The Invasion (Part One): Counting Bodies Floating Down the Mekong

In April 1970, bodies began drifting down the Mekong into South Vietnam. They were ethnic Vietnamese civilians, killed by the forces of a Cambodian government that had held power for a matter of weeks. The new regime had declared war on an army it could not fight, and turned on the people it could reach instead.

Time Period Covered: April 1970

What was the crisis facing the new Cambodian government in April 1970? Why were the Vietnamese communities subjected to massacres? What circumstances led to a US invasion of Cambodia?

In this episode Lachlan explores the horrible aftermath of the coup against Sihanouk, as a panicked new regime produces a pogrom against an innocent group of civilians. The communist Vietnamese armies take much of the countryside. Journalists disappear as they report on a Vietnam War that has spilled over the border. The Nixon White House faces a decision.

Sources

Chandler “Tragedy of Cambodian History”
Short “Pol Pot”
Shawcross “Sideshow”
Kamm “Report from a Stricken Land”
Sak Satsukhan “The Khmer Republic at War”
Wilfred Deac “Road to the Killing Fields”
Walter Isaacson “Kissinger”
Kiernan “How Pol Pot Came to Power”
Etcheson “Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea”