China, Cambodia, Vietnam Triangle

by Wilfred G. Burchett

Wilfred Burchett is an internationally known and respected journalist who has personally witnessed and reported on most of the major world events of the last 40 years. "The China-Cambodia-Vietnam Triangle" is the result of interviews he conducted during five trips to Kampuchea and Vietnam since the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime. The topics covered the formation of the Indochina Communist Party; The 1954 Geneva Conference; the Birth, Rise and Rule of the Khmer Rouge; Anti-Pol Pot Resistance and the Liberation of Kampuchea; the China Connection; Vietnam's Relations with China and Kampuchea; Kampuchea's Survival Miracle.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

235 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1982

Reviews

[tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

***WIP


Published in 1981 immediately after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, this book provides an excellent journalist's contemporary, on the ground reporting, interviews, and also synthesis of Asian geopolitics.

The author Wilfred Burchett is a veteran journalist in Asia. He is definitely very biased and pro-Vietnamese and anti-Chinese, atleast politically.

But this book is an excellent history of the liberation movement of Indochina against French, Japanese, and American forces. There is also an excellent chapter detailing the underlying currents, contradictions, and struggles of the 1954 Geneva Conference.

Quotes and interviews from very important figures in the Vietnamese and Cambodian leadership paint an amazing picture of the complexities of Vietnamese-Cambodian-Chinese relations of the time.

There is a detailed origin story of the leadership of the Khmer Rouge, including the developments of their philosophical views which lead them towards genocide instead of genuine revolution. The following section on the rule of the Khmer Rouge is horrific and terrifying as the regime itself, with interviews from survivors themselves- However it provides the most detailed descriptions of the genocide and the author rebukes all, including his former self, who try to justify the Khmer Rouge, generally the imperialist Western voices who propped up the Khmer Rouge for the sake of antagonizing Vietnam.

The second half of chapters go a little bit into the Chinese preparation to invade Vietnam. Burchett paints a picture of Chinese leadership purposely stirring up anti-Vietnamese sentiment amongst the Hoa (ethnic Chinese in Vietnam population) and painting a picture of persecution where there likely wasn't much to an extent.

The concluding chapters detail the recovery efforts of Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Burchett once again emphasizes the Vietnamese role in helping the economy recover- while still finding ways to criticize China's actions in the post-Khmer Rouge era.
The focus is on denying allegations that the Vietnamese leadership were only looking to expand their influence on the rest of Indochina, when in reality the Khmer Rouge had so thoroughly excised anything but peasant agriculture from society that Vietnamese advising was necessary for Cambodia to rebuild its society.

[Lê Thành · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quyển sách nói rõ bản chất phản động của bè lũ Pop Pot - Khmer Đỏ, nhưng những kẻ đứng sau sự man rợ đó mới thực sự kinh tởm.

[Linh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tường trình của 1 nhà báo Úc thân cộng sản và thân Việt Nam. Có thiên kiến rõ rệt và đứng từ lập trường Việt Nam nhưng cũng khá thú vị và có nhiều chi tiết sinh động nhất là trong việc mô tả cuộc sống ở Campuchia dưới thời Khmer Đỏ.