Showing posts with label Cambodian genocide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambodian genocide. Show all posts

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Sunday, May 11, 1975. Celebrating a peace that wasn't.

A photograph of doves and an Asian woman for the celebration.  In reality, the PAVN and Cambodians were already fighting.  The Khmer Rouge was murdering people and sending the entire population into the countryside, and the Pathet Lao were getting ready to murder the Hmong.

A celebration organized by anti war figure and songwriter Phil Ochs marked the end of the Vietnam War, which of course by necessary implication marked the South Vietnamese defeat.  The event in Central park included performances by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Paul Simon.

The ironies are thick, as the poster above portrays. Rather than smiling Vietnamese women, there were thousands of South Vietnamese going into an uncertain future that included "reeducation", although this time the Communists in Vietnam did not commit mass murders.  The Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao, however, were about to.

A partial solar eclipse was visible in Greenland, Europe, north Africa and north Asia.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 10, 1975. Cambodian aggression.

Friday, April 18, 2025

Friday, April 18, 1975. Executing the radicals.

Hang Thun Hak, 48 year old former radical Socialist Prime Minister of Cambodia was executed by the Khmer Rouge.  He'd been in the far left himself and had contacts with the Khmer Rouge, none of which saved him, with execution of left wing radicals actually being common amongst Communist.

The NVA took Phan Thiết.

Van McCoy released The Hustle.

ZZ Top released Fandango!

Last edition:

Thursday, April 17, 1975. The fall of Phnom Penh.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Thursday, April 17, 1975. The fall of Phnom Penh.

Khmer Rouge cadres marched into Phnom Penh, forced all residents out of their homes, marched them into the countryside, and began mass murders.


Around 2,000,000 Cambodians would die during the Cambodian genocide which only ended when the Vietnamese Army conquered Cambodia during the Cambodian Vietnamese War.

A CIA spy inside the North Vietnamese government inner circle informed the US Embassy in Saigon that the North would not negotiated, which was pretty obvious by this point anyway.

The last flight of the RAAF out of Vietnam took place, thereby taking a total of 270 Vietnamese civilians to Thailand.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 16, 1975. Ford denounces Congress.