The extreme idealists can't pull back nine cows, and they are buried with millions of people

https://blog.creaders.net/u/3843/202304/460723.html

The French Revolution, the Russian October Coup, and the Chinese Revolution were all full of violence, and the Khmer Rouge was the bloody fruit of this vine of violence. The leaders of the Communist Party of Cambodia, Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan, Insali, and Song Cheng, all studied in France for many years. Not only did they fail to learn Western liberal and democratic ideas, but they became the most radical communists, which is thought-provoking

Mao Zedong's "520 Statement" backs the culprit who is anti-civilization and anti-humanity

The 100th issue of "Following the Forest" premiered on May 20, 2020

◆High felling forest

Does the person on the screen still have any impression of the Chinese who have experienced the 1970s?

Insali, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge government, visited China frequently.

He was Insali, one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge. He was born in Tra Vinh Province, Cochin China, which is today's southern Vietnam. His father was Cambodian and his mother was Chinese. Insali served as the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge government and often came to Beijing. I often heard his name and saw his photo in the newspaper. The description of this photo in our last program was not clearly written. Mr. Yu Liang, who lives in Philadelphia, wrote an email after watching the program that night, pointing out my mistake, which moved me very much!

Insali's wife, Intiri, was once the Minister of Social Affairs of the Khmer Rouge regime. Both the couple studied in France to obtain degrees.

Insali is the brother-in-law of Pol Pot, the perpetrator of the Cambodian massacre. Insali's wife is called Indili, and the couple's names differ in only one syllable. Indili is also a high-ranking Khmer Rouge official and the Minister of Social Affairs. Her older sister, Jopanali, was Pol Pot's first wife. The sisters were born into a wealthy and privileged class family and went to Paris together when they were young. Intiri majored in Shakespeare at the University of Paris and later became the first person in Cambodia to receive a degree in English literature. In 1951, she and Insally held their wedding in Paris. Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper in Cambodia, reported in January 2004 that the two couples were later dubbed the "Cambodian Gang of Four" by Jiang Qing.

Most of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were intellectuals who had eaten foreign bread. Indili graduated from the University of Paris, Insali studied at Sciences Po in Paris, and Pol Pot studied at the Avery College in Paris. However, according to relevant information, , he took the exam, failed it, then volunteered to return home to assess the situation and failed to get a degree.

Qiao Samphan, who is well known to the Chinese, is a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Khmer Rouge, the fourth and fifth figures, and also of Chinese descent. He studied in France and received a Ph.D. , returned to China as a professor of economics at the University of Phnom Penh. He was the head of state after the Khmer Rouge came to power after serving as deputy prime minister and defense minister in Sihanouk's Royal Cambodian Government of National Unity.

Qiao Samphan, one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, is a French doctor.

Qiao Samphan, Fu Ning, and Hu Rong are the three major intellectuals of the Khmer Rouge. Fu Ning and Hu Rong both have half Chinese blood. Fu Ning died very early: he was executed by Pol Pot in 1977 to purge dissidents in the party; Hu Rong was born in poverty, and later studied economics and law at the University of Paris and received a Ph.D. Bachelor of Science. The arguments presented in his doctoral dissertation in economics later became the cornerstone of the Khmer Rouge's economic policy. But he had nothing to do with the Khmer Rouge's massacres and disappeared from the political scene before the Khmer Rouge stormed Phnom Penh.

Nuon Chea, the No. 2 figure in the Khmer Rouge, once served as the deputy secretary of the Central Committee of the Cambodian Communist Party and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. His status is second only to General Secretary Pol Pot. He claims to have a quarter of Chinese descent.

Nuon Chea, the number two figure in the Khmer Rouge.

Another leader of the Khmer Rouge, Song Cheng, who rose to the sixth place, also studied in France and studied philosophy and history; after capturing Phnom Penh in 1975, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and also the Khmer Rouge secret police agency Director of Sandbar, actively involved in the design of interrogation and torture procedures. His wife, Yunya, serves as Minister of Culture and Education. Song Cheng has a lot of blood and debts. It is said that in the six months after 1978, he was responsible for killing more than 100,000 people in the Eastern Region. But Song Cheng died very badly in the end. On June 10, 1997, when the Khmer Rouge was at the end of his rope, Song Cheng tried to surrender to the Cambodian government. Shooting kills. Qiao Sampan declared Song Cheng to be a "spy" and "traitor". Pol Pot ordered a truck to crush Song Cheng's body back and forth in public, making his body bloody and bloody. Then his wife and eight relatives were also executed.

S-21 Killing Fields is mainly used for interrogation, torture and execution of internal enemies. In the early 1980s, nearly 9,000 corpses were excavated here.

Cambodia has been a French protectorate since 1863. Independence from France in 1953. In the past 90 years, only the period from 1942 to 1945 in the Second World War was under the occupation of the Japanese army, so it was deeply influenced by France. Most of the middle and lower cadres of the Khmer Rouge were uneducated, but most of the top leaders received higher education in France. Tracing their ideology and social movement genealogy, we can see the shadow of the Jacobin terrorist dictatorship after the French Revolution : In the ten months from September 1793 to July 1794, 16,594 people were sent to the guillotine across France, and about 25,000 people were executed on the spot in France.

