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Authors: Philip Short

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363
Relationship . . . reliable
:
Pol Pot,
Study Session,
p. 172, and
Report,
p. 191.
Before . . . lackey
:
Dossier L01500, Oct. 9 1976, DC-Cam.
364
Algeria
:
The existence of such centres, long a taboo subject in France, was discussed in a series of articles in
Le Monde
in 2001, and in television documentaries broadcast by Antenne 2 and the Franco-German channel ARTE.
Both were told . . . torture and death
:
See Hinton,
Why?,
pp. 95 and 113–15; and Rithy Pann’s film,
S-21: La Machine de Mort Khmère Rouge,
transmitted by ARTE on June 2 2003.
365
Baignoire
:
Peter Scholl-Latour,
Death in the Ricefields,
St Martin’s Press, New York, 1981, p. 32.
In a civilized
:
Bunchan Mol,
Charek Khmer,
pp. 177–82.
‘Conquer-or-be-conquered’
:
Thun Saray, quoted in Prasso, p. 20. See also Mabbett and Chandler,
Khmers,
pp. 160—1.
366
‘In the ancient kingdom’
:
Criddle and Butt Mam,
Destroy,
p. 213.
‘Had I been arrested’
:
Deuch, interview.
Bread:
Picq,
typescript,
pp. 188–90.
367
John Dewhirst
:
‘Details of my course at the Annexe CIA college in Loughborough, England’, Dossier D1444, Sept. 5 1978, DC-Cam.
369
Soon afterwards . . . into our ranks
:
Becker,
When the War,
p. 236;Vickery,
Themes,
p. 117. Khieu Thirith remembered the visit as being in mid-1976. I suspect it was later —probably in November or early December. Pol alluded to her findings so clearly in his speech of Dec. 20 that one may reasonably deduce he had only recently been made aware of them.
‘Hidden enemies’
:
Pol Pot,
Report,
p. 207.
‘Lackeys . . . swept away’
:
‘Resolution of the Eastern Zone Congress, July 17 1977’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8294,VA. See also Kiernan,
Eastern Zone Massacres,
pp. 16, 27, 37, 48, 51 and 88; and Kiernan,
Chickens,
pp. 185
et seq.
370
‘Authority to smash’
:
Minutes of the CPK Standing Committee, Mar. 30 1976, Dossier D693, DC-Cam.
Pon
:
Untitled 1978 notebook with entries by Pon and Tuy, DC-Cam.
Inmates . . . into a pit
:
Interview with an S-21 guard in Rithy Pann’s film,
S21: La Machine de Mort Khmère Rouge, supra.
370
–1
We stopped . . . black and shrunken
:
Haing Ngor,
Odyssey,
pp. 217–18 and 222–3.
371
Antechamber
:
Picq,
typescript,
pp. 217,230 and 238.
373
‘Bristly dog gambit’
:
Douglas Pike, testimony before the US Congress House Committee on International Relations, Oct. 4 1978, cited in Ablin and Hood,
Agony,
p. xl.
375
On the 24th . . . serious injuries
:
MTI correspondent Gyori Sandor, quoted in Chanda,
Brother Enemy,
p. 194; Pham Van Dong, ‘Interview by Vietnam News Agency’, undated but January
1978, JCA,
vol. 8, p. 263.
‘Deep gratitude’
:
Pham Van Dong, ibid, p. 268.
376
The nature . . . vigilant
:
This account of the talks between Pol and Hua is taken from Doc. 32(N442)/T8300,VA.
377
Kim II Sung . . . victories as our own
:
‘Talks with Pol Pot, Ieng Sary and Vorn Vet, Pyongyang, Oct. 5 and 6 1977’. Doc. 32(N442)/T8307, VA; BBC SWB FE5633/A3/2.
378
Crowed victory
:
See Pol Pot’s speech of Jan. 17 (SWB FE5717/A3/2), where he speaks of’a monumental victory . . . [which] may be compared to the great victory of April 17 1975’.
380
‘We have to gather’
:
Pol Pot,
Abbreviated Lesson,
p. 224.
381
How do we gather
:
‘Pay attention to pushing ahead with the work of building the forces of the Party and the collectivity and make them strong and stronger’, in
Tung Padevat,
Mar. 1978, pp. 37–53.
Personality cult
:
Vann Nath,
Portrait,
pp. 42–82 and 86; Testimony of Ung Pech, in De Nike et al., p. 81.
Marxist-Leninist groups
:
Details of these and similar visits are recorded in BBC SWB FE,
passim.
383
‘We have ceased’
:
Pol Pot,
Yugoslav interview.
384
Our slogans . . .grip on power’
:
‘Réunion particulière du Comité Central du Parti du 22 Janvier 1978’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8302,VA.
