“After the coup many people from the village joined the Khmer Rouge to fight against the new government…While the government had squashed this uprising, it was only the beginning of the civil war.”

The Lon Nol coup occurred on March 18, 1970. My uncle Om Ngat, and his wife, Om Ear were living in Takeo Province, Bati District in Chambak Commune. While my mother recalls the streets of Phnom Penh being very quiet that day, my aunt remembers a violent uprising in Chambak Commune in the subsequent days. I interviewed my aunt as she recalls tensions in her village soon afterwards and how the Khmer Rouge grew in her commune as a result: 

Wat Ansung. 2013. Source: ©Banyanblog.

On March 18, 1970 I was living in Takeo Province, Bati District in Chambak Commune. We owned a small shop in our house. We lived in the same house your mother grew up in, which was across the street from Wat Ansung (Ansung Pagoda). We didn’t know that there had been a coup in Phnom Penh. We didn’t hear the announcement because there weren’t many TVs or radios in our village at the time.

A few days afterwards we heard rumors from Phnom Penh that something big had happened, that the government had removed Prince Sihanouk from power. Some villagers said they later heard a message from Prince Sihanouk on the radio telling the people to rise against the enemies and go to the maquis to fight the government. At that point I knew there would be trouble because people in the village adored Prince Sihanouk. They were fiercely loyal to him and would die for him.

Soon after, perhaps that day or the next day, massive protests in Chambak commune broke out. It started in the afternoon when a group of people marched to Salah Temnah Kong Eng and took down a picture of Prince Sihanouk. The commune officials from the Chambak Salah Srok tried to prevent the villagers from doing so, but the people wouldn’t listen.  They took the picture down and carried it to Wat Ansung, which was about two kilometers from the Salah Srok.  Wat Ansung became the central meeting place for the protestors. Since our house was right in front of the pagoda and we had a shop, people would come and buy things, and ask for Om Ngat, who was well known in the village. They wanted him to come out and protest with them.  I told them he wasn’t home, that he was out playing football (soccer) by Tonle Bati.

Norodom Sihanouk. 1983. Source: Anefo, Dutch National Archives.

Towards the evening more and more people gathered at the pagoda. By this time your uncle came back. Then there was a knock at our door. This time the protestors wanted our megaphone to make announcements to rally the people. We gave it to them but told them we didn’t know how to use it since we had rented it from someone else. They took it and left us alone for the night.

The next morning, more and more people came to our village.  Droves of people were marching from as far as Phnom Chiso and they all gathered at Wat Ansung. The crowd got so large that the pagoda couldn’t fit everyone. There was an overflow of people and many of them stood in front of our house. I was scared. Your uncle was on his way to Phnom Penh to buy things for the shop and I was at home with your grandfather Kong Sreng and the children. Kong Sreng saw more and more people coming down the road carrying machetes. They were a rabble-rousing crowd. He told me to close the door. He was afraid that the protestors were drunk, would become violent and would burn down the house. I closed the doors to the house.

Later that morning villagers at the pagoda turned into a massive mob and knocked on our door again looking for Om Ngat. They went from house to house telling people to come out and protest.  In some cases they threatened to burn the house down. I told them he wasn’t home that he had gone to Phnom Penh. Shortly after I heard a noise in the back of our house. It was Om Ngat who snuck by the protestors. I let him in the back door. He told me he didn’t make it to Phnom Penh. The government had closed the roads going into the city. On his way back someone at the market told him that he needed to rush home because the mob was going to burn down his house.

The crowd had swelled to the hundreds, if not thousands, by the late morning. They left Wat Ansungand marched with the picture of the Prince to the hospital and then to the Salah Srok. There must have been thousands of people marching, wielding knives and machetes and screaming at the top of their lungs Jay-yo Samdach (Victory Prince). The workers at the Salah Srok must have been scared from the day before and called for help from Takeo Province. Earlier that day two big trucks carrying soldiers came. They stood in front of the Salah Srok waiting for the protestors.

Flag used by Khmer Rouge during their 1975 campaign. This design was replaced soon after their victory. Source: Creative Commons.

The Salah Srok was the final confrontation, soldiers against the angry mob. Even with the soldiers there carrying their guns, the protestors did not disperse. They were not intimidated. The soldiers warned them but the people wouldn’t move.  The people were defiant, they yelled Jay-yo Samdach, Jay-yo Samdach! Then it turned violent. The soldiers started shooting people indiscriminately. The crowd had scattered. I heard the shots and saw people running past our house screaming. I was terrified. Suddenly it was silent. The protestors went home. Eight people had died that day. Later in the afternoon the soldiers left. In the evening people went back to the Salah Srok to pick up the dead bodies to take to the hospital.

In the following days, I had heard that Khieu Samphan (a high ranking Khmer Rouge official) and some Khmer Rouge soldiers came to the village and setup a makeshift medical treatment area to tend to the wounded. The people who had protested were grateful to the Khmer Rouge for their help.  We reopened the shop following the protests and people would buy food, alcohol and medicine for the Khmer Rouge soldiers. After the coup many people from the village joined the Khmer Rouge to fight against the new government. That is how they grew in numbers in our commune. While the government had squashed this uprising, it was only the beginning of the civil war.

*All events are recalled to the best ability and any misstatements are unintentional*

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Journalist Harald Doornbos was in Libya during the Arab Spring. In this 2011 Ted Talk X in Amsterdam, he presents the souvenirs he brought back from a country in the middle of a revolution.