There are two main lines of social change, the Anglo-American road and the French-Russian road. The French Revolution and the October Coup in Russia were full of violence, and the Chinese Revolution also continued this line of thinking. The Khmer Rouge was a bloody fruit that grew out of this vine of violence. Most of the leaders of the CPK, such as Pol Pot, Insali, and Song Cheng, came from relatively wealthy families in Cambodia and studied in France. However, instead of learning Western liberal and democratic ideas, they became the most radical Communist Party . What is the reason?

Written by Zhou Degao and written by Zhu Xueyuan, "I, the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Party of Cambodia" (published by Tianyuan Bookstore)

Mr. Hu Ping had an explanation. He analyzed Zhou Degao’s "Me and the Chinese Communist Party and the Cambodian Communist Party" after reading, "I think this is probably because they came to the West and witnessed the development of the West, so they felt the backwardness and Feeling ashamed and contemptuous of their incompetence, they embarked on the road of revolution. The theory of communism was born in the West and at the same time anti-Western, which just catered to their ambivalence that they wanted to learn from the West while maintaining their national pride. The reason why Pol Pot fanatically promoted the communist revolution was not out of what Hayek called 'rational arrogance', because they also had a half-knowledge of Marxism. They were more out of ambition Arrogant, wanting to come from behind, create miracles in the world, and usher in a new era of history. So not only do they not pay attention to the Soviet Communist Party, but they even don’t think much of the CCP’s. The Cambodian Communist Party’s The CCP in the Mao era was even more radical than the Gang of Four..." Mr. Hu Ping's family's words are worthy of our consideration.

The cruelty, intolerance, and absurdity of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge reached an unparalleled level. We are people who have experienced the Cultural Revolution, and we know the cruelty, intolerance and absurdity of the Cultural Revolution. If you multiply it by ten or twenty times, you can imagine the realm of Cambodia.

Mr. Yu Liang described what he saw and heard in his book "Red Vortex":

Citizens who were "evacuated" to the desolate mountains and forests or remote villages to settle down, under the conditions of severely insufficient rations, living in huts that could not shelter from the wind and rain, and the shortage of medicine, in order to realize the "Great Leap Forward" and "build socialism as soon as possible" Every day, I go to work in the fields from four o'clock in the morning until half past nine in the evening. Large numbers of people died from the heat, fatigue, hunger, cholera, malaria and acclimatization. Ordinary people are not allowed to eat the fruit on the tree or catch fish in the river; once found, the light ones will be beaten, and the serious ones will be executed. The author saw an overseas Chinese child who was thrown alive into a boiling water pot and boiled to death for stealing sweet potatoes.

Yu Liang's "Red Vortex: Thrilling Life in China, Cambodia and the United States" (published by Der Spiegel Publishing House)

The crimes of the Khmer Rouge we are talking about actually include two aspects. One is their direct and brutal massacre of the so-called enemy, and the other is their brutal social transformation that pushed people of all classes into the abyss of misery. In fact, Mao Zedong was also like this, but Pol Pot was blue and better than blue. The atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, Stalin’s purge of the former Soviet Union, the massacre of Jews by the Nazis in Germany, and China’s Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution are also known as the four major humanitarianisms of the 20th century. disaster.

Listed as enemies, the objects of purge are extremely wide, including those who have served in the Lon Nol regime, pro-Vietnamese elements, KGB spies, and American CIA agents; those who do not want to leave Phnom Penh automatically, those who are dissatisfied with the new policy, landlords and rich peasants Proprietor property owners. In the big purge, in order to save bullets, the murderers were often hit with sticks or hacked with axes. Many skulls excavated later have cracks cut by axes. Almost all the military and political personnel of the Lon Nol regime who surrendered to the Cambodian Communist Party, from the prime minister, commander, ministers to soldiers, were killed. Many of them were killed by their families. For example, none of the fourteen members of the tourism minister's family survived. Because of the old grudge with Vietnam, the Cambodian Communist Party killed all 20,000 Vietnamese nationals who were too late to evacuate, and still did not understand the hatred. Cambodians who had Vietnamese blood and could speak Vietnamese would also be killed.

In the summer of 1976, Pol Pot, who had been behind the scenes, came to the fore and became prime minister. At the end of the year, he worriedly pointed out that "the body of the party is already sick", and started the internal purge of the party organization. The more revolutionary comrades who have worked hard, the more likely they will be suspected and become the ghosts of their own comrades. In the eastern region, nearly 100,000 cadres and soldiers were executed at one time on suspicion of being "pro-Vietnamese". The Tusrang Prison in the south of Phnom Penh alone executed 14,000 CPK cadres and their families. More than 2,000 members of the former People’s Party, the predecessor of the Cambodian Communist Party, who returned from Vietnam, many of whom had studied in China and the Soviet Union, were all killed; Go to the countryside and kill all of them; expand it to even those who wear glasses. Speaking a foreign language is also a death penalty, and teachers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals are also regarded as enemies.

