In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare

I’m back in Cambodia until the end of the year, researching my book on Pol Pot, visiting archives, and filming mini documentaries at places like Kraing Ta Chan prison, Pol Pot’s hometown of Prek Sbauv, and the jungles of Rattanakiri.

You can watch these videos in full, for free, on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/shadowsofutopia

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This project has been my life’s work for 8 years. But aside from all that went into that, now every trip, every...

In this bonus podcast episode, I’ve invited veteran journalist Jim Laurie to reflect on a lifetime spent amid global upheaval. From the Nixon incursion into Cambodia to the oblivious tranquility of Phnom Penh before war erupted—Laurie shares his remarkable memories, including a poignant love story with a local woman, a comparison between the wars in Saigon and Cambodia, and the shock of revisiting Cambodia in 1979 to find destruction everywhere.

This episode is enhanced by visuals, including archival footage, that bring his narrative powerfully to life. If you have the opportunity to watch on YouTube, you’ll gain a...

What was the political fallout from Lon Nol's Stroke?

How did race and religion become such a key theme of his regime?

What led to the worst military defeat of the Cambodian Civil War?

Time Period Covered: March - December 1971

In this episode, Lon Nol returns to Cambodia after recoving from a mild stroke in Hawaii. While many hoped he might step aside, and that the US might provoke a change in leadership, Lon Nol remained in power. His little brother's influence grew, and his obsession with race and religion became even...

In this episode, I talk with journalist and author Sebastian Strangio about the border tensions between Cambodia and Thailand that have escalated in July 2025. Sebastian is the Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat and one of the region’s leading journalists. He’s a former reporter at the Phnom Penh Post, and the author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia (re-released as Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond) and In the Dragon’s Shadow, a study of China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia. 

We start with the political figure who has shaped Cambodia for decades, Hun Sen, an...

Hello everyone, I've put together a quick look at the long history of the Thai Cambodia border dispute to compliment what I'm sure many of you are reading and watching in newspapers and on television.

The escalation is far from good, and I hope it simmers down back to - as I'll discuss - a normal state of not-quite-peaceful.

I cover the history from 900 CE to 2025, and everything from the 1794 retrocession of Battambang, the Franco-Thai War, Sihanouks ICJ case in 1962, Khmer Rouge border clashes and spies, to the more recent disputes about Preah Vihear.

...

How did the Khmer Republic try to take back control of Cambodia?

Time Period Covered: June 1970 - January 1971

In this episode, we follow the Lon Nol government as it attempts to prove that the Khmer Republic can fight and win.  After the initial chaos of the coup and the brief U.S. incursion, Cambodia’s leaders launch their first large-scale offensive: Operation Chenla I. We look at how the Cambodians, with American and South Vietnamese support, attempt to open Route 6, retake lost territory, and secure the Lon Nol strategy.

Please see this link for Che...

Lachlan answers a common question about the Khmer Rouge regime:

"What happened to the cities after the evacuation in 1975?"

as well as another question about the terrible practicalities of life once the country was liberated in 1979:

"How did people get their houses back once the Khmer Rouge were gone?"

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Why was Duch released from prison on April 3rd, 1970?

How did Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge transition from small guerrilla enclaves to administering huge areas of Cambodia?

What exactly was “Independence Mastery,” and why was it so central to the Khmer Rouge mindset? 

Time Period Covered: April 1970 – July 1971 

In this episode, we pivot from Lon Nol’s takeover to the Cambodian communist perspective, exploring how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge navigated the chaotic months following the coup. We follow Duch’s unexpected release from prison, track Pol Pot’s return journey from B...

Why did Nixon invade Cambodia in May 1970?

What impact did the 'Cambodian Incursion' have on the war in Vietnam?

How did this effect Cambodia?

Time Period Covered: May - June 1970

In part two of our discussion about the situation in Cambodia after the coup which pushed Sihanouk from power, we see how the Nixon Whitehouse responded to the crisis facing Cambodia.

Lachlan asks whether the decision that Nixon and Kissinger made was the right one, or whether there was a correct answer. We look at the circumstances which brought about...

What was the crisis facing the new Cambodian Government in April 1970?

Why were the Vietnamese communities subjected to massacres?

What circumstances led to a US invasion into Cambodia?

Time Period Covered: April 1970

In this episode Lachlan explores the horrible aftermath of the coup against Sihanouk, a panicked new regime produced a pogrom against an innocent group of civilians. The Communist Vietnamese armies take much of the countryside. Journalists disappear as they report on the Vietnam War which had spilled over the border. The Nixon Whitehouse faces a decision.

Apologies for...

Lachlan takes you back through the more than 30 hours of Season 2's storyline that took us through 15 years of Cambodian history.