385
–6
But the worst. . .profoundly hostile
:
By far the best account of So Phim’s fate, and the terrors wrought afterwards on the population in the East, is given in Kiernan,
Regime,
pp. 392–416, from which the following is largely drawn. The only point on which I take issue with him is the claim that, in the final days, Phim wished to seek help from the Vietnamese. This rests mainly on a 1992 statement by Heng Samrin, who by then had long since thrown in his lot with Hanoi and therefore had his own interests to defend. Samrin s claim is all the harder to swallow because, until the late summer of 1978, he was himself on record as holding strong anti-Vietnamese views (see Heder,
Pol Pot to Pen Sovann,
p. 25).
386
So many thousands . . . in that way
:
Deuch, interview with Nate Thayer; see also Vann Nath,
Portrait,
pp. 79–81.
387
60 per cent
:
‘Excerpts from the Meeting of 870, August 5 1978’, in De Nike et al., p. 412.
Khmer psyche
:
In Sopheap commented: ‘To Europeans, his arguments may sound far-fetched, but for Khmers they made sense . . . In emotional terms, Pol Pot knew exactly how to speak in order to touch Khmer hearts’ (interview).
388
On September 28 . . . own choosing
:
This account of Sihanouk’s reappearance and the events leading up to it is taken mainly from
Prisonnier,
pp. 209, 212–17 and 259_93. On his isolation from April 1976 to September 1977, see pp. 125–45, 168 and 174–5; and Schier,
Sihanouk,
pp. 21–2.
Deng Yingchao
:
Norodom Sihanouk’s unpublished ‘Memoirs’ quoted by Julio A.Jeldres in ‘China’s Growing Influence in Cambodia’,
Africana: rivisti de studi extraeuropei,
no. 8, Pisa, 2002, p. 8.
388
–9
Last ten days . . . he did not
:
Pich Chheang and Moeun, interviews. The date of Pol’s speech marking the CPK’s 18th anniversary is given as Sept. 19 in Doc. 32(N422)/T83i8, VA. For the broadcast version, see SWB FE/5930/C/1–6 and FE/5931/C/1—13. On Sept. 29, Pol received the Chinese Ambassador, Sun Hao, in Phnom Penh (SWB FE/5933/A3/12), and on Oct. 2 he attended a Standing Committee meeting (Doc. 32(N422)/T83i8,
supra).
Puzzlingly, neither he nor Nuon Chea was present at the Sept. 30 National Day reception at the Chinese Embassy, but this may have been for other, unconnected reasons. If the Sept. 19 date is correct, it suggests that he was in Beijing from the 20th or 21st until about the 28th. However, it is also possible that the visit took place in early October.
389
–90
Pol explained . . . into the jungle
:
‘870 to 12’, Jan. 20 1979, Doc. 32(N442)/T7293,VA.
390
‘If we carry out . . . weak spots’
:
‘Réunion particuliére du Comité Central du Parti du 22 Janvier 1978’,
supra.
I have cited these excerpts here since in practice they were not implemented earlier.
‘Vietnamese stink’
:
‘The National Duties of All of Us’,
Tung Padevat, ]uly
1978, pp. 1–3.
391
In his speech . . . deleted
:
Picq,
typescript,
pp. 340–1.
392
‘May run wild’
:
BBC SWB FE5962/A3/2–5.
On November . . . seventh
:
The only known details of the Fifth Congress are contained in a cadre’s notebook, of which a partial translation exists in the VA (Doc. 32(N442)/T8389).A note by the Vietnamese editor, presumably based on an untranslated section, suggests that the notebook may have belonged to Ieng Sary.
394
That night.. . man in the baseball cap
:
This account is taken from Becker,
When the War,
pp. 427–9; Dudman,
St Louis Post Despatch,
Jan. 15 1979; and Phi Phuon, interview. Significantly, Phi Phuon’s account was consistent with those of Becker and Dudman on all important details.
At 4 a.m. . . . Beijing
:
Phi Phuon, interview.
Pol had ordered
:
This was the version given to me by British diplomats in Beijing in February 1979.
395
–6
On Christmas Day . . . in shreds
:
Unless otherwise specified, this account of the invasion relies on Chanda,
Brother Enemy,
pp. 341–3.
396
—7
Pol met Sihanouk . . . running water
:
Sihanouk,
Prisonnier,
pp. 316–20.
397
He had spoken . . . short period of time
:
Pol Pot, recorded appeal to the Cambodian people, broadcast at dawn on Jan. 5, local time, BBC SWB FE6009/A3/1–3.
Chinese knew differently
:
Yun Shui,
Diplomats,
pp. 499–501.
398
Son Sen left the city
:
Phi Phuon, interview.
Set out at dawn
:
Ibid., Khieu Samphán, interview. David Chandler, relying on Y Phandara’s memoir, describes two helicopters passing over Phnom Penh that morning,’carrying Pol Pot and his close associates to exile in Thailand’. Sadly—the image is so evocative one wishes it were true—reality was more prosaic. According to Mey Mak (interview), who headed the civilian sector at Pochentong Airport, one helicopter left the military sector of the airport on the evening of Jan. 6, but it was never established who was in it. Two of the remaining helicopters were apparently flown out by their pilots on their own initiative the following morning (ibid.; and Ong Thong Hoeung,
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