Pol Pot had long had his own extremely narrow blueprint for social transformation.

As for social transformation, two months before the Khmer Rouge captured the capital, Phnom Penh, Pol Pot’s Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cambodia formulated a plan, which was implemented on the day of the capture of Phnom Penh: to drive all urban residents out of the city. Unprepared people hurriedly took a few belongings and fled to the countryside without a clear goal. Whether they died or lived, it all depended on their luck. Three days later, Phnom Penh, a city of 2 million people, became an empty city. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even more died on the way of wandering and begging for more than a month. The Khmer Rouge said it was because American planes were coming to bomb it soon, and later said it was because they were afraid that there were a large number of class enemies hidden in the city. In fact, it was the Khmer Rouge who had no experience and were not at all prepared to learn to manage large cities.

Pol Pot's concept of new man and old man is just the opposite of what we usually call it. We would think that people from the old society are old people who have to undergo ideological transformation to become new communist people; Pol Pot's concept is that people in the old base areas are "old people" who have passed the test of the revolution and conformed to ideals. The basic masses of the newly established cities are "new people", parasitic in the cancer of capitalism, and need to rush to the countryside of the revolutionary base area to accept the transformation of the "old people".

In short, according to Pol Pot, the city is an ugly symbol of capitalism. It will corrupt cadres and the masses. To build an ideal society, cities must be eliminated. Moreover, it is eliminated immediately without delay. There is still a buffer period for the CCP to carry out the socialist revolution. First, the land reform will be carried out to distribute the land to the farmers, and then it will be taken back through cooperatives after two or three years; Transformation also has certain steps. Not so with Pol Pot. Some CPK cadres who later broke with Pol Pot recalled that shortly after the occupation of Phnom Penh, a meeting of senior cadres was held, and Pol Pot first announced the basic national policy after the Communist Party came to power, except for the execution of all Lon Nol government leaders , Drive all Vietnamese people out of Cambodia, and what is even more terrible: evacuate the city; abolish currency, market and private property; implement distribution according to needs and universal supply system, close Buddhist temples, drive monks to engage in agricultural labor; Establish high-level cooperatives across the country and implement a collective canteen system. Decisions also included abolishing schools and hospitals, some attendees recalled.

Pol Pot was betrayed by his relatives, and this was his final cremation and burial.

The Khmer Rouge announced that it would modernize the country within ten to fifteen years. To promote the cooperative system originally implemented in the controlled areas, all the citizens became slaves of forced labor, slash-and-burn farming, and all the grain harvested was handed over to the public. The problem is not that everything is super-intensive primitive physical labor, but that the invention and use of technical tools are not allowed to improve labor efficiency. Vegetables and fruits are allowed to be grown, but the harvest is returned to the public. Stealing melons and fruits was convicted of theft and sent to the village committee for punishment. Productivity has been severely damaged, and the land of fish and rice has become unable to drink porridge or eat insects. The Khmer Rouge regarded knowledge as a sin, had no formal schools, and banned books and printed matter. Only singing revolutionary songs, dancing revolutionary dances, banning traditional song and dance dramas, and strictly prohibiting the spread of Western culture. The Cambodian communists are very proud: "Our system is superior to that of the Chinese" - the Chinese still spend money and allow private chickens and ducks to be raised, and the Chinese and Vietnamese still eat as a family. In Cambodia, banknotes, shops, temples, and schools were all wiped out; there was no post and telecommunications, all religious beliefs were banned, Buddhists were forced to return to secular life, and Muslims were forced to eat pork. Human civilization retreated to the barbaric era in Cambodia overnight.

In 1999, Professor Cheng Yinghong of the University of Delaware wrote an article "In the Name of Revolution—Research on the Khmer Rouge Massacre", arguing that the goal of the Khmer Rouge was to "surpass Lenin and Mao Zedong" and "establish a country that is more powerful than the Soviet Union, Both China and Vietnam are more pure socialist societies. To achieve this goal, it refuses to try any method of peaceful transformation or persuasion and education, cancels any transitional period, and chooses the most simple and direct path: use violence from the beginning Large-scale and organized elimination of part of the population to achieve social transformation.”

Professor Yinghong Cheng from the University of Delaware.

Later, Professor Cheng Yinghong added that it should also be clearly pointed out that the essence of the Khmer Rouge was anti-civilization, and all those revolutionary slogans and barbaric measures concentrated on one point were nothing more than the use of the most primitive means, coercion and even violence to achieve what the founders of the communist movement wanted. The proposed elimination of the three major differences (class differences, urban-rural differences, and brain-body differences) and the associated systems, achievements, norms, and concepts. In the international communist movement, policies based on these concepts were most prominently manifested in Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, and the Khmer Rouge was pushed to extremes. Party designated sex partner.

In the Khmer Rouge's policy of establishing a "pure socialist society", the evacuation of cities can be said to be the most important measure. To evacuate the city is to abolish all kinds of civilized systems that use the city as a space. Pol Pot said that "driving everyone out of the city is a feat that no revolution in any country can do."

