21 January 1976

On foreign policy the Khmer Rouge declared: “We will not run after the world. The decisive factors are with us. We must strive on our own to build the country and solve the livelihood of the people. If we are strong on our own, then they will respect us.”

Meanwhile, Thailand is seen as a “CIA sponsored traitor”, which plans to take Battambang, Kampot, etc. Thailand has contacted us diplomatically, so they can go on a military offensive.

But because of Khmer Rouge attacks, they “got shaky and have withdrawn all their troops”.

The Khmer Rouge Standing Committee meets and finds that the ideological sector is taken “too lightly”:

“There are deficiencies in speech, explanations, arts performances that do not yet reflect the heroism of the people and our Revolutionary Army.”

Mr. Lefter, a Romanian diplomat, comes to Cambodia to search a site for the new Embassy of Romania. The Khmer Rouge essentially place him under house arrest: he has to stay in the prospective embassy building till his departure on 23 January. Food is brought by KR soldiers.