Season 2 Recap - Cambodian History from Independence to Civil War

Season Two covers fifteen years and more than thirty hours, from a newly independent Cambodia in 1955 to the coup that ends Sihanouk's rule in March 1970. This episode is the whole arc in one sitting.

Time Period Covered: 1955 to 1970

How does the Communist Party of Kampuchea form, and how does a schoolteacher named Saloth Sar end up leading it?

What happened to Tou Samouth?

Why did the Khmer Rouge want a 'super great leap forward', and what did the original one do to China?

What does Theravada Buddhism have to do with communist ideology?

Why did Sihanouk cut off the United States, and why did he change his mind?

How did the Vietnam War begin, and how did Cambodia get pulled into it?

What was the Samlaut Rebellion, and who actually started it?

How does a communist movement with almost no weapons decide to start a war?

What happened at Hue and My Lai in 1968?

Why did Nixon bomb a neutral country in secret?

Were the CIA behind the coup against Sihanouk?

This recap is for anyone who wants a refresher before Season Three, or a way into the series without listening to fifteen years of history in full. It covers the formation and slow growth of the Cambodian communist movement, the ideological currents reaching Cambodia from Moscow and Beijing, the collapse of the American position in Vietnam and its spread across the border, and the political unravelling that ends with Sihanouk deposed and the country at war with itself.