In addition to ideology, the policy of abolishing cities also has practical considerations. It was part of the great economic leap forward of the Khmer Rouge, because in the view of the Khmer Rouge, urban people were consumers, not producers, and forced labor on them could increase production (this is the view of the Cuban Communist Party leader Fidel Castro It is also completely consistent, Castro believes that urban people are lazy and lazy, and should be sent to the sugarcane fields). A Khmer Rouge cadre said to the urban residents who were driven to the countryside: "Relocating the urban population to the mountainous areas and developing the mountainous economy is a great invention of ours. The French cannot do it, and neither can Sihanouk. Only we can do it. Think about it, if the entire mountainous area develops, how much rice grains, fruits, and mountainous crops we need in Cambodia! At that time, you can eat freely!"

Is it very similar to the slogan of the CCP's Great Leap Forward?

Hua Guofeng and others greeted the Khmer Rouge leaders at the airport, and Deng Xiaoping and Pol Pot embraced warmly.

A deeper reason for the Khmer Rouge's hostility to cities is that they have been active in remote villages for a long time. Not only do they have no experience in managing cities, but they are also very alienated from urban life. Therefore, not to mention effectively managing a city, they are daunted by maintaining daily operations. The most convenient option, then, is to simply abolish cities rather than learn how to manage or control them. According to Cheng Yinghong: "The massacre of the Khmer Rouge was not to resolve ethnic, tribal, or religious conflicts, but to completely restructure society. ... It refused to try any methods of peaceful transformation or persuasion and education, canceled any transition period, and chose The most simple and direct way is to use violence to wipe out a part of the population on a large scale and in an organized manner from the very beginning, so as to achieve social transformation.” Pol Pot used terror to erase the four major elements that existed before the revolution. Classes: the petty bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie and the landlord class. The whole people have become a working class of workers and peasants, achieving absolute equality.

Today is (2020) May 20th. Half a century ago, China had a famous "May 20 Statement", which was related to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos we are talking about today.

The Chinese-English bilingual version of Mao Zedong's "May 20 Statement".

It was the afternoon of May 20, 1970. A meeting of 500,000 people was held in Tiananmen Square in the capital. Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai and other central leaders, as well as the head of state of Cambodia, Prince Sihanouk and his wife attended the meeting. Lin Biao read out a statement entitled "People of the World Unite to Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and All Their lackeys". The statement, including the title, is only 935 words long. It was drafted by Qiao Guanhua and reviewed and signed by Mao Zedong. It was written firmly, powerfully and very inspiring. But Lin Biao dragged his tone and spoke weakly in Hubei dialect for more than a quarter of an hour. I was still in the countryside learning from Dazhai to grow cotton for the revolution. Every household installed cable broadcast speakers, and the ignorant children in the village imitated Lin Biao's slow tone. The statement reads: "The danger of a new world war still exists, and the people of all countries must be prepared. However, the main tendency of the current world is revolution. The US invaders cannot win in Vietnam and Laos, and they are plotting to instigate the Lon Nol-Sliema The reactionary coup d'état of the Dar Group, brazenly sending troops to Cambodia, and resuming the bombing of northern Vietnam, aroused the anger and resistance of the people of the three countries in Indochina... Who is afraid of whom in the world now? Not the Vietnamese people, the Laotian people, the Cambodian people, the Palestinian people, the Arabs The people and the peoples of the world are afraid of U.S. imperialism, but U.S. imperialism is afraid of the people of all countries in the world, and it panics whenever there is a disturbance. Numerous facts have proved that what is right is more helpful than what is wrong. A weak country can defeat a strong country, and a small country can defeat a big country .”

Cultural Revolution propaganda poster with the theme of Mao Zedong's "May 20 Statement".

There is a very popular song in the late period of the Cultural Revolution, which was written according to the 520 statement: "The east wind blows, the war drums beat, who is afraid of whom in the world now? It is not the people who are afraid of the US emperor, but the US emperor is afraid of the people!" This song, students Singing competitions, militiamen singing during marching, and little girls dancing rubber bands. It was sung during the Cultural Revolution, and it can still be sung after the Cultural Revolution is over. Now that the Sino-US trade war is happening, some people are singing it again. Singing and singing, Vietnam is fighting the perfect emperor and Cambodia, and China is not fighting the US emperor and Vietnam. It's really touching. https://blog.creaders.net/u/3843/202304/460864.html

"Being selfless can be fearless." This sentence has a terrible other side: Pol Pot has no bottom line and no sense of guilt when he does cruel and bad things, because he doesn't use gold toilets, doesn't have US dollars to deposit in Swiss banks, and doesn't have three palaces. The Sixth Court believes that it is dedicated to the public, and the sun is shining. In his eyes, if you have money, you deserve death, and if you are educated, you deserve death

Mao praised the Khmer Rouge: You are correct, many experiences are better than ours

"Following the Forest" Issue 101, premiered on May 22, 2020

◆High felling forest

The first two episodes of "Falling Questions" talked about the massacres committed by the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. You may feel that Pol Pot is a demon. However, in fact, he and his comrades, as well as the Khmer Rouge, have another image even in the end.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot

We have said that the middle and lower classes of the Khmer Rouge were poor peasants with very low educational levels, but the vast majority of the leadership were senior intellectuals—several university graduates and even doctors who studied in France, as well as economists, university professors, Engineers, senior civil servants of the Sihanouk dynasty, newspaper directors, editors, and lawyers.

