“Remembering Cambodia, Remembering Me”                                                 by Vanna                                                  (1991)                   Vanna, a twenty-one–year- old college reading student, was a model of determination. She found her voice and made good progress with analysis in reading and writing during the quarter. She also began to acknowledge that her ethnic heritage was Chinese. Vanna had been ashamed and fearful of her Chinese heritage because in her homeland Cambodia, Communist China joined with the oppressive Pol Pot regime and she nearly starved to death as a child. By reading this book Cambodia: 1975-1982 by Michael Vickery, I've learned of Cambodia's history, and it reminded me about my life under Communist rule from 1975-1980. This was most comparable to the slave trade (in America) and Nazism of Adolf Hitler. It is so depressing for me to remember back to the Pol Pot regime when many of my family members were killed. In Cambodia during 1979-80 people ate lizards and other fauna; there was little rice; and they did not know who the enemy in the village was. One of the most typical horror stories of Cambodia at that time was that city families were sent to primitive villages or forests where there was little or no rice and where many of them died from hunger and disease, if not executed. The Author of this book didn't experience the reality of life in Cambodia: 1975-82. He just wrote from what he heard and learned from books and magazines. He did interview people who lived in the camp of Thailand and mostly after the Khmer Rouge was over – thrown. But much of his book focuses on Cambodia's history before 1975. In 1975, I was five years old when my country Cambodia was taken over by the Communist Pol Pot regime. I did not grow up entirely under Communist rule, but it was horrible for a young child like me. The village that I lived in had very little rice. But I could find wild tubers and other vegetables in the forest, while protein was provided by chickens, pigs, and fish caught in a pond. If the cadres found out I had enough food and did not share, they could take me and execute my entire family. Pol Pot evacuated all cities and towns, driving the entire population into the jungle countryside. Thousand of military officers, government officials, and civil servants were killed. Anyone with an education like doctors, lawyers, and teachers were killed. Their children and other family members were killed as well. People were taken away at night with their arms tied behind their backs. There were steel bars to break necks, pits for corpses, and skulls by the thousands. I think Cambodia: 1975-1982 is a good book for those interested in studying the history of Cambodia. I am glad to have read the book because it explained about wars that occurred before I was born. Even though I am from Cambodia and had heard about some of the early history, this book gave details about political events that I was aware of. I think, however, that Vickery would have written a much more powerful book if he had included more information about the suffering and pain of the Cambodian people during this time. For instance, the author of Cambodia: 1975-1982 should have included facts about how Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 in order to liberate the country. But the liberation could not keep people from dying. From 1979-1982, everybody still felt the pain and the sorrow of looking for missing family members. Also, the Vietnamese soldiers in some ways became the new oppressors. Some of the soldiers seemed not very happy to some of the virgin women. The Vietnamese troops knew if that house had a woman who looked very attractive, and they would go to rape her at night. One of the constantly recurring stories has been that the Vietnamese are systematically destroying Cambodian culture in particular through the imposition of Vietnamese language study in Cambodian schools. Referring to the text of Cambodia: 1979-1982 , from chapter I to chapter VI, the author does not focus on the lives of Cambodian people but mostly on the history. Most of the people that he has interviewed are only people who had worked for government officials. For example, this quote from chapter V is typical of the frequent references to history "Military affairs in Battambang were transferred to the Cambodian government in 1951 with Lon Nol in charge."  Mostly, the author read articles about history written by many different authors. I understand the importance of history, but most of the chapters have very little information about people's lives, and I think this is unfortunate. However, one of the things that pleased me about the author’s reactions is that he has sympathy to the fate of Cambodian people, and for that I would like to thank him. I realize that he can not basically know the life of a Cambodian because he is not a native. I understand by reading this book that the author is critical of Cambodia’ s president Prince Sihanouk and his government. He sees them as politically weak. From chapter I to chapter IV, Vickery discusses some of the earlier generations of the elite who ignored educational opportunities, presumably because they already had wealth and status. In chapter V, he discusses the belief that the Cambodian revolutionaries were strongly influenced by the Vietnamese "Cambodia is probably one of these countries which can not move beyond a basic peasant economic level either capitalist or socialist without becoming a part of some wider world." The reason I quote this sentences is because Cambodians do not want their culture to be mixed with other cultures. I heard from the news that Prince Sihanouk is working to establish a coalition with the help of the United Nations. The Khmer Rouge is also returning to Cambodia to be a part of this government, and this has caught my attention. I would not return because I am still afraid that bloodshed and war might break out. I mostly grew up in USA, and I might not know how to take care of myself if I return. I think I will remain in the USA even though I have to work hard to make a living. But some people say they will return as soon as Cambodia becomes an independent country again. I think the author Vickery of Cambodia: 1975- 1982 would be pleasantly surprised if the coalition government worked out. Hopefully, if Vickery were to write another book about Cambodia, this time focusing on the 1990's, it will be a much more positive book.