ABSTRACT
Thirteen days before the American War in Vietnam (1959-1975) came to a dramatic close with the April 30, 1975 “Fall of Saigon,” the Khmer Rouge (a.k.a. “Red Cambodians”) marched triumphantly into Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Dressed in black uniforms, draped in red checkered kramas, and armed with Chinese-issue AK-47s, the Khmer Rouge entered the Southeast Asian municipality atop Soviet army tanks, in battered military jeeps, and on rubbersandaled foot.2 The April 17, 1975 arrival of Khmer Rouge troops tactically coincided with the nation’s New Year observances; incontrovertibly, their presence in the Cambodian urban hub signaled profound “in country” political shifts. Initially, the Khmer Rouge appeared to be harbingers of a much-anticipated peace: Loudspeakers accompanied soldiers as they made their way through Phnom Penh’s major thoroughfares and marketplaces, blaring promises of armistice,
assurances of reconciliation, and guarantees that U.S. intervention in the region and civil war had come to an end.
