Vietnam's Military and Political Challenges in Cambodia and the Early Rise of Cambodia's Strongman, Hun Sen, 1977–79

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Kosal Path ◽  
Boraden Nhem
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Strategic Plan ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Southern Vietnam ◽  
Personal Recollection ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Rise ◽  
Democratic Kampuchea

Abstract Much has been written about Cambodia's strongman, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985. Yet, the history of Hun Sen's early rise to a position of power in the Vietnam-initiated Cambodian revolution after June 1977 remains murky. Relying on Vietnamese and Cambodian archival documents, memoirs and interviews with former veterans of Unit 125 as well as Hun Sen's speeches and personal recollection of his historic journey to Vietnam on 20 June 1977, we make a two-fold argument. First, Hanoi's decision to establish an anti-Pol Pot Cambodian revolution in southern Vietnam to take over Cambodia—after toppling Democratic Kampuchea—was part of Hanoi's strategic plan to handle a double challenge: (1) to avoid being branded as an invader and (2) to establish a capable and friendly regime in Cambodia after the war. This provided an opportunity for a young Khmer Rouge defector, Hun Sen, to change his fortune by quickly earning the Vietnamese military leadership's trust and confidence based on his competence to organize and command the first army unit of the new Cambodian revolution, i.e. Unit 125. Second, as lucky as he was to flee across the heavily militarized border into Vietnam unharmed, Hun Sen's early rise to power is attributed to his survivalist instinct combined with shrewd strategic thinking.

Chikreng Rebellion: Coup and Its Aftermath in Democratic Kampuchea

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Margaret Slocomb
Keyword(s):  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Salvation ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Democratic Kampuchea

AbstractThe history of the regime of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 in the name of social revolution made on behalf of Cambodia's poor peasants has been researched and documented according to many sources. When the leaders of the counter-revolutionary Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, spearheaded by a massive force of the People's Army of Vietnam, took back the capital, Phnom Penh, on 7 January 1979, they captured official documents, particularly the forced confessions of thousands of political prisoners, which threw light on the nature of the regime and its catastrophic course after victory in April 1975. Other contemporary sources included monitored radio broadcasts of the regime, the dossiers of Khmer Rouge defectors to Thailand compiled by the US State Department, and the rich vein of information provided to western scholars of Cambodian history by refugees in the Thai camps and in other countries which received them after 1979.

The Role of the Mongolian People’s Republic in the Korean War

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-130
Author(s):  
Denzenlkham Ulambayar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Korean War ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
History Of

Since the 1990s, when previously classified and top secret Russian archival documents on the Korean War became open and accessible, it has become clear for post-communist countries that Kim Il Sung, Stalin and Mao Zedong were the primary organizers of the war. It is now equally certain that tensions arising from Soviet and American struggle generated the origins of the Korean War, namely the Soviet Union’s occupation of the northern half of the Korean peninsula and the United States’ occupation of the southern half to the 38th parallel after 1945 as well as the emerging bipolar world order of international relations and Cold War. Newly available Russian archival documents produced much in the way of new energies and opportunities for international study and research into the Korean War.2 However, within this research few documents connected to Mongolia have so far been found, and little specific research has yet been done regarding why and how Mongolia participated in the Korean War. At the same time, it is becoming today more evident that both Soviet guidance and U.S. information reports (evaluated and unevaluated) regarding Mongolia were far different from the situation and developments of that period. New examples of this tendency are documents declassified in the early 2000s and released publicly from the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in December 2016 which contain inaccurate information. The original, uncorrupted sources about why, how and to what degree the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) became a participant in the Korean War are in fact in documents held within the Mongolian Central Archives of Foreign Affairs. These archives contain multiple documents in relation to North Korea. Prior to the 1990s Mongolian scholars Dr. B. Lkhamsuren,3 Dr. B. Ligden,4 Dr. Sh. Sandag,5 junior scholar J. Sukhee,6 and A. A. Osipov7 mention briefly in their writings the history of relations between the MPR and the DPRK during the Korean War. Since the 1990s the Korean War has also briefly been touched upon in the writings of B. Lkhamsuren,8 D. Ulambayar (the author of this paper),9 Ts. Batbayar,10 J. Battur,11 K. Demberel,12 Balảzs Szalontai,13 Sergey Radchenko14 and Li Narangoa.15 There have also been significant collections of documents about the two countries and a collection of memoirs published in 200716 and 2008.17 The author intends within this paper to discuss particularly about why, how and to what degree Mongolia participated in the Korean War, the rumors and realities of the war and its consequences for the MPR’s membership in the United Nations. The MPR was the second socialist country following the Soviet Union (the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics) to recognize the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and establish diplomatic ties. That was part of the initial stage of socialist system formation comprising the Soviet Union, nations in Eastern Europe, the MPR, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the DPRK. Accordingly between the MPR and the DPRK fraternal friendship and a framework of cooperation based on the principles of proletarian and socialist internationalism had been developed.18 In light of and as part of this framework, The Korean War has left its deep traces in the history of the MPR’s external diplomatic environment and state sovereignty