Support the show at https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/support.html 

Were the CIA responsible for the coup against Sihanouk?

Why did Lon Nol and Sirik Matak finally make a move against the prince?

What did Sihanouk’s removal from power mean for the Khmer Rouge?

Time Period Covered 1969 - 1970

In the final episode of this season, Lachlan covers the circumstances that surround the plot to remove Norodom Sihanouk from his position as head of state. Lon Nol and Sirik Matak will take advantage of the problem of Vietnamese troop presence on Cambodian land and turn it into a political necessity to oust th...

How did Cambodia become the ‘key’ to Nixon’s plan to end the Vietnam War?

What was the secret bombing of Cambodia?

How many bombs did the US drop on Cambodia?

What factors led to the end of Sihanouk’s leadership of the country?

Time Period Covered 1968 - 1969

In this episode Lachlan looks at the gradually degrading situation in Cambodia, and the destabilization prior to a change in the Whitehouse that will only make matters worse. We look at Sihanouk’s movies, the Cambodian economy, and the Khmer Rouge as they conti...

How many journalists were able to set foot in Cambodia before the revolution, during the revolution and after the revolution?

Not many.

Elizabeth Becker is one of those people. In 1973 she began covering the war in Cambodia, in 1978 she was part of a three person delegation which saw the first western journalists to enter into Democratic Kampuchea. There she was witness to, as she describes it a "Twilight Zone" version of Cambodia.

She also met Pol Pot.

The end of her trip ended in tragedy as one member of the delegation was...

What role does the Tet Offensive play in the My Lai Massacre?

What circumstances in troop deployment and officer training influenced what happened?

Why were more than 500 civilians murdered by Charlie Company?

Time Period Covered December 1967 - March 1968

In this episode, Lachlan confronts the horrors that occurred in My Lai on the 16th of March 1968. He attempts to answer why more than 500 civilians were killed, what the context of these killings were, as well as the role that officers such as William Calley had in producing the My Lai Massacre. 

P...

Lachlan sits down with Matt Madden, translator of Chan Samoeun’s Prisoners of Class. The book, having been recently released in English for the first time, is an amazing example of a Khmer Rouge survivor memoir.

They discuss Matt’s journey in finding the original book, meeting the author and translating it over many years. The book itself, including amazing details and descriptions of the world of the ‘life slave’ in Democratic Kampuchea, are discussed and thought about, as well as the contributions to the work that Matt has produced.

Please go out and get yourself a copy o...

What did the Tet offensive achieve?

How was the Battle of Hue waged?

Why were almost 3000 people murdered by the Viet Cong?

Time Period Covered 1968

This episode covers the Tet Offensive of early 1968. Lachlan links the media coverage of the event, with the extreme scenes in Saigon, to the reality of the offensive and what the communists hoped to achieve. In Hue, perhaps the most stunning battle of the offensive took place, as for four weeks the city was occupied by the NVA and NLF. During this time, as a brutal campaign...

How did the CPK develop their plan to genuinely start a war in Cambodia?

Why did Sihanouk seek rapprochment with the United States?

How did the bombing of Cambodia begin?

Time Period Covered 1967-1968

January 1968 will prove to be a pivotal month for the Vietnamese, Cambodian and American interests in the war. This episode details how the Cambodian communist movement finally began an armed struggle against the Sihanouk government. How the United States negotiated a deal to bomb Cambodia, and how the Vietnamese began a counter attack against the Saigon regime.
<...

What led to Mao's launching of a 'cultural revolution' in the People's Republic?

What were the aims of this movement?

Why did perhaps a million people die at the hands of their countrymen in less than four years?

Time Period Covered 1964 - 1969

In what could be considered a belated "Part Two" to the episode introducing Maoism and the Great Leap Forward, Lachlan revisits China and attempts to explain the "Cultural Revolution". Officially launched in 1966, this period of chaos, an example of a cult of personality being used to destroy a system and...

Special guest Matthew Jagel joins Lachlan to talk about his new book: Khmer Nationalist. The book is an exploration of Cambodian history using Son Ngoc Thanh as the central focus, and they join up to talk about Cambodian nationalism, the influence of Imperial Japan, Sihanouk's antagonism, the Khmer Serei and the CIA.

Visit https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501769337/khmer-nationalist/  to purchase the book or find Matthew on social media at https://twitter.com/matthew_jagel?s=20  or listen to Matthew's podcast "Napalm in the Morning" on Itunes and Spotify.

Visit www.shadowsofutopia.com/support to co...

What was the Samlaut Rebellion, and how did it start?

Who was responsible for this outbreak of violence?

What leads to Khieu Samphan disappearing over night?

