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From International Socialism, No.67, March 1974, p.30.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Cambodia in the South-East Asian War
Malcolm Caldwell and Lek Tan
Monthly Review Press
IF IT IS ever translated into Vietnamese, this book will find a good market in Hanoi And that should give you some idea about the political limitations of what is otherwise a well-written, seriously researched though over-long analysis of imperialism in Cambodia.
The book opens with a dedication to Prince Sihanouk and the ‘peasants and workers of Cambodia’ but in the 446 pages that follow there is hardly a hint that there could be any clash in real interests between the good prince and his loyal subjects. Great play is made of the self-critical declaration made by Sihanouk at the time of his overthrow by Lon Nol and on the occasion of taking up residence in Peking. In fact this self-criticism is reproduced in full in Appendix 5 and turns out to be nothing more than an appeal to Cambodians to join the liberation forces, newly unified under Sihanouk’s command plus a passing mention of the new commander’s ‘unpardonable naiveté and misjudgement’ in the past. This cosy acceptance of the anti-socialist past of Sihanouk coupled with an uncritical view of North Vietnam’s Stalinism means that the authors never get down to the key problem of building socialism in SE Asia and instead seem content merely to make occasional mention of the ‘progressive policies’ of the increasingly successful Peoples National Liberation Armed Forces.
However, the weakness of the book in analysing the role of Sihanouk and the North Vietnamese is almost compensated by the strength of the authors’ understanding of French and then American imperialism in Cambodia. The first chapter and the last two are exceptionally good in this respect and although the filling of this sandwich gets somewhat boring at times it is worth munching through in order to get a clear impression of modern imperialist domination.
Anyone who thought that imperialism had changed its spots need only read through chapter one to see the amazing parallels between French colonisation of the last century and America’s present policies in Cambodia. In both cases the takeover of Cambodia occurred as a direct result of their commitment to holding Vietnam. Both used the excuse of ‘protecting’ Cambodia from its more powerful neighbours. And in both cases the result was a fantastic upsurge of national resistance which even encompassed sections of the previous ruling class. The authors go further and show that in the corrupt application of financial ‘aid’, the creation of a refugee problem and the assumption of cultural and racial superiority over the oppressed Cambodians, the Americans can learn nothing from the French of the 19th century. Indeed the only real difference that emerges is that the Americans are being defeated much more quickly ... and Caldwell and Lek Tan explain that too.
Having laboriously dealt with the myth of Cambodian neutrality, the final chapters deal with the 1970 coup, which finally made Cambodia the complete puppet of the US, and the subsequent development of the liberation movement Many interesting facts emerge and the book is worth reading for this section alone. The massive American role in the coup is fully documented as is the attempt by the Soviet Union to send Sihanouk back to his death in Cambodia immediately after Lon Nol had taken over and was engaged in massacring thousands of opponents. What Sihanouk called Russia’s ‘patronising and racist’ attitude is unfavourably compared with the genuine assistance the Cambodian liberation forces received from China and North Vietnam. There is also a full explanation of how, learning from the North Vietnamese, and the old Khmer Rouge, the Peoples National Liberation Armed Forces were able to quickly develop a fighting organisation that within two years of the coup controlled the territory containing seven million of Cambodia’s nine million people.
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