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Autobiography of Thiounn Prasith

Thiounn Prasith is the former Khmer Rouge Ambassador to the United Nations. This autobiography is dated 25 December 1976.

TRANSLATION

[1] Biography

Because the Comrade who is in charge gave the news that there is a class enemy accusing me, I’d like to write this biography for Angkar, honestly and from my heart. 
 

I - About parents, siblings, and family: 
 

Original name: Thiounn Prasith. Revolutionary name: San

Sex: Male Nationality: Khmer

Have a wife named: Christine Gouret. Nationality: French, lives in France.  

Have three children: 2 female and 1 male. The oldest daughter is 21 years old; has already joined the revolution. Two other children are still living with their mother.

My birth date: 3 February 1930, Phnom Penh. 
 

Grandfather’s name: Thiounn. Social class: feudalistic conservative; betrayed the nation, [served] the French colonialists. 
 

Father’s name: Thiounn Hal. Social class: Feudalistic conservative; served the French colonialists. [He] died in 1952 or 1953. 
 

Mother’s name: Bunchan Moly. Social class: Feudalistic conservative; served the French colonialists. [She] is still alive.

Age: don’t know; probably in [her] 70s. 
 

Siblings: Elder brother: Thiounn Thioeun is a doctor and the Minister of

Health. 
 

Elder sister: Thiounn Choeum has a husband named Chhean Vam [who] is a comprador capitalist.

Political alignment: do not know, haven’t met in years. 
 

Elder Brother: Thiounn Chum is a comprador capitalist.

Political alignment: do not know, haven’t met for a long time. 
 

Elder bother: Thiounn Mumm, joined the revolution since 1951. Now [he] is working in the Ministry of Industry. 
 

I, myself, am the youngest. 
 

[2] II- From 1930 to 1949: 
 

1. From 1935 (or 1936) to 1941: studied at the French School in Phnom Penh until 6th grade. In the sixth grade, a French woman at Sisowath [High School] decided not to let me continue my studies at Sisowath because [my] grades were not good. My father decided to send me to study in Prey Nokor [Saigon] at Chasseloup-Laubat [High School]. 
 

2. From 1941 to 1945: From 1941 to 1944, I continued to study in Prey Nokor. Because Prey Nokor was bombed by the American Imperialists, my father decided to send me to study in Dalat in South Vietnam, in September 1944. But on 9 March 1945 the fascist Japanese launched a coup d’etat. I was sent by them back to Phnom Penh in April. 
 

3. From 1945 to 1949: When I came back to Phnom Penh, I continued my studies at Sisowath [High School] until I graduated in July 1949. At that time, I started to have an interest in loving the country. That was the first time that I lived and had some contacts with Cambodians. After I graduated in July 1949, the French colonialists tried to convince me with the hope that [they] could educate me so that I’d serve them as my father and my grandfather did. So they gave me an award to travel by ship to Manila (Philippines) and Hong Kong (July-August 1949). 
 

III- From 1949 (September) to 1955 (December). 
 

I went to study in France in September 1949. [I] went [to study] there because [I] got a half-scholarship. Until 1952, the year the Royal Government stopped giving (scholarships). Because I was against [them].

[3] I went to study dentistry but I changed to pharmacy. After I studied [pharmacy] two years, I changed to study trade communications until I finished in 1954. When I finished my studies, the Royal Government gave me a job at the Railroad [Department]. And they sent me to an internship for six months at the French Railroad [Department].

During this six years in France, I started to realize about patriotism. [I] participated in the struggle against the French colonialists to claim independence, and wanted Cambodia to be communist. In 1951, [I] joined the Marxist-Leninist group which was created by Comrade Brother Pol Pot, Brother Van and Brother Khieu..etc. [I] participated very closely in every activity until 1955. In 1953, under the counsel of those Brothers, [I] decided to join the French Party.

In 1953, the same year, the French security policemen arrested me and jailed me for a day in order to question me about the Khmer Student Organization’s activities against Sihanouk, [who] betrayed the people at that time.

[My] realization at that time was just loving the country. It had not yet reached the level of loving the class. Another thing was that my national spirit was not high, to the point where there was confusion [in ideas] between loving the nation and loving internationalism. Because of these reasons, I married a French woman in 1954. That matter was also because of the feudalist exploitation and the colonialist education. The wrong decision that I made enabled me to have complications within my feelings until today.

When I studied in France, I had no other friends beside all Comrades within the Marxist-Leninist group. And I had one foