Thursday, May 27, 2010

Kampuchea: A Demographic Catastrophe In Cambodia

The report that follows was prepared by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1980. It is significant in that it was probably the first methodical attempt to analyze the statistical impact of the Khmer Rouge reign.
Time has shown that this report has serious flaws, most notably the complete lack of any discussion of the purges of 1977 and 1978. Some scholars (particularly Michael Vickery) have suggested that this omission represented a deliberate attempt to whitewash the Khmer Rouge, to justify U.S. opposition to the government installed by the Vietnamese invasion. Readers of the report may judge for themselves whether or not this is a plausible explanation. In any event, the report should not be construed as the final word on the demographics of communist Cambodia. However, it may prove useful as a point for further research and discussion.
More recent analyses of the demographic impact of the Khmer Rouge regime can be found in the articles Counting Hell and The Number: Quantifying Crimes Against Humanity in Cambodia.
This copy of the document was re-created from a paper copy which was reproduced by the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. As the report does not appear to be copyrighted, it has been converted to HTML for inclusion on this site. Since the text of the report was retyped manually, there may be some typos or transcription errors. Also, it should be noted that the format of the document has been altered somewhat to simplify the HTML. Because of the width of some of the tables, you may find it necessary to maximize your browser window.
A paper copy of the original document can be purchased from the CIA. For details, see the CIA's Publications page, at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/pubs.html. To locate documents pertaining to Cambodia, go to the Search page (http://www.cia.gov/search) and search for Kampuchea or Cambodia.

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