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Between the years of 1966 and 1976, Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong helped to lead what is now known as the Cultural Revolution. This was a time when his Communist Party was worried that capitalistic beliefs were going to take over Chinese society. Because of this threat, Mao Zedong and his group of young followers known as the Red Guards created a rebellion that turned violent very quickly. Within this video, victims of the Cultural Revolution, as well as former members of the Red Guards, talk about witnessing this violent time in Chinese history. Images of temples and villages being ransacked are seen as some victims such as Yu Luowen talk about their family homes being raided as they watched their parents get beaten for being capitalists. Others who were members of the Red Guards, like Xiao Ming, explain why they thought they were doing the right thing during this time period. Ming says he felt that his victims were responsible for the cultural imperialism that had hurt people like him in the past and deserved to get punished. Zhu Danian, another witness, explains that Zedong legitimized the widespread brutality because his political strategy has always been to start a revolution.

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Four people tell of their experiences on the day of the 8888 Uprising, the pro-democracy demonstrations across Rangoon and Burma that were crushed by the Burmese Junta. Although thousands of university students, monks, housewives and children were killed by the military during the uprising, government records account for only 350 of them. Ultimately, the suppression by the military junta on August 8, 1988 prevented the protests from succeeding.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZESCoBk9OBs

CNBC reports live on July 3, 2013, the tumultuous night that Islamist Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was ousted and placed under house arrest. The end of the Muslim Brotherhood’s short-lived regime prompted thousands of citizens to celebrate in Cairo. The “political reset,” caused an upheaval that was reminiscent to that of the Arab Spring when Hosni Mubarak was unseated in Egypt.

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Famous actor Errol Flynn is interviewed about his time spent in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. Flynn is very supportive of Fidel Castro and his regime and defends Castro when asked about the many executions that the Cuban leader ordered. Flynn met Castro in 1958 when he went to Cuba to film the movie, “Cuban Rebel Girls.” In his last known work as an actor, Flynn narrated a documentary called, “Cuban Story: The Truth About Fidel Castro’s Revolution.” Flynn is most famous for starring in many action-adventure films throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-YMYvn47pk

Writer Nancy Stout talks about Celia Sánchez and her impact on the Cuban Revolution. Sánchez played a large role behind the scenes during the revolution and Stout claims that is why not many people outside of Cuba even know who she is. Sánchez was a close friend of Fidel Castro and not only did she make sure his uniform was clean and perform other trivial tasks, but she also played a more important role in the revolution. She was one of the first women to lead a combat squad and was responsible for organizing reinforcements for her squad. She also helped to supply other leaders of the revolution, like Che Guevara, with weapons, food and medical supplies. During the 1960s, Castro named Sánchez the Secretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, a position she held until her death in 1980.

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“I don’t know very English, but I know as much as write to you…”

Read an amazing letter from a 12-Year-Old Fidel Castro to just recently re-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Castro writes “My very good friend Roosevelt: I don’t know very English, but I know as much to write you.” The future leader of the Cuban Revolution, goes on to casually request a ten spot from the U.S. President:
“If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green american (sic), in the letter, because never, I have not seen a ten dollars green american and I would like to have one them…”
The young Castro goes on to give the President his address and highlight that he may not know English that well, but the President probably doesn’t speak Spanish all that great either. Unclear if Roosevelt ever responded, but have to give the young Cuban some credit. No harm in asking.

Castro developed a famously fraught relationship with the United States during his 52-year period in political office between 1959 and 2011–the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Castro’s nationalization of United States owned businesses were among the catalysts for the long term antagonism between the two nations. However, the letter to Roosevelt in 1940 reveals that Castro once idolized a leader of the country he grew to detest. In broken english, he even writes that he is “very happy” that Roosevelt “will be President”:

“Santiago de Cuba.
Nov 6 1940.
Mr. Franklin Roosvelt,
President of the United States. 

My good Roosvelt
I don’t know very English, but I know as much as write to you.
I like to hear the radio, and I am very happy, because I heard in it, that you will be President a new (periodo)
I am twelve years old.
I am a boy but I think very much, but I do not think that I am writting to the President of the United States.

If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american, in the letter, because never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them.
My address is:
Sr. Fidel Castro
Colegio de Dolores
Santiago de Cuba
Oriente.  Cuba.
I don’t know very English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you don’t know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American but I am not American.

(Thank you very much)
Good by.  Your friend,
Fidel Castro

If you want iron to make your sheaps ships I will show to you the bigest (minar) of iron of the land.  They are in Mayarí.  Oriente Cuba.”

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Young Fidel Castro Wrote Fan Mail to FDR appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLiWN8Hpnoo

In this footage, Fidel Castro gives a speech to the Cuban people just days after his forces overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista. He calls the overthrow “the most beautiful victory of our people” and tells the people of Cuba to remember their fallen heroes. Soon after ousting Batista’s regime, Castro made Cuba into a socialist state, which by 1965 became full blown communism. This change of government to communism strained Cuba’s relations with the United States resulting in an embargo against Cuba which still exists to this day.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F068mOrMD0

Soldiers who fought in the Cuban Revolution are interviewed about what happened during the revolution. They talk about witnessing the many deaths of their fellow soldiers and one soldier recalls the kind of food they were given. He describes sharing one tin can of condensed milk with his whole squad–taking turns with his fellow soldiers on dipping their fingers into the can and licking the milk off their fingers. The Cuban Revolution began in July of 1953, but it took Fidel Castro and his army almost six years to overthrow the Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista. Castro recruited thousands of unhappy working class people from Havana to join “the movement” to overthrow Batista. When Castro finally took power, he turned Cuba into a socialist state, and by 1965, Cuba became completely communist as it remains today.

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