Cambodia After the Khmer Rouge: Inside the Politics of Nation Building Book

This book tells of the events and personalities that shaped Cambodian history during the thirteen-year period between the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the signing of the 1991 peace accords that resulted in U.N.-administered elections. The first study of this turbulent era, it offers a nuanced understanding of complex questions concerning human rights, economic reconstruction, institutional development, and national sovereignty, issues that were framed by the legacy of the Khmer Rouge and by a Vietnamese occupation. Drawing on a range of previously unexplored sources, including more than 1,300 internal government and party documents, Evan Gottesman describes how a handful of former Khmer Rouge soldiers and officials, Vietnamese-trained revolutionary cadres, and surviving intellectuals fought over power and policy. Gottesman discusses the regime's approach toward the Khmer Rouge, the relationship between the Cambodians and the Vietnamese, the treatment of the ethnic Chinese, and the tension between patronage politics and communist ideology. He tracks the careers of Cambodian leaders and their roles in determining the direction of the country and describes how Hun Sen, the current prime minister, rose to power in the 1980s. Gottesman concludes by explaining how the legacy of this period has influenced events in Cambodia to the present time.Read More