David P. Chandler

The tragedy of Cambodian history : politics, war, and revolution since 1945

Introduction 1 In Search of Independence, 1945-1950 2 Political Warfare, 1950-1955 3 Sithanouk Unopposed, 1956-1962 4 Cambodia Clouds Over, 1963-1966 5 Changing the Rules, 1967-1969 6 Sliding Towards Chaos, 1970-1975 7 Revolution in Cambodia, 1975-1979 8 Inside the Typhoon: Testimonies.

Cambodia Deals with its Past: Collective Memory, Demonisation and Induced Amnesia

Abstract This paper examines how successive Cambodian governments have regarded the so‐called Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Between 1979 and 1993, Cambodian governments demonised the Khmer Rouge but since the late 1990s, and the collapse of the Khmer Rouge as a movement, the government has enforced a policy of collective amnesia. In closing, the rationales for officially demonising the past and officially burying it – and how these rartionales ‘fit’ with Cambodia’s collective memory – are discussed in relation to the trial of surviving Khmer leaders now (2008) taking place in Phnom Penh.

Normative Poems (Chbap) and Pre-Colonial Cambodian Society

Using the chbap to analyze pre-cotonial Cambodian society is difficult because these gnomic, normative poems are only incidentally concerned with the ways in which that society was put together. Moreover, it is hard to determine how firmly they are anchored in the times when they were written: how useful is a seventeenth century chbap , after all, in helping us to understand eighteenth-century society? Another problem with using them is that they often provide an idealized picture, suggesting norms of behaviour rather than describing or analyzing the ways in which people behave. Because of this, the poems belong to more than one century at a time. Finally, like anything written down in a largely illiterate society, the chbap encapsulate and pass on the ideology of a minority elite. It can be argued that this ideology, in pre-colonial Cambodia at least, was rarely at odds with the ideology of the rural, illiterate poor; but this may be a circular argument, brought on by the widespread popularity, imposed by the elite over several centuries, of the chbap themselves.

Agriculture and tourism linkage constraints in the Siem Reap-Angkor region of Cambodia

Building on previous research on agriculture and tourism linkages in developing countries, this study investigates such linkages in Cambodias Siem Reap region, exploring whether local farmers have benefitted from the influx of tourists. While other studies have tended to focus on the demand side, the approach in this study is from the supply side, taking mainly the perspective of local farmers. A two-step qualitative methodology was used. In the first stage, officials and informal leaders identified key factors constraining such linkages and in the second stage a questionnaire was administered to individual farmers, asking them to rate constraints identified in the first step. The market, institutional and supply driven constraints encountered by local farmers in gaining entry to the tourism market are similar to those faced by farmers in other developing countries. These multi-dimensional limitations are interwoven in that the inability of farmers to supply the tourism market was found to be a function of both demand and supply factors, the latter mainly structural. The significance of this study is that it complements the existing literature with the perspective of farmers, giving a different angle in the study of tourism and agriculture linkages, and expands the geography where such linkages have been studied; a different country and a world renowned cultural heritage site. The findings provide useful insights for policy makers in Cambodia and beyond in their endeavours to improve agriculture–tourism linkages, thereby benefitting local farmers and assisting in poverty alleviation.

An Anti-Vietnamese Rebellion in Early Nineteenth Century Cambodia: Pre-colonial Imperialism and a Pre-Nationalist Response

The “holy mans” ( nak sel ) rebellion against the Vietnamese that broke out in 1820 along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border is the best-documented one of its kind in pre-colonial Cambodia, and makes a useful addition to the literature of such revolts in Buddhist Southeast Asia. Its importance in Cambodian terms lies in its anti-Vietnamese character, the participation in its ranks of Buddhist monks, the collusion of Cambodian authorities, and the way in which these themes foreshadow Cambodian political thinking, before and after the arrival of the French.

Coming to Terms: Indochina, the United States and the War . Edited by Douglas Allen and Ngo Vinh Long. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991. x, 350 pp.

Part 1 Indochina and its struggle for independence: Vietnam, Ngo Vinh Long post-war Vietnam - a political economy, Ngo Vinh Hai Cambodia, Michael Vickery Laos, W. Randell Ireson and Carol J. Ireson. Part 2 The United States and the war: the United States and Indochina - far from an aberration, Noam Chomsky the Vietnam anti-war movement, George R. Vickers the US veterans experience - a historical overview, Kevin Bowen. Part 3 Films and scholarly literature on Vietnam: framing Vietnam, Jenefer Shute the Rambo phenomenon, Gaylyn Studlar and David Desser against Cartesianism - three generations of Vietnam scholarship, Marvin E. Gettleman. Appendix: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos chronologies, Ngo Vinh Long and Douglas Allen.

46.95 (cloth);

Our understanding of Cambodia/Kampucheas immediate past is gradually being enlarged by recent works dealing with pre-1975 Cambodian society, the development and policies of the Communist Khmer Rouge, and local life during the beginning of the Vietnamese occupation. Research using a broad range of primary source material, including a growing number of interviews with refugees, provides a more detailed picture than previously available of the two successive Kampuchean regimes. There remains, however, a persistent problem in many writings: political/ideological biases that can lead to different perspectives on the Khmer Rouge and on Kampuchea under the Vietnamese.