Time Period Covered 1967

In the first part of an explanation of how the Cambodian Civil War begins, Lachlan looks into the circumstances which lead to an outbreak of violence in the province of Battambang. Then on April 2, 1967, a series of murders turns into a genuine eruption of peasant unrest and government reprisal; the Samlaut Rebellion. But who started it? Was it the Khmer Rouge as Sihanouk...

How does the "Vietnam War" begin?

How did the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) get its name?

Why did Sihanouk start making so many movies in the 1960's?

Time Period Covered 1964 - 1967

In this episode, Lachlan revisits Vietnam as LBJ wages war upon the North and the Viet Cong. Pol Pot leaves the jungle to visit Hanoi, and Beijing, and changes the direction of Khmer Communism. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, Sihanouk begins losing his magic touch as various quarters become less enamoured with his policies. The Cambodian Civil War approaches, as the war...

Who was Nuon Chea?

What does Buddhism have to do with Khmer Rouge ideology?

Why did Sihanouk sever ties with the United States?
 

Time Period Covered 1963 - 1965

In this episode we explore the impact of the fateful year of 1963 in Cambodia, as well as the circumstances that the new Cambodian communist leadership were dealing with in the Vietnamese jungle. We also look at the difference between two influential future leaders of Democratic Kampuchea; Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, as they play quite different roles for the organisation.

This episode a...

What is Agent Orange and why did the Kennedy Administration decide to use it? 
 
How did Diem's Regime collapse?
 
What was the Buddhist Crisis?

Time Period Covered 1961 - 1963

In the final part of our exploration into the beginnings of the "Vietnam War", we look at the circumstances surrounding the early Kennedy years and how a 'prudent' approach to South Vietnam resulted in a number of problems, both immediate and in the future. We look in depth at Operation Ranch Hand, the decision to use defoliants in South Vietnam, as well as how the...

How did a succession of US administrations become stuck in Vietnam?
 
How did Diem's policies create the conditions for insurgency?
 
What did the early activities of the NLF look like?

Time Period Covered 1954 - 1961

In part two of our exploration of the path to the Second Indochina War, we focus on early American efforts to create a stable regime in South Vietnam. The activities of the CIA and Edward Lansdale in the aftermath of Geneva are used to introduce this relationship, as well as the growing realisation in some quarters that perhaps Di...

What occurred in a divided Vietnam in the aftermath of the Geneva Accords?
 
How did so many die during the North Vietnamese “Land Reform Campaign”?
 
Why was South Vietnam described as an ‘emerging fascist state’?

Time Period Covered 1954 - 1963

In this first part of a kind of mini-series on the origins of the Vietnam War, Lachlan investigates the state building in the divided Vietnam. Exploring the ideology and benefactors of the separate regimes, we touch upon the thousands of those who died during the efforts to revolutionise the North – as well as similarly dr...

How did Pol Pot become leader of the Khmer Rouge?
 
What did prominent communists like Khieu Samphan do in Sihanouk’s Cambodia?

Were there limits to Sihanouk’s power and tightrope act?
 
Time Period Covered 1960-1963
We begin with a reflection on how Cambodian history can permeate even seemingly mundane spaces, before looking in on a secret communist seminar led by the new leader of the Khmer Rouge. This episode functions as a revisit of some loose ends left as the Cambodian communists began taking their own steps toward having an independent movement from t...

Why was one of the most prominent slogans of the Khmer Rouge about a "super great leap forward"?

What is Maoism and why did the People's Republic of China provide a new ideological source for the world?

Why did the USSR and the PRC split in the 1960s?

Time Period Covered 1949 - 1962

This episode could be considered the third instalment in the history of communist ideology of the series. Lachlan discusses the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China, Mao, Maoism, the circumstances surrounding the Great Leap Forward and it's terrible...

How does the Communist Party of Kampuchea form? How does Saloth Sar become a married man and teacher? What are the consequences of Sihanouk’s neutral foreign policy?

Time Period Covered 1955-1960

As peace broke out over Cambodia in the wake of the First Indochina War, the fledgling communist movement had to learn to survive in a newly independent country under the rule of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Numbers dwindling and unable to openly resist the government, the ‘revolutionary organisation’, as they began calling themselves, found an avenue for recruits in the schools of Phnom Penh. The man wh...

This bonus episode is for those who would like to remind themselves of the topics covered in the first season of the podcast, or for new listeners who might want a simple overview of Cambodian history as it relates to the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.

This is an introduction to the themes of the series as a whole, the aims of the podcast, the Khmer Empire, the conditions relating to Cambodia's modernity and the French colonial period. The growth of nationalism, the events of the Second World War and efforts toward independence, including the early...

How does the First Indochina War end? What do the Geneva Accords mean for Cambodia? Who wins the 1955 Cambodian general election?