From Propaganda to Scholarship: Dr Joseph Schechtman and the Origins of Israeli Polemics on the Palestinian Refugees

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Right Wing ◽  
Population Transfer ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
Secret History

In 1948 an official ‘Transfer Committee’ was appointed by the Israeli Cabinet to plan the Palestinian refugees' resettlement in the Arab states. Apart from doing everything possible to reduce the Arab population in Israel, the Transfer Committee sought to amplify and consolidate the demographic transformation of Palestine by: preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes; the destruction of Arab villages; settlement of Jews in Arab villages and towns; and launching a propaganda campaign to discourage Arab return. One of the Transfer Committee's initiatives was to invite Dr Joseph Schechtman, a right-wing Zionist Revisionist leader and expert on ‘population transfer’, to join its efforts. In 1952 Schechtman published a propagandists work entitled The Arab Refugee Problem. Since then Schechtman would become the single most influential propagator of the Zionist myth of ‘voluntary’ exodus in 1948. This article examines the leading role played by Schechtman in promoting Israeli propaganda and politics of denial. Relying on newly-discovered Israeli archival documents, the article deals with little known and new aspects of the secret history of the post-1948 period.

A. S. Nikolaev in the Institute of Out-of-School Education and His ‘Museum of Archival Work’ Project

2018 ◽  
pp. 1254-1265
Author(s):  
Vitaly G. Ananiev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
School Education ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Development Level ◽  
Formation Stage ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archival Work ◽  
Department Faculty ◽  
Out Of School

The article is devoted to the work Alexander S. Nikolaev (1877 – 1934) in the Petrograd Institute of Out-of-School Education in late 1910s – early 1920s. His teaching activities at the Institute and the place of archival issues in the program of its museum department have been studied on the basis of archival documents. The Institute initially focused on training of instructors and employees of cultural institutions, school teachers for adults and universities professors. The Institute had a museum section (department – faculty), on the basis of which several exemplary workshops for creating of manuals and their mastering were to be organized. That is the context in which A. S. Nikolaev’s projects of archival museum creation should be studied. One of such projects worked out by Nikolaev at that time has gone unnoticed until its publication in the Appendix. The connection of this project with the development level of museum affairs of the period is shown. Nikolaev's aspiration to show evolution of archiving and to follow fond formation stage by stage and his use of photographic and graphic materials are also noted. Moreover, it is the first assessment of the work of the Institute as one of the centers for teaching archiving in late 1910s – early 1920s.Training at the museum department of the Institute included a number of courses in both archiving and preservation of documentary monuments. This was due not only to the traditional proximity of archiving and museum work, but also to the circumstances of the first post-revolutionary years. Many museums (located in palaces and mansions of nobility) acquired valuable archival collections. They looked for an opportunity to use these in their scientific activities and exhibitions. The latter was due to the emphasis put on history of daily life and introduction of sociological method in museum work.

