce Sharp conducted an in-depth research on the citations of that book. Of the 50 citations in a chapter of that book, 33 were traced to the state propaganda of the Khmer Rouge, while 6 from that of the CCP,[12] which served as a proof of their confirmation bias and intellectual dishonesty.[12]

Recalling the encounter later in his life, Solarz called Porter's Cambodian genocide denial "cowardly and contemptible," comparing him to those who denied the Holocaust.[15]: 40 

Samir Amin

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Egyptian-French economist Samir Amin had been a good friend of Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan since the time they were studying in France.[16] When the Cambodian genocide was exposed, Amin continued to praise the Khmer Rouge as the most superior communist model.[17] When asked again about the Cambodian genocide in 1986, Amin responded with an inversion of reality by blaming the "American imperialists", Vietnamese communists and Lon Nol for the suffering of the Cambodians.[18]

Responses

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François Ponchaud

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François Ponchaud (1939 – ) is a French priest who lived in Cambodia during the genocide. As a witness, he documented the genocide in his book Cambodge Année Zéro (Cambodia: Year Zero), which attracted biased criticism from Noam Chomsky and Gareth Porter who denied the genocide. In response, Ponchaud called out their intellectual dishonesty,

They say there have been no massacres [...] blame for the tragedy of the Khmer people on the American bombings. [...] For them, refugees are not a valid source [. ...] if something seems impossible to their personal logic, then it doesn't exist. Their only sources for evaluation are deliberately chosen official statements. Where is that critical approach which they accuse others of not having?

Sophal Ear

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Cambodian-American historian Sophal Ear satirically referred to the biased narrative of pro-Khmer Rouge Western academic leftists as the Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia (STAV),[19]

[They] hoped for, more than anything, a socialist success story with all the romantic ingredients of peasants, fighting imperialism, and revolution.

William Shawcross

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British journalist William Shawcross criticized the STAV academics as well. His criticism was endorsed by human rights activist David Hawk who pointed out that

Western governments were indifferent to the Cambodian genocide due to the influence of anti-war academics on the American left who obfuscated Khmer Rouge behavior, denigrated the post-1975 refugee reports, and denounced the journalists who got those stories.

Jakob Guhl

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Jakob Guhl, the Senior Manager, Policy and Research of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), said that Cambodian genocide denial among Western academic leftists was rooted in their dogmatic rejection of liberal democracy,[20] presumption of "moral superiority" of anti-capitalist regimes and division of political actors into binary categories (oppressors vs. oppressed) to justify "anti-hierarchical aggression" towards hypothetical oppressors, who are dehumanized to have their suffering denied.[20]

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References

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  1. ↑ "Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)". Influence Watch. Retrieved March 6, 2025.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Beachler, Donald W. (2009) "Arguing about Cambodia: Genocide and Political Interest" Holocaust and Genocide Studies 23(2):214–38.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Le, C. N. (2009). ""Better Dead than Red": Anti-Communist Politics among Vietnamese Americans". Anti-Communist Minorities in the U.S. pp. 189–209. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Page 1. Immigration: escaping the Killing Fields". Te Ara. February 8, 2005. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  5. ↑ "The Fall of Saigon (1975): The Bravery of American Diplomats and Refugees". National Museum of American Diplomacy. April 29, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Laos « World Without Genocide - Making It Our Legacy". World Without Genocide. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Kirk, Donald (December 15, 2022). "50 years later, the failed 'Paris peace' recalls the danger of courting communist China". The Hill. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2
  10. ↑ "How a sailor reunited with the Vietnamese refugees he helped rescue after fall of Saigon". NBC News. May 22, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2025. "Many ships passed by and didn't rescue us," said Lisa Dam, who was lost at sea after she fled Vietnam.
  11. ↑ Ear, Sophal (May 1995). The Khmer Rouge Canon 1975–1979: The Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia (PDF) (BA thesis). Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Sharp, Bruce (2023) [2003]. "Averaging Wrong Answers: Noam Chomsky and the Cambodian Controversy". Mekong Network. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3
  14. ↑ Human Rights in Cambodia." Hearing Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 1st Session. 1977 May 3. Also available via Google Books.
  15. ↑ Thompson, Larry Clinton. 2010. Refugee Workers in the Indochina Exodus, 1975–1982. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland.
  16. ↑ "Specters of Dependency: Hou Yuon and the Origins of Cambodia's Marxist Vision (1955–1975) | Cross-Currents". cross-currents.berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  17. ↑ Jackson, Karl (2014). Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death. Princeton University Press. p. 246. ISBN 9781400851706.
  18. ↑ Gough, Kathleen (Spring 1986). "Roots of the Pol Pot Regime in Kampuchea". Contemporary Marxism (12/13).
  19. ↑ Ear, Sophal (May 1995). The Khmer Rouge Canon 1975–1979: The Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia (PDF) (BA thesis). Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Guhl, Jakob (January 8, 2025). "Left Wing Extremism". Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). Retrieved January 14, 2025. [H]igh-profile far-left writers [...] downplayed the severity of the Holodomor [...] Decades later [...] Noam Chomsky argued that reports based on refugee testimony about the Cambodian genocide [...] were exaggerated propaganda [. ...] antisemitism on the far-left has a long history, including the persecution [...] against Soviet Jews [...] targeting Jewish institutions [. ...] prevalence of [...] conspiracy mentality provide two major openings to antisemitism.
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