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April 17th marks the defeat of the US-backed, fascist Nol Nol regime in Cambodia. Lon Nol, comprador friend of bastard Henry Kissinger has spent years fighting a bloody civil war and turned Cambodia into a base for US imperialism upon Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia itself.
As Lon Nol was making deals for "US aid" to Cambodia (Khmer rubber, rice, sugar, and minerals in exchange for US capital penetration), he was directing US and South Vietnamese carpet bombs against the Khmer peasantry who launched uprisings against his autocratic rule.
The peasantry, led by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), would go on to defeat the US-backed comprador, collaborator bourgeoisie responsible for mass starvation and bombing of the countryside that would kill nearly ~600,000 Khmer People.
April 17th is still a mixed day to Khmer People. Many in Cambodia consider it a day of liberation against Lon Nol's puppet regime. Many see it as the start of Khmer Rouge atrocities. Others see it with mixed feelings. In the diaspora, of course you know what most people feel.
Despite these complicated feelings, we must seek a fuller appreciation of this history, and strive to come to more correct conclusions with imperfect evidence and information. What happened after April 17th, 1975 deserves careful study. Why was the Khmer Rouge Period so unstable?
The Khmer Rouge and CPK was not simply one organization with a monolithic and omnipresent party line. It was a collection of many factions and perspectives, whose internal contradictions led to the turmoil and antagonisms that we see in the Democratic Kampuchea Period.
And in the broader context of the post-French Period, the Sino-Soviet Split, and the historical contradictions between Vietnam and Cambodia, irreconcilable differences between the internal factions of the Khmer Rouge would lead to the second civil war and war with Vietnam.
The mistrust between the Khmer rural and urban population, historical ethnochauvinism, the chaos in the aftermath of the US genocide against Khmer People, and the lack of unity within the Khmer Rouge created the perfect storm for an unstable, and imperfect revolution.
The death of experienced, veteran cadre within the Khmer Rouge at the hands of Lon Nol's forces and from US bombing would worsen issues of discipline and excessive violence within Khmer Rouge forces made up of very young peasants.
The different factions of the Khmer Rouge would end up leading different regions of the country. The west was comprised of cadre of a young, rural base peasant background. The east was made up of older, Khmer Issarak Revolutionaries who fought France since the 50s.
The western forces wore the black farm clothing with the red-checkered krama scarf often seen in photographs of Khmer Rouge soldiers. These were the young peasants I mentioned earlier.
The eastern forces wore green uniforms provided by North Vietnam and were described by bystanders as more disciplined and more conventional "military" compared to the irregular western peasant guerilla forces.
Conflicts over administration and territorial disputes, as well as who was pro and anti Vietnamese erupted into open skirmishes between the "black pajamas" and the "green uniforms", and the CPK had little way of controlling this chaos.
The CPK also clashed within on the question of Vietnam's relationship to Cambodia. France worsened the conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam's territorial claims, and paranoia within Pol Pot's circle led to the execution of many CPK cadres accused of being Vietnamese agents.
The US would use these internal conflicts to further destabilize Cambodia even after the bombing had ended, and elevated the excessive violence and paranoia that caused more to suffer in the years ahead, through sanctions and CIA infiltration campaigns.
Many of these conflicts and clashes within the Khmer Rouge that led to the turmoil of the Democratic Kampuchea Period were seized upon and exaggerated by the US media as further proof of Communist dystopian, big brother totalitarianism. But reality is not a simple caricature.
The western media view that all of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge was all atrocities and totalitarianism, all around, all at the same time, is false. Just as the Khmer Rouge was not simply "one monolithic organization", the situation in Cambodia varied across provinces.
Some villagers said the younger Khmer Rouge soldiers were cruel and excessive. Others said their local cadres were kind, known long-time neighbors. Some regions were food sufficient. Others starved due to agent orange. There was heroism in some places, villainy in others.
All the while, as Cambodia suffered from internal turmoil, paranoia, excessive violence, ethnic conflict, a brewing second civil war within the ranks of the Khmer Rouge, and starvation caused by US bombing and agent orange, Lon Nol and his ilk were on a chartered plane to the US.
Upon arriving, Lon Nol retired to a cushy suburban home in Orange County, California. Khmer refugees escaping the civil war were corralled into Camp Pendleton, where many of my family members were processed, before being segregated into the ghettos of Long Beach.
So what to make of April 17th? To me, it marks the defeat of the Lon Nol puppet regime by the Khmer People. I honor those that truly fought in the spirit of internationalism, for our united liberation, to advance our people, and mourn for the the chaos that came after.
We must appreciate the complex and tragic history of the Cambodian Revolution and learn from its mistakes if we are to one day see Cambodia and Asia and the world be free of US imperialism. Cambodia may be free today, but while US imperialism exists, it remains oppressed.
So long live the Khmer People. Fuck US imperialism and the ugly distortions and monsters it feeds to serve its corporate hungers. We won't forget the role the west's meddling played in our history. And our battle is still not over.
If you want to begin to understand why Cambodia is the way it is today, and where it has come from through time and history, I recommend as always to begin with Michael Vickery's "Cambodia 1975-1982".
