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20 December 1978
Thailand’s Commander in Chief says Vietnam has moved most of its 40,000-man force in Laos to Cambodia’s border. “Cambodia has requested economic aid from Thailand. Trade with🇰🇭will resume after exchanging ambassadors in February,- we will pick a military officer.” The Salvation Front (KUFNS) starts broadcasting in Cambodian as “Voice of the Cambodian people”: “The current period is propitious for revolution: compatriots and combatants of both sexes must unite to topple the reactionary regime of the Pol Pot clique.” Khmer Rouge Nr.2 Nuon Chea threatens Duch, head of S-21, to “send him as a diplomat” (euphemism for being sent to & killed at S-21) Nuon Chea didn’t like that Youk Chong…
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19 December 1978
In light of tomorrow’s arrival in Cambodia of @Elizbeckerwrite (@washingtonpost), Richard Dudman (St. Luis Dispatch) & Scottish academic Malcolm Caldwell, Khmer Rouge Foreign Affairs officials review their requests of what they want to see during the trip: https://t.co/1XinGDPgjK
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18 December 1978
@toiladzon In the announcement on the founding of the National Salvation Front a short biography is given, it does not state a position for time from when he fled Cambodia in June 1977. https://t.co/7DO793XZXQ @Ian_G_Baird Yes that’s right. @VDacicus Very likely, however his name was given as “Ha Son Kiet”, and I couldn’t find it in the public records – but that might be because Vietnamese & Cambodian names are often spelled inconsistently.
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17 December 1978
“”toward regimes which persist in wholesale violations of human rights, we will not hesitate to convey our outrage, nor will we pretend that our relations are unaffected,” says US President Carter in his speech on human rights, citing Cambodia as an example. Speaking at a banquet at the Chinese embassy in PhnomPenh, Khmer Rouge Commerce Chief Rith says Cambodia’s army is well prepared. Vietnam is isolated diplomatically as it is seen as the aggressor & that the Salvation Front uses a Khmer name to conceal🇻🇳 agression. https://t.co/9LX1BhvdY3
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16 December 1978
Radio PhnomPenh broadcasts a confession by a captured Vietnamese soldier which alleges that -he was forced to fight in🇰🇭 – Vietnamese are dying every day from starvation – Vietnam tries to “exterminate the Kampuchea Krom” – the Vietnamese regime will collapse soon SBK radio broadcasts a biography of Heng Samrin, leader of the recently founded Kampuchean National United Front for National Salvation: https://t.co/ki1N2Dy0Ot
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15 December 1978
8. Thailand says it would offer “any assistance the @UN Secretary-General may need to facilitate a visit to Cambodia. https://t.co/mavmUHlYIG 7. Vietnam Courier claims that “Never in history has a people faced such a great danger of genocide as the Kampucheans. The crimes committed by the Nazis and by the racists in South Africa & Rhodesia at present can’t compare with those committed by the butchers in Phnom Penh” https://t.co/W1kwRs8WfU 6. Shortly before departing for Cambodia, Malcolm Caldwell promotes the Khmer Rouge in a a speech to the Institute of Race Relations: “The Kampuchean experiment […] is a very valid and valuable experiment. It would be a very great tragedy…
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14 December 1978
2. Speculations about an impending Vietnamese dry-session offensive mount 3. Khmer Rouge FM Ieng Sary visits Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. 4. Along with the former chairman of the Japanese Socialist Party, Sei Ito, a journalist, visits Cambodia for two weeks. https://t.co/dNuYVH27AW A recap on what happened in Cambodia in October 1978 under the Khmer Rouge: 1. Ieng Sary invites @UN Secretary-General Waldheim to visit Camboda. In discussions with Japan’s FM Sonoda, Sary said he regards it as a sight-seeing venture, apparently not grasping its significance @ThanYan64510 Yes https://t.co/1l2tzhMosS SPK starts broadcasting from the liberated area in Cambodia. It reads the National Salvation Front’s 11-point plan to overthrow Pol Pot &…
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13 December 1978
Khmer Rouge Nr. 2 Nuon Chea meets a delegation from the West German Communist League led by Hans Gerhart Schmierer. At a banquet, Nuon Chea condemns the aggression of Vietnam supported by the USSR that will certainly be “smashed”. https://t.co/T29EstMWWo Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister IENG Sary receives a Chinese trade delegation, where he says that only the “trusted Chinese friend shares and understands our current situation”. He admits to having problems to fulfil the trade agreement with China, due to flooding. Determined to overthrow Pol Pot, the United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea is inaugurated at a meeting of seventy rebel cadres and officers in Kratie province, Cambodia…
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12 December 1978
Dec. 1 ,1978: “Pol Pot’s regime is no doubt unpopular -no people like being relocated, purged, starved & murdered- but Cambodians harbour a deep historical fear of Vietnamese domination”, @NST_Online is unsure if Vietnam’s current offensive will “tip the scale against Pol Pot”
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9 December 1978
“Recent Vietnamese troop movements and air bombardments inwards from the long held rubber plantation towns of Snuol & Mimot, might mark the opening of a major Vietnamese dry‐season offensive in Cambodia”, reports @nytimes, citing western sources.