:
Khieu Samphân, interview.
33
‘I can still remember’
:
Khieu Samphân, interview.
Found a job
:
In Sopheap, interview.
34
Riensouth
:
Pierre Lamant, interview, Paris, Mar. 25 2002; and David Chandler, personal communication. Other Frenchmen who taught in Cambodia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as Henri Locard and Claude Rabear, experienced similar frustrations in dealing with the current generation of Cambodian students. Keng Vannsak, in the late 1950s, noted the same lack of initiative among the staff of the Phnom Penh Teacher Training College.
36
Ieng Sary . . . Sisowath
:
Ping Sây, Thiounn Mumm and Ieng Sary, interviews.
38
Communist Manifesto
:
Keng Vannsak and Ieng Sary, interviews.
Conflict of a different kind
:
The following section is drawn mainly from Christopher E. Goscha’s illuminating thesis on the First Indochina War,
Le Contexte Asiatique de la Guerre Franco-Vietnamienne: Réseaux, Relations et Economie (d’Août 1945 a Mai 1954).
42
In the summer
:
Ping Sây, interview. See also Mey Mann and Ieng Sary, interviews.
‘Most students’
:
Khieu Samphân, interview.
43
On the eve
:
The following account is from the recollections of Mey Mann (interview) .
44
‘Indefinable half-smile’
:
Meyer,
Sourire,
p. 33.
45
The morning after
:
The following account is taken from Mey Mann and Nghet Chhopininto, interviews.
CHAPTER TWO: CITY OF LIGHT
48
‘Policemen who gesticulate’
:
Khemara Nisut,
no. 8, Dec. 1949, pp. 19–20.
49
Sâr was lucky
:
Mey Mann remembered: ‘He had a friend, or a cousin, I’m not sure what exactly . . . who took him off to stay with him . . . somewhere not in the Latin Quarter’ (interview). Nghet Chhopininto thought Sâr spent the first year staying with the sons of the governor of Kratie (Em Samnang and Em Samrech) in an apartment near the Jardin des Plantes (which is close to the Ecole de Radio-Electricité in the rue Amyot), in the 5th arrondissement of Paris (interview). Vannsak (interview) thought it was ‘probable’ that he had spent the first year with Somonopong. In fact, it seems certain that he stayed at 17 rue Lacepède, where Samnang and Samrech were both still living in 1955, together with two of Somonopong’s relatives, Prince Sisowath Monichivan and Prince Sisowath Vongvichan (cote 19800042, art 21, dossier 1912, AS de l’Association Khmer, 13 avril 1955, Centre des Archives Contemporaines, Fontainebleau).
Bon vivant
:
Mey Mann and Ping Sây, interviews. See also Ieng Sary, interview.
Girlfriend
:
The account of Sâr’s relationship with Son Maly is taken from Keng Vannsak, interview.
50
‘Quite good marks’
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview
and
Thayer interview.
51
Camping holiday
:
Pol Pot,
Thayer interview
.
‘Progressive students’
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview
.
One of these . . . had left
:
Ieng Sary,
Fiche d’étudiant
and interview with Henri Locard, Pailin, 1998; Keng Vannsak, interview.
Pay his respects . . . daily injections
:
Keng Vannsak, interview.
52
‘Patriotic and against’
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview.
55
Statutes
:
‘Statuts du Parti Révolutionnaire du Peuple du Cambodge’ and ‘La ligne politique du Parti’, translated in ‘le Parti Ouvrier Vietnamien’, SDECE, c. 10H620, SHAT.
57
‘Lack qualities’
:
‘Rapport du Général Viet Minh Nguyen Binh sur le Front Cambodgien’. Aug. 11 1951,0. 10H636, SHAT.
‘Truly paradoxical’
:
Commandement des Forces Terrestres du Cambodge, EM/3B, No. 2371/3, ‘Synthèse d’exploitation’, undated, c. 10H5585, SHAT.
59
‘Gathering of friends’
:
Keng Vannsak, interview
60
They screwed me
:
Keng Vannsak, interview.
Young working men and women
:
‘Festival Mondial de la Jeunesse’, Berlin, 5 au 19 août, in c. BA2275, Archives de la Prefecture de Police, Paris.
61
Armed struggle
:
Vandy Kaonn,
La Nuit,
p. 182.
‘[They] came back convinced’
:
Keng Vannsak, interview.
62
Thiounn Mumm had invited
:
Nghet Chhopininto, interview. Mumm (interview) confirmed making a report after his return from Berlin but did not specify the circumstances.
63
‘The main question’
:
Mey Mann, interview.
Selected participants
:
Nghet Chhopininto, interview.
Too doctrinaire
:
Keng Vannsak, interview.