Time Period Covered December 1953 – July 1955

Cambodia faces Viet Minh assaults around the country as the First Indochina War comes to its climax, but the French will suffer their most stunning defeat at Dien Bien Phu. World powers will convene to find a solution to the conflict. The resulting ‘peace’ will marginalise the Cambodian communist movement at the expense of the Vietnamese one, and Sihanouk will create a new political movement.  

Google Maps View of Dien...

How does Cambodian Independence day originate in November 1953? What does the First Indochina War look like in Cambodia? How does a young Pol Pot 'join the maquis'?

Time Period Covered January – December 1953

This episode explains the actions of King Sihanouk that one French General declared were ‘that of a madman, but a madman of genius’. Almost out of the blue the Cambodian king will claim independence for his country and end almost a century of French colonial rule. Meanwhile, the First Indochina War will bring its ruin to the Cambodian countryside and Saloth Sar will join the co...

How did the First Indochina War become part of the Cold War? When did the Khmer students studying in Paris become communists? What influenced Saloth Sar to become a revolutionary?

Time Period Covered 1947-1953

This episode explains the way that the first ‘Vietnam War’ began developing into something recognisably part of the Cold War. We also trace the path of the young Pol Pot as his studies in Paris become influenced by a rising influence of communism. Cambodian politics and the return of Son Ngoc Thanh will produce a change in the rule of King Sihanouk, and...

Craig Etcheson is currently visiting scientist at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, and he was a founder of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, he has been studying the Khmer Rouge regime for more than thirty years. He worked as an investigator of the prosecution at the ECCC between 2006-2012, and testified at the tribunal as an expert witness. He recently published a book titled "Extraordinary Justice: Law, Politics, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunals" and in this conversation we get into some of the complexities involved in this ‘experiment’ as he puts it, including the shortcomings of the tribun...

What does the anti-colonial scene look like in Cambodia? Who are the Khmer Issarak and how do nationalists and young Cambodian students relate to this movement as well as the growing war in Vietnam with the returning French?

Time Period Covered 1945 - 1950

Saloth Sar, the young Pol Pot, will arrive in Paris in October 1949. In this episode we trace the path that he takes to get there, as well as the very important developments in Cambodian and world history that are taking place at this time. Resistance to French colonialism takes the shape of the 'Khmer...

What is the Umbrella Revolt in Cambodia? How do nationalists like Son Ngoc Thanh react to the rise of Imperial Japan? What are the circumstances surrounding the choice of Norodom Sihanouk as the new Cambodian king in 1941 - as a 19 year old?

Time Period Covered: 1939 - 1945

This episode is an in-depth discussion of the events in Cambodia and Vietnam that occurred once the French presence in Indochina was diminished by Imperial Japan during WWII. Cambodia will briefly become independent amongst the chaos of 1945, but the road to this change will involve a host of different events...

How do you build a society out of the theories of Marx and Engels? Who was Lenin and why is he such an important communist figure? How did communism come to Indochina?

Time Period Covered: 1917 - 1939

Beginning with Lenin being sent into the fragile Russian Empire in 1917, this episode is a discussion of the evolution of Marxism from 'theory' to 'practise'. This creates a new version of the 'doctrine': 'Marxism-Leninism'. The Russian Revolution in 1917 represents the entrance of a new civilisation onto the globe, one fuelled by the energy of communism. A young Vietnamese man sees...

Who are the proletariat? Who wrote the Communist Manifesto? What was the context in which it was written?

Time Period Covered 1842 – 1900

This episode is intended to function as an introduction to the ideas of Marx and Engels, and more broadly to 'communism'. We begin with some common phrases used by the Communist Party of Kampuchea and their cadre that highlight the ideology of the movement. We then depart Southeast Asia for Europe in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and look at the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as they form a new view of...

What did French control of Cambodia look like? How did this ‘Protectorate’ function? What are the origins of Cambodian nationalism? What was life like for your average Khmer in the early 20th century?

Time Period Covered 1880 – 1938

This episode centres around Cambodian history as the French instigate the colonisation of Indochina. We learn about the early reactions to French rule, as well as the treatment of the Khmer by the imperial power and how the 'protectorate' functioned. The murder of the French 'resident' Felix Louis Bardez  in a rural hamlet also prompts a discussion of the culture of the...

What happened in the years leading up the French colonisation of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam? How did Cambodian rulers become so dependent on either Siam or Vietnam for protection?
 
Time period covered: 1789 - 1887

In this episode, Lachlan bridges the gap between Cambodia’s ‘middle period’ and the dawn of French colonisation of Indochina. Beginning with the French revolution and its links with the eventual Khmer Rouge revolution, we then explore the imposition of Vietnamese control on Cambodia in the 19th century, as well as the story of a French naturalist who visited the region. The episode ends wi...