Mr. Yu Liang, a Cambodian overseas Chinese living in Philadelphia, returned to his second hometown of Cambodia in September 2013 to visit Anlong Veng, the last Khmer Rouge base where Pol Pot was buried. Anlong Wen is located close to the border of Thailand. It is only more than 100 kilometers from the world-famous Angkor Wat to Anlong Wen. The United Nations has listed it as a world cultural heritage. The current Prime Minister Hun Sen has also suggested that the entire area be classified as a tourist area. , but many people objected to using the place of sin as a scenic spot and did not implement it. I don't know if things have changed over the years.

The Khmer Rouge, which was driven out of the capital by the Vietnamese army in early 1979 and lost its national power, still occupied nearly one-fifth of the country's land until the 1990s. It is a sparsely populated area bordering Thailand in northwest Cambodia. . There are two bases: Insali, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan stationed at Pailin base, and Pol Pot, Damo and Songcheng stationed at Anlong Veng base.

The Khmer Rouge was driven to the remote jungle and persisted in the Anlong Veng base for 19 years. Yu Liang took a photo in front of the ruins of the military command post of the Chief of Staff Da Mo. (provided by Yu Liang)

In September 1989, Vietnam completely withdrew its troops from Cambodia. In September of the following year, Hun Sen and the three anti-Vietnamese factions, including the Khmer Rouge, established the "Cambodia Supreme Committee". Subsequently, the parties announced an indefinite ceasefire and reached an agreement to reduce their armed forces by 70% and organize political parties to participate in future general elections. On February 28, 1992, the UN Security Council sent a peacekeeping force to Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge signed a peace agreement with the other two anti-Vietnamese organizations and the Hun Sen regime. However, when implementing the second phase of the ceasefire agreement to reduce the army, establish a political party, and prepare for the general election, the Khmer Rouge backtracked and refused to cooperate. Pol Pot and others suppressed objections within the party and insisted on retaining the army, thus missing out on returning to the political arena It was declared illegal and became the target of extermination.

Mr. Yu Liang introduced us many little-known situations in the article. For example, he said:

Don't think that the Khmer Rouge was suffering at the base. In fact, they had enough food and clothing, sufficient water, clean air, and complete Chinese-style equipment. When Hun Sen's army briefly occupied the base, they found that there were 1,100 tons of rice that had not been taken away, a large-scale hospital, and advanced filtering equipment in the pool. These originated from China's early aid; later, the Pailin base, one of the two bases, received a large amount of dollars in exchange for rich precious wood and precious stones.

Khmer Rouge leader. From right: Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan.

Anlong Veng Base, with a radius of about five kilometers. Since the Vietnamese army occupied Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge has camped here for 17 years, with a team of 2,000 people. Later, after completely losing Chinese aid, they came to sweep it three times in a row The well-equipped Phnom Penh government army caused heavy casualties, and took the initiative to attack in 1996, capturing Siem Reap, a hundred kilometers away.

Mr. Yu Liang said, don't think that the Khmer Rouge at this time is a black and evil group, and everyone is afraid of it. They have the support of farmers in Anglong Veng. There are no barracks for soldiers in the base. They live among the peasants, live and work with them, and participate in infrastructure construction, intermarriage, and childbirth in the county. Farmers can visit the base and attend meetings. Pol Pot's second wife was a local woman who was more than 20 years younger than him, and she took the initiative to express her love for him.

Mr. Yu Liang said: Don't think that the Khmer Rouge are all desperadoes and short-sighted. They have ideals, strong patriotism, and resolutely resist Vietnam's aggression, infiltration and hegemony. In the nineteen years since 1979, when Pol Pot was ousted by the Vietnamese army, he has not left the base. Share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and stay with the farmers. He did not seek personal gain for himself or his loved ones. When the Khmer Rouge ruled the country, his elder brother was driven to work in the countryside like the people of the whole country. Later, when the elder brother found him, he also arranged for his elder brother to work in the cooperative; he had no children with his first wife, who was eight years older than him, and his mother-in-law Dissatisfied that he made the Buddhist country, a land of fish and rice, miserable for the people. She is also the wife of a high-ranking party member. She has been caught between a kind mother and a radical communist husband for many years. She suffers from severe depression and went to Beijing for medical treatment until she died. When he fled the base twice, people did not find any valuables in his residence, and it was confirmed after his death that he had nothing to do. His followers and soldiers believed that everything he did was for the liberation of the country and the nation. His comrades also recognized him as a communist revolutionary leader, and he also received strong support from China.