The Foreign Policy Mechanism of the Union Of South Africa and the Development of its Diplomatic Relations (1910–1948)

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-86
Author(s):  
Alexandra Arkhangelskaya
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Economic Evolution ◽  
Local Elite ◽  
History Of

The history of the formation of South Africa as a single state is closely intertwined with events of international scale, which have accordingly influenced the definition and development of the main characteristics of the foreign policy of the emerging state. The Anglo-Boer wars and a number of other political and economic events led to the creation of the Union of South Africa under the protectorate of the British Empire in 1910. The political and economic evolution of the Union of South Africa has some specific features arising from specific historical conditions. The colonization of South Africa took place primarily due to the relocation of Dutch and English people who were mainly engaged in business activities (trade, mining, agriculture, etc.). Connected by many economic and financial threads with the elite of the countries from which the settlers left, the local elite began to develop production in the region at an accelerated pace. South Africa’s favorable climate and natural resources have made it a hub for foreign and local capital throughout the African continent. The geostrategic position is of particular importance for foreign policy in South Africa, which in many ways predetermined a great interest and was one of the fundamental factors of international involvement in the development of the region. The role of Jan Smuts, who served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1948, was particularly prominent in the implementation of the foreign and domestic policy of the Union of South Africa in the focus period of this study. The main purpose of this article is to study the process of forming the mechanisms of the foreign policy of the Union of South Africa and the development of its diplomatic network in the period from 1910 to 1948.

Specters of Colonialism - Sven Augustijnen's Haunted Cinema

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Marzec
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Cinema ◽  
Presence And Absence

The author analyzes Sven Agustijnen's Specters from the philosophical perspective. He tries to prove that the cinema of the Belgian director is haunted because it presents the reality as made out of traces, which disturb the traditional division into presence and absence. The author analyzes Augustijnen's film techniques and uses Jacques Derrida hauntology to show, how contemporary cinema tries to face the difficult and unfinished colonial history of Belgium (the genocide in Congo during the reign of the Belgian king Leopold II and the murder of the first prime minister of the independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba).

The development of the movement for the communist labour at the Tyumen shipbuilding plant in days of the seven-year plan (1959-1965): the experience of microhistorical study

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-172
Author(s):  
Sergey S. Pashin ◽  
Natalia S. Vasikhovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Industrial Enterprise ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the study of the movement for communist labour at the Tyumen Shipbuilding Plant during the period of the seven-year plan (1959-1965). The authors seek to fill a historical narrative with the particular facts connected with the peculiarities and specifics of such phenomenon as the movement for communist labour. They consider it in the context of microhistory and as the most important element of production routine. The employees of the largest industrial enterprise of Soviet Tyumen — Shipbuilding Plant in concrete historical circumstances came under the spotlight of the authors. The submitted article is written with attraction of a wide range of archival documents, taken from the funds of the State Archive of the Tyumen Region and also funds of the State Archive of Socio-Political History of the Tyumen Region. Having studied the documents the authors come to conclusion that the movement for communist labour had little effect on the production progress of the plant employees.

De Brusselse vereniging De Veldbloem zoekt toenadering tot Hendrik Conscience. Twee pas ontdekte brieven

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-289
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
De Man ◽  
First World

