Yeah, That Happened: Topics in History

[petitesuite]

I hope this question isn't too out of place in this thread, but I'm wondering how much any of you learned about the Khmer Rouge in school (or, if you were in school when they happened, did you discuss them in class)? I went to Cambodia last August with a friend and we did some reading before the trip but before that I (embarrassingly) knew essentially nothing. It was never, ever mentioned in any of my high school history classes and I vividly remember reading a book where the main character compares her nanny to Pol Pot and I had to look up who that was. My friend hadn't learned any more than I had and I'm wondering if our experiences were the norm?

So, suffice it to say I have learned a lot from the last few pages of this thread! And have a few new books to read, of course.

[Deleted]

I never learned about the Khmer Rouge in school either, in high school I never had a history class that managed to make it past WWII. I learned about it on my own much much later in relation to the movie The Killing Fields. Which I still haven't seen and I really need to.

[chonies]

I graduated high school in 1994, and we learned a bit about the Khmer Rouge and the purges, although more in a "current events" way because in the early 1990s, Cambodia was in the news a lot--restored monarchy (sort of), elections, various political events. We learned a bit about it in the context of the Vietnam war. I definitely knew who Pol Pot was, although I remember being surprised when he died because I thought he was already long dead.

ETA: Yes, you *do* need to watch the Killing Fields! It's kind of very 80s, but set aside an afternoon where it'll be okay to cry. If the movie doesn't get you, some of the details of Haing Ngor's murder might.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

I learned nothing about Cambodia or the Khmer Rouge in high school. I first heard of Pol Pot because of the Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia." I'm not kidding. So I guess I should thank Jello Biafra for filling in where my history classes failed.

[Deleted]

They didn't teach anything about Cambodia in my history class but they had a few lessons on Vietnam. Growing up, until around my mid-twenties when people asked where I was from and I said Cambodia probably eighty percent of the response was where is that? I'd always just say have you seen the movie The Killing Fields?

The Killing Fields has a really interesting cast. Sam Waterson, John Malkovitch, Julian Sands, Spalding Gray. Craig T Nelson shows up in a bit part. I found it really gripping. It may seem a little cliche now but it was one of the first of these types of movies. The ending really goes for the heartstrings. I read Haing Ngor's autobiography years ago. After going through everything he went through just to get killed in a robbery is tragic.

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

I didn't learn anything about history beyond WWII in school, either. The only reason I knew about Cambodia was because I remembered it being on the news in the late 70s and because my mother was concerned about it and always talked about it.

I highly recommend seeing The Killing Fields, but as chonies mentioned, set it aside for a day when you know you can cry. It's difficult to watch and then just go about your normal day, but is well worth it.

The disparity between the rich and poor is still huge and landmines are still a very real problem there. It'll take 25 years to clear the country of landmines, according to this charity website. They're a big problem because most people need to make their living from agriculture as 90% of the population lives in rural areas, but often the land can't be farmed due to the mines that are still there. These sites offer brief thumbnail sketches of Cambodia since 1979, including problems still faced by Cambodians today in terms of poverty, health care, sex trafficking, government corruption, landmines, and safety.

[chonies]

Apr 30, 2015 9:01:51 GMT -4 Baby Fish Mouth said:

I learned nothing about Cambodia or the Khmer Rouge in high school. I first heard of Pol Pot because of the Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia." I'm not kidding. So I guess I should thank Jello Biafra for filling in where my history classes failed.

I don't think it's the first time I heard of Pol Pot, but I love the Dead Kennedys, so it's definitely a reminder. I also remember arguing about artistic integrity when I worked in a record store. One of my colleagues was outraged that some of the DKs wanted to let Levi-Strauss use "Holiday in Cambodia"--like spittle in the mouth-corners pissed. I shrugged it off, desperately hoping no one would find out that the first time I actually saw Jello Biafra was when he was on Oprah, arguing against the Parents' Music Resource Center. And also thinking, hey, artistic integrity isn't everything if you've got bills to pay.

Related, I remember when we started the Vietnam unit in junior high, my teacher asked if any of us had MIA dads or relatives, as in, still actively MIA. This was kind of a buhh? moment for a minute, but then the teacher realized that we were all born after US involvement ended. That really hit me, that this thing that seemed like history was really just an older sibling away.

Another book I loved (ten years ago) was Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, which has several chapters about UN efforts to organize some of elections in the 1990s, so it's not about Cambodia as it unfolded but more about dealing with twenty years of chaos.

Thanks for sharing your story, bronze.

[divasahm]

I was born in 1963, and I knew about Cambodia and Laos from an early age because one of my preschool classmates was the daughter of one of the first US soldiers to go MIA in that area during the Vietnam War. He went missing when she was not quite two years old, and she had no memory of him beyond what her older siblings and mother had told her. In elementary school, we all wore his POW-MIA bracelets, and even after we moved away, my family kept up with his. His wife never stopped looking for him, and finally, in 2005, the DOD identified his remains (and those of his copilot). He's buried in our hometown cemetery now, and there was a full military dedication of a marker for him and his crew at Arlington that year.

I was so fascinated by my friend's story that I started reading the papers at a young age, and following the news of the war. I remember being so horrified and upset by some of the stories of torture and abuse that my dad had to explain to me that our friend's plane had most likely been shot down and he had died instantly. And that's exactly what happened. I still haven't made it through some of the movies that depict that era and those events, though.

[Deleted]

Apr 30, 2015 9:08:21 GMT -4 Kaleidoscope Eyes said:

I highly recommend seeing The Killing Fields, but as chonies mentioned, set it aside for a day when you know you can cry. It's difficult to watch and then just go about your normal day, but is well worth it.

That's what I figured, it's also why I haven't watched it yet. I cry very very easily so I'm sure I'd be a wreck by the end of it.

[chonies]

IIRC, the worst parts are at the beginning, and then the rest is a struggle for survival, but now that I think about it, it's been ten years since I've seen it.