Rue Lacepède
:
Sâr himself claimed that ‘I and some of the other students organised a small group called the Cambodian Marxist [Circle]’, and dated its foundation to July-August 1951 (
Cai Ximei interview
). Ieng Sary (interview) said: ‘Initially, Saloth Sâr did [not take part] . . . Only later did his views start to change’; and (
Maben interview
): ‘We tried to bring him into our group . . . but he did not want to come. Finally he joined us before he left France.’The truth no doubt lies somewhere between—Sâr trying to pretend falsely that he was a founder member, Sary exaggerating his reluctance to join because of his links with Vannsak and Son Ngoc Thanh. For the location of Sâr’s cell, see Sher,
thesis,
p. 120; and Ieng Sary (interview with
Phnom Penh Post,
July 3–16 1998), who stated: ‘Chandler made quite a few mistakes. He did not have knowledge of Pol Pot’s role in rue Lacepède.’
64
Masturbate
:
Sher,
thesis,
p. 134.
Out of wedlock
:
Thiounn Mumm, interview.
65
‘I did not wish’
:
Pol Pot,
Thayer interview
: ‘That is my nature . . . I never talked much. [Someone] wrote that he knew me [in Paris] to be a polite, discreet, smiling young man. So, I did not want to show myself as a leader.’
‘Out of his depth’
:
Keng Vannsak, interview.
That summer failed
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei
interview; Saloth Sâr,
Fiche d’étudiant
.
‘Middle school certificate’
:
Pol Pot,
Thayer interview.
66
‘Big, thick works’
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview
.
Sâr joined
:
Sâr himself told a Chinese interviewer in 1984 that he had joined the PCF in Paris (Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview
), and this is confirmed—though apparently on the basis of hearsay—by both Mey Mann and Keng Vannsak (interviews). Pham Van Ba, who in the early 1950s headed an Indochinese Communist Party cell in eastern Cambodia, also stated that Sâr had a PCF membership card (Chanda,
Brother Enemy,
p. 58). Thiounn Mumm, who insists that, contrary to widespread belief, he himself was never a PCF member, has questioned Sâr’s claim, and some Western specialists, including Christopher Goscha, have likewise expressed doubts. To muddy the waters further, Ieng Sary, whose PCF membership is not in question, has also denied ever having held a Party card (
Maben interview
). Until the PCF follows the example of the Soviet, Chinese and Vietnamese parties and permits broader access to its archives, questions will remain. However, given the state of Sino—Soviet relations in the early 1980s, it is hard to see why, if it were untrue, Sâr should have invented PCF membership in an interview destined to be read by the Chinese leadership. Until proof to the contrary emerges, therefore, it should be assumed that his version is correct. For an overview, see Mey Mann, interview; and Pol Pot,
Talk with Khamtan
.
Easier to understand
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview.
67
Six basic lessons
:
Stalin,
Histoire,
pp. 391–402. The six points are enumerated in the book’s conclusion as guidelines that all militants should learn. All are depicted as essential, but ‘revolutionary vigilance’ and the need for a flexible approach to Marx-ism-Leninism are given pride of place.
68
He confided
:
Debré,
Révolution,
p. 86. See also Sher,
thesis,
pp. 133–4, quoting an unnamed former comrade of Sary. David Chandler, following Debré (whose source was Keng Vannsak), attributes these remarks to Saloth Sâr, and accordingly speculates that Sâr’s ambition to become the pre-eminent Cambodian communist leader dated back to the 1950s. I find the evidence unpersuasive. Vannsak himself says he was referring to Sary (interview).
He gave talks
:
Pol Pot,
Cai Ximei interview
.
He helped . . . Sisowath
:
Ieng Sary, interview. For the parallel with Lenin’s
Iskra,
see Thiounn Mumm, interview.
L’Humanité
:
Pol Pot,
Thayer interview.
Referring to
l’Humanité,
he said simply, ‘It frightened me’—which I have taken to be a reference to the newspaper’s hectoring tone. Whatever Saloth Sâr’s faults, stridency was not one of them. Ieng Sary, by contrast, named
l’Humanité
as one of his favourite newspapers (
Maben interview
) and it was at his initiative that it was made compulsory reading in the Cercle.
70
Seminal influence
:
Pol Pot told Cai Ximei (
interview
): ‘When I read Chairman Mao’s books, I felt they were easy to understand. I understood Stalin’s books more easily too.’According to Ping Sây (interview),
On New Democracy
was the first of Mao’s works that members of the Cercle studied.
‘Democratic Cambodia’
:
See the document issued by the ‘Comité représentatif du Sud-Est Cambodge démocratique’ on Sept. 24 1948, Haut Commissaire, Indochine, c. 77, AOM.
72
Only book . . . understand all of it
: