Of the hundreds of Cambodian refugees I interviewed since 1975, writes H. Kamm for @nytimes, not one could give a definite answer to the question of who the leader is. Most have heard the names of two or three [Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan], 1 or 2, some none.

Former Thai Foreign Minister Maj Gen Chatichai Choonhaven seals a deal with the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh for his company to fly daily flights between Bangkok and Siem Reap to carry tourists to the famous Angkor Wat temples.

China is helping the Khmer Rouge to build an airfield near Phnom Penh capable of handling both jet fighters and bombers having an estimated 20,000 advisors and technicians in Cambodia, reports the Far Eastern Economic Review. Radio Phnom Penh asserts that a member of the “Monong national minority” in Vietnam had accused Hanoi of being ‘the crudest exterminators of the national minorities.” (It is a very rare that the Khmer Rouge officially recognise a minority group by name)

Vietnam’s official daily Nhan Dan says “no amount of Chinese aid could save the Khmer Rouge Government which was on the verge of a total collapse”. “The fate of Cambodia will not be decided by China but by its people, who bitterly hate the Khmer Rouge”. https://t.co/6LDii3dcJN

“Like Australia, both Japan and the US are repelled by the violations of human rights taking place in Cambodia, but regional ‘balance of power’ politics oblige them to see that Cambodia is preserved as an independent state, free from🇻🇳domination”, writes FEER. The Vietnamese Army newspaper, Quan Doi Nhan Dan, rejects charges by Khmer Rouge Prime Minister Pol Pot that Vietnam was preparing a major offensive against Cambodia and called his regime “the most odious henchmen of the Chinese authorities.”

The Khmer Rouge @UN representative says the US “was responsible, in the 5-year aggressive war against Cambodia, for massacring more than one million and destroying 80 percent of the country.” It has therefore “no business accusing🇰🇭of human rights violations”.

Nov. 5, Speaking to Thailand’s PM in Bangkok, Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping says a fall of Phnom Penh to Vietnam wouldn’t be a problem. Fighting will continue for a long time, providing aid can be sent continuously. He then asks permission for Chinese planes to overfly🇹🇭. China sends Wang Dongxing, a deputy chairman of the Chinese Communist Party & former commander of Maos bodyguards, to Cambodia to prepare Khmer Rouge leaders for its refusal to directly defend🇰🇭militarily. Instead it favours financing a guerrilla type conflict. In a speech to a Chinese delegation, Pol Pot says The only and best way for Vietnam is to immediately put an end to…