Khmer Rouge leader. From left: Insali, Pol Pot and Song Cheng.

Later, several big bosses thought they were getting old and needed successors, so they intended to train young division commanders, battalion commanders, young radio station directors, and foreign spokespersons...including the ambassador to China, Jiang Yuying, etc. They strive for various opportunities to show their "enlightened thinking" to the outside world, and cut off from the extreme leftist ideas and evil deeds of the past ruling period. However, during the three years, eight months and 20 days in power, the Khmer Rouge caused too much damage to the country and the people, and the hearts of the people were devastated. Even though the leadership including Pol Pot made a review later, they still avoided the important things . On June 11, 1997, Pol Pot killed eight members of Song Cheng's family, and ordered the soldiers to move the corpses outside the house and use a large truck to roll them back and forth. His elder brother said later: "My younger brother was not like this. When he was young, he also respected me as an elder brother. Maybe, maybe, he was bewitched by something?"

Damo, the chief of the general staff who was born as a peasant, had his hands stained with the blood of the people. He did something good at the last moment: he arrested Pol Pot in one fell swoop, replaced violence with a trial, and sentenced him to life imprisonment—the international community and the people in China will never Trust them again and never let them have another chance. The people are determined: If these people are allowed to rule again, it will inevitably be another catastrophe.

The Khmer Rouge, also known as the Communist Party of Cambodia, was born in September 1960 and died in December 1998. During these 38 years, it fought against the Sihanouk dynasty, against the pro-American Lon Nol regime, against the Vietnamese invaders, Fighting against the so-called class enemies among the people of the country, fighting against the Hun Sen regime in Phnom Penh...the party is also fighting internally, and even the vast majority of people at the highest level are completely desperate for the future, and the final demise is inevitable. The bunker was breached from the inside. Pol Pot ended his 73-year-old life in desperation and betrayed his relatives. His body was burned and ashes were scattered, and his communist utopia walked into history together with two million lives.

We know such a saying: "Only selflessness can be fearless." This sentence has a terrible other side: the reason why Pol Pot did cruel and bad things has no bottom line is because he didn't use gold toilets, didn't have US dollars to deposit in Swiss banks, and didn't have three dollars. The Sixth Courtyard of the Palace believes that it is dedicated to the public, and it is open and frank. In his eyes, money and books are the root of all evils. As long as you have money, you deserve death. If you have culture, you deserve death. Capital and culture must be completely wiped out. No guilt at all.

In the autumn of 1997, a few months before Pol Pot’s death, Thayer, a senior journalist and American, interviewed him in the mountains on the Thai-Cambodian border and asked him directly if he felt remorse for killing 2 million compatriots. Pol Pot Te replied: "I never thought I was wrong, and I never regretted it. I was just fighting and fighting to make my country better. This is my ideal. I have been fighting for it all my life." , I have no shame in my heart, I am innocent."

On January 17, 1980, Pol Pot (left) was interviewed by the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in the jungle.

Pol Pot was a typical idealistic extremist who went crazy. When he was studying in France, he was thinking hard about how to save his country, which was sluggish and corrupt, and the gap between the rich and the poor was staggering. His conclusion is: in troubled times, we must use heavy codes, and in serious illnesses, we must use strong medicine. If we want to completely eradicate crimes, we must not soften our hearts and use even the most cruel methods. This is the scariest part of him! Such people must never be in power, and they must never be given the opportunity to sacrifice millions of people.

Thanks to an international trial, a crime that shocked everyone's conscience was revealed. People in many countries feel appalling and cannot believe it. For example, survivors of the massacre testified that in order to increase the efficiency of the massacre, the Khmer Rouge soldiers tied the so-called "class enemies" together with ropes one by one, blindfolded them, pushed them to stand in a row in the middle of the road, and then excitedly drove With the tanks pressing over, it is also called "mass removal". It is even more cruel to infants and young children, directly lifting their legs upside down and swinging them vigorously against the tree trunk. The children were still smiling innocently before they died, probably thinking that these uncles were playing flying games with themselves. To this day, the young teeth that were embedded deep in the bark can still be found on the trunk.

Dozens of foreign and Cambodian books about Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot are sold at Cambodia International Airport and major bookstores in Phnom Penh. In China, discussing and exposing the crimes of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot has gradually ceased to be a taboo. The international court tried the Khmer Rouge leaders and made their crimes known to the world. Western journalists, politicians, historians, international organizations, etc. persist in tracking, interviewing, discussing, and investigating. All of these make this one of the greatest tragedies of mankind in the twentieth century more and more clear.

The Pagoda of Bones next to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. There are many skeletons, accusing the crimes of the Khmer Rouge massacre. (Photo by Gao Falin)

If the Khmer Rouge could last longer, would experts, scholars, and vested interests theoretically conclude that "history chose the Khmer Rouge"? Pol Pot is also likely to be regarded as the "people's savior", and everything he and his comrades did will have a "reasonable" explanation, no, they will all be banned.

