Lesson in Cambodian genocide

Bill Nojay
Guest essayist
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York, USA)

(September 10, 2007) — President Bush has warned the American people and Congress that withdrawal from Iraq may cause the kind of human rights disaster that followed American withdrawal from Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1970s.

In response, a local college professor wrote an op-ed piece ("Bush's Vietnam-Iraq Analogy Falls Flat," Aug. 30) suggesting the 2 million deaths in Cambodia under the communists were somehow triggered by American actions and that the Vietnamese re-education camps were merely "essentially prisons" where former civilian and military officials were "instructed" in the new government's values and policies.

The Vietnamese camps were scenes of torture and forced labor under harsh conditions. Prisoners were forced to clear mine fields and other dangerous tasks, with no shelter from the hot tropical sun, poor nutrition and no medical care. Estimated deaths from disease, starvation, execution and accidents range from tens of thousands to more than 100,000.

In Cambodia, it was worse. While an exact count is impossible, between 1 million to 3 million Cambodians died following the communist takeover.

Last week, I was in Cambodia for a meeting with former King Sihanouk and a tour of the "killing fields," including Tuol Sleng prison, one of the torture and death camps run by the communists after the American withdrawal. No one I met there blamed the United States for the genocide. Everyone I spoke with blamed the communist despots and revolutionaries for the mass starvation, torture and death that followed the American withdrawal.

The Vietnamese and Cambodian communist movements can be traced to the late 1920s, when Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh began organizing cells to follow the philosophy of Karl Marx. His timing and methods followed Chinese Communist Chairman Mao's model for political and social revolution. The Vietnamese and Cambodian communist movements evolved over decades, picking up support after World War II amongst Paris-educated radicals who believed in a remaking of their societies according to Marx's model.

Their activities therefore began decades prior to the American military involvement in Southeast Asia. Indeed, their tracts and propaganda literature focus on Marxism's dogma and social theories, not on American involvement in their countries. America's involvement altered the timing of their military victories but did not cause them.

History shows a pattern in communist states, whether in Russia, China, Vietnam or Cambodia. Military victory was followed by genocide, with the deaths usually preceded by torture, starvation or imprisonment. The specific circumstances varied, however the indiscriminate violation of the most basic human rights is a common trait of despotic regimes everywhere. American involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia slowed the communist advances, however our withdrawal removed any last hope for these countries to avoid the carnage of authoritarian regimes.

President Bush's warnings about the potential for mass murders and ethnic cleansing in Iraq if the United States withdraws its forces should be taken seriously by the Congress and the American people as our country debates its options for the future of Iraq. The grisly torture and murder of thousands of civilians by the Islamic militias fighting American involvement confirms their total lack of regard for human rights. Whether your torturer is called a communist or an Islamic radical is of little importance to the victim. Evil follows a familiar pattern where it is allowed to flourish.

Whether American withdrawal from Iraq would produce an Iraqi genocide comparable to the aftermath of Vietnam and Cambodia is a legitimate issue for debate. If history does indeed repeat itself, President Bush may be correct in warning of the consequences of withdrawal.

Nojay first traveled to Cambodia in 1984. He is an attorney in Pittsford.