The Cambodian Civil War Begins - Part Two: A Revolution Waged With Empty Hands

On January 17th, 1968, the Khmer Rouge attacked a military post at Bay Damram in Battambang province. It was the official beginning of their armed struggle, launched by a movement with almost no weapons. The phrase they used for it was a revolution waged with empty hands.

Time Period Covered: 1967 to 1968

How did the CPK develop their plan to genuinely start a war in Cambodia? Why did Sihanouk seek rapprochement with the United States? How did the bombing of Cambodia begin?

January 1968 will prove to be a pivotal month for Vietnamese, Cambodian and American interests in the war. This episode details how the Cambodian communist movement finally began an armed struggle against the Sihanouk government, how the United States negotiated a deal to bomb Cambodia, and how the Vietnamese began a counter attack against the Saigon regime.

Sources

Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare
David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number One
Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power and Peasants & Politics in Kampuchea
Milton Osbourne Sihanouk
Steve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese Model
Elizabeth Becker When the War was Over
Nic Dunlop Lost Executioner
ECCC Case 001 Witness Testimony 2009
Shawcross Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia
CIA FOIA