In the last issue of "Following the Forest", I said that Mao Zedong's "May 20 Statement" was to support the culprit who was anti-civilization and anti-humanity. Some viewers pointed out that Mao Zedong's statement was issued in 1970, while Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge was issued in 1975. He conquered Phnom Penh in 1999, and then took power in the whole country, committing the crime of massacre. This friend was right. When Mao issued the "May 20 Statement", the main crime of the Khmer Rouge was in the future tense. But nearly ten years have passed since the birth of the Communist Party of Cambodia and the revolutionary rebellion. Their behavioral characteristics have revealed a pattern of imitating the early rebellion of the CCP. And Mao Zedong and the CCP’s support for the Khmer Rouge continued until they were in power for mass executions and persecution, and even continued until they were overthrown by the Vietnamese army and driven to deep mountains and old forests. I mentioned the "May 20 Statement" because the day before yesterday (May 20, 2020) was the 50th anniversary of the "May 20 Statement". Khmer Rouge blood transfusion, support. The climax was on February 17, 1979. Deng Xiaoping launched a military attack on Vietnam at the great cost of the Chinese military and civilians in order to present the United States with a vote, to seize military power, and to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao to save the dying Khmer Rouge. Later, the Logistics Department of the Kunming Military Region compiled the "Summary of Self-Defense Counterattacks Against Vietnam". In this month, a total of 6,954 people from the People's Liberation Army and former militias who participated in the war were killed and more than 14,800 were injured.

In June 2018, the National History Publishing House under the Der Spiegel Group published an e-book "Mao Zedong Speeches Newly Discovered in Confidential Archives" edited by Professor Song Yongyi, which was found from the special collections departments of top university libraries around the world. For the first time, the CCP’s foreign affairs archives were fully disclosed, with a total of more than 300,000 words. I participated in the editing of this book.

E-book "Newly Discovered Mao Zedong Speech in Confidential Archives" (National History Publishing House)

I found out from this book yesterday that it contains two conversations between Mao Zedong and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. One was on April 2, 1974. The conversation with the head of the delegation of the Kingdom of National Unity Government, Qiao Samphan and the deputy head of Insali, Prince Sihanouk also participated in the meeting; another time, on June 21, 1975, Mao Zedong met with Pol Pot, British Sally and others, Deng Xiaoping also participated in this meeting, but it is recorded that he did not say a word.

Comparing the written records of these two meetings is very interesting. The first meeting was on April 2, 1974. The Khmer Rouge army was still in the stage of seizing power and conquering the world, and Phnom Penh had not yet been conquered. Moreover, they met again with Prince Sihanouk, an "old friend of the Chinese people". Mao Zedong repeatedly Let the old opponents of the past unite against the enemy. Sihanouk was also very considerate of the overall situation, and repeatedly stated that he was only a nominal head of state, and all power was handed over to the Khmer Rouge; "After the liberation of Cambodia, I will completely withdraw from political life."

Leaders of the Government of National Unity of the Kingdom of Cambodia meet near Angkor Wat. Prince Sihanouk (first from right), Pol Pot (fourth from right), Kyo Samphan (second from right), and Insali (first from left) all participated.

Sihanouk also said: "After the war is over, there will be no quarrels between us. Prince Binnu and I have been sincerely helping the Cambodian Communists to consolidate the achievements of the people's revolution. The domestic power has been transferred to the people. I have handed over the government, administration, army, and police. We have implemented changes. After the war, even if I wanted to bring down the Cambodian communists, it would be impossible because the army and the government are not in my hands. What am I None. I have no ambitions for the future. I think power should belong to them in the future. They are young people, and they should be in power for granted....It is completely normal for an independent Cambodia that rejects any foreign rule to be in power in the future. "

Sihanouk also said: The Cambodian communists are also very kind to me. ... Now the government is not in the hands of me, the prince, but in the hands of the people, implement real democracy, and fight against imperialism and all evil forces. ... I am only the head of state, not in power. I fully agree with the power of the people, that is to say, the power of the people's representatives - Khieu Samphan and his team. I have formally stated that they should be in power. There will be no internal turmoil in the future, and I will not quarrel with them about it.

Mao Zedong said to Sihanouk: "You are very generous."

Sihanouk: It is not my generosity, it is the result of the natural development of the situation since the outbreak of the war.

Mao Zedong turned his head and asked the Khmer Rouge Khieu Samphan and Insali: Are you going to overthrow Prince Sihanouk or unite them?

They both answered beautifully: we are completely on the same page, and there is no reason to beat them.

Insali also said: The Cambodian revolution carried out with the assistance of China and Vietnam has its own characteristics. Our revolution includes all social classes, ie excludes none. We have every reason to unite everyone, and there is no reason to exclude a class. "We think that Prince Sihanouk is a great patriot. He has been tested and participated in the struggle to save the country. This is not only my personal opinion, but also our domestic opinion."

Mao Zedong enthusiastically advised them to fight the world: If you want to form a fist, you can fight to occupy Phnom Penh and hit big cities. I think it will take about 100,000 troops. You need to squeeze your hands into a fist, not a guerrilla army, but a regular army.