Het wordt in de historiografie van de Vlaamse beweging aanvaard dat Hendrik Conscience door de Brusselse progressieve vereniging ‘De Veldbloem’ in 1872 werd gevraagd om te kandideren voor de parlementaire verkiezingen. Conscience zou dat geweigerd hebben. Dit is uiteraard geen onbetekenend feit in de biografie van de man die ‘zijn volk leerde lezen’.Dit gegeven is terug te voeren op de geschriften van Antoon Jacob (°1889) van na de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Jacob werd beschouwd als een autoriteit inzake Conscience. Maar waar is het bewijs? Hij verwees daarbij naar “uitvoerige correspondentie” maar die is niet te vinden. Het ADVN slaagde erin om de archivalische nalatenschap van de in 1947 gestorven Jacob te verwerven. Daarin bleken heel wat brieven van en aan Conscience te zitten. De briefwisseling met ‘De Veldbloem’ was onderwerp van deze bijdrage. Daarin is geen spoor te vinden van de poging om Conscience op het politieke strijdtoneel te brengen in Brussel. Daarbij moet de vraag gesteld worden hoe Jacob deze archiefstukken verzamelde en wat ermee is gebeurd tijdens zijn turbulente leven en talrijke omzwervingen. Het is best mogelijk dat er een en ander is verloren gegaan. Toch is deze nalatenschap een belangrijke aanwinst voor de studie van de geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging en die van Conscience in het bijzonder. ________ The Brussels association ‘De Veldbloem’ seeks contact with Hendrik Conscience. Two recently discovered letters It is an accepted fact in the historiography of the Flemish Movement that the Brussels progressive Association ‘De Veldbloem’ [=the Wildflower] asked Hendrik Conscience in 1872 to be their candidate for the parliamentary elections. It is said that Hendrik Conscience refused the request. This is of course a very significant fact in the biography of the man ‘who taught his people to read.’ This information may be inferred from the writings of Antoon Jacob (°1889) from the period after the First World War. Jacob was regarded as an authority on Conscience. But where is the evidence of this? In his claim, he referred to ‘extensive correspondence’, but that correspondence is not extant. The ADVN managed to acquire the archival legacy of Jacob who died in 1947. It turned out that it included quite a number of letters to and from Conscience. The exchange of letters with ‘De Veldbloem’ was the subject of this contribution. It contains no trace of the attempt to bring Conscience into the political arena in Brussels. It raises the question how Jacob collected these archival documents and what happened to them during his turbulent life and his many peregrinations.  It is certainly possible that some documents have been lost. However, this legacy is still an important acquisition for the study of the history of the Flemish Movement and of Conscience in particular.

Literary Center of Constructivists on Its Way to the RAPP (From the History of Literary Life at the Turn of the 1920s — 1930s)

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-321
Author(s):  
Natalia V. Kornienko ◽  
Ruslan E. Klementiev
Keyword(s):  
Left Wing ◽  
Literary Life ◽  
The Press ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Russian Association

The article examines one of the episodes of the literary struggle of the late 1920s — early 1930s — the history of the entry of the Literary Center of Constructivists (LCC) into the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP). At the beginning of 1930, almost all literary groups and associations faced the need to define a new level of interaction with RAPP. LCC, as one of the literary groups closest to RAPP, seemed to have all the prerequisites for a successful association with the RAPP. But in reality, this did not happen. Members of RAPP are suspicious of constructivists; attacks at LCC are becoming more frequent in the press. Always considered a left-wing association, LLC is declared a petty-bourgeois group, with which, despite its disbandment, an irreconcilable struggle is required. This article bears upon not only the periodicals of 1930 but also and mainly upon the hitherto unstudied transcripts and other archival documents of RAPP. New archival materials reveal internal processes of the literary struggle at the turn of the decade, and make it possible to demonstrate how, even after the acceptance of the Constructivists by RAPP, the former continue to be perceived as a hostile group whose past was to always blame them.

Włoska Partia Socjalistyczna i opozycja zza „żelaznej kurtyny”: przypadek Polski w kontekście relacji Craxi–Solidarność

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (325) ◽  
pp. 5-53
Author(s):  
Enrico Landoni
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Practical Realization ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Secretary

The election of Bettino Craxi as PSI general secretary marked, from 1976, a very important turning point in thehistory of Italian socialism. His dynamic and charismatic leadership in fact contributed to a profound revisionof its ideological seeds, the so-called scientific Marxism, and above all to the recovery of the humanitarianand libertarian suggestions of pre-Marxist socialism. This led to the clear and definitive condemnation of theMarxist-Leninist model, which had found its practical realization in the Soviet system and in the countriesbeyond the Curtain, and prompted PSI to support the anti-communist dissidence and to establish strongrelations with the Polish opposition and above all with Solidarność. Craxi, both in the role of PSI generalsecretary and as Italian prime minister, was able to provide it with a great political-diplomatic support and alot of concrete help. Up to now, the history of these relations has not yet been adequately studied and thispaper therefore aims to fill the gap.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document