He also said: Have you distributed the land yet? ...to reduce rent and interest. Peasants do not have land, and their combat effectiveness will not increase. If the landlords who sided with Lon Nol were not overthrown, the enthusiasm of the peasants would not be very high. Be careful with capitalists. Only comprador capital can be confiscated. If it is national capital, it is not busy. We must also unite with some small and medium landlords.

Mao Zedong worried that they were not strong enough to conquer the world, so he repeatedly taught the CCP the tricks to seize power, reminding them to pay attention to policies and strategies, and to engage in a united front. Qiao Samphan and Insali also vowed to say: they have already done this, and they will continue to do so. Qiao Samphan said: The national capitalists stand with us, and the rich peasants among the peasants also stand with us.

Mao Zedong received Khmer Rouge Supreme Leader Pol Pot (middle) and Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Insali (right).

However, more than a year later, on June 21, 1975, Mao Zedong met with Pol Pot, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cambodia, Insali, a member of the Standing Committee of the Cambodian Communist Party, and others in Zhongnanhai, and the story was very different. The meeting lasted an hour, and it was already two months after the Khmer Rouge took over the country, and the capital, Phnom Penh, had already been evacuated. The CCP has so many people in Cambodia, including diplomats, military advisers, reporters, and intelligence officers like Zhou Degao. It is impossible for Mao Zedong not to understand the situation in Cambodia, but he not only communicated with Pol Pot and Insa Li warmly shook hands to congratulate, and also expressed welcome in English: Very welcome!

Mao Zedong said:

I won't talk about your operations, war (war), politics, military, economy, diplomacy, and united front. I agree with him (referring to Deng Xiaoping). He said you are correct. We agree with you! Many of you have better experience than us. China has no right to criticize you. In 50 years, it has made 10 line mistakes, some of which are nationwide and some of which are partial. So I said that China has no qualifications to criticize you, only to agree with you. You are basically correct.

What I want to talk about is that you are now transitioning from the democratic revolution to the socialist road, the socialist way (socialist road), and there are two possibilities: one is socialism and the other is capitalism. We still have two possibilities now. Wang Ming, Zhang Guotao, Gao Gang, Peng Dehuai, Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao, they want to practice capitalism. In the next 50 or 100 years, there will still be two lines of struggle, and in 10,000 years there will still be two lines of struggle. By the time of communism, there were also two lines of struggle. Otherwise you are not a Marxist.

We now find it ridiculous that Xi Jinping shows off classical allusions and publishes book lists when he visits foreign countries. In fact, Mao Zedong also had this problem. During this interview, he kept interspersing English words, but he read more than Xi Jinping, and dropping his book bag was a little more natural. He talked about Pol Pot and Insali, two "returnees" who had studied in France, who were imaginative, free association, where the stream of consciousness flowed. Yan Fu of "On Evolution", from Huxley, the author of "Evolution of Heaven", to Darwin, and even to German Kant's agnosticism... Whether it is correct or not, let alone, this is far away! I don't know if Pol Pot and Insali are at a loss?

During this talk, Mao Zedong also gave Pol Pot 30 large-printed works by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, saying, "Marx and Lenin spoke better than me." Later, when Pol Pot learned that his subordinates were going to arrest him in a rebellion, he took his guards and fled in a hurry. These large-print books written by Marx, Engels and Lieutenant were thrown all over the floor.

When Pol Pot visited China in 1977, Hua Guofeng, the number one figure in China's party, government and army, greeted him at the airport.

Different from Mao Zedong's attitude, Premier Zhou Enlai did not agree with the ultra-left line of the CPK. Two months after Mao Zedong's interview, in August 1975, Khieu Samphan and Insali, leaders of the Cambodian Communist Party, accompanied Prince Sihanouk to the hospital to visit Zhou Enlai. Zhou Enlai suggested to the Cambodian Communist Party, which was not long in power: "We Chinese Communists have made mistakes, and we must be responsible for the consequences. I take the liberty to remind you, don't expect to step into the final stage of communism through a great leap forward." stage. You must be cautious, act wisely, and take the road of communism step by step.

Your aim now should not be immediate entry into communism, but a slow transition to socialism. If you abandon this prudence and common sense of communism, it will only bring disaster to your people. "

Zhou Enlai took a few pills, took a short rest, and continued: "Communism should mean the happiness, prosperity, dignity and freedom of the people. If someone ignores the ideological level of the people and the reality of the nation, and wants to completely communism in one step, then It is undoubtedly a risk of putting the country and people in dire straits. I remind you not to make the same mistake as China."

Khieu Samphan (left) and Nuon Chea were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and political persecution in a special court supported by the United Nations.

But the leaders of the Khmer Rouge nodded in person, but actually insisted on going their own way. Qiao Samphan said: They will step into communism in one step, and don't waste time on the transition. In fact, the CCP insisted on supporting them no matter how bloody the Khmer Rouge was. They pushed Cambodia into the abyss of blood and finally went to trial one by one. What responsibility should the CCP bear? We have not seen a decent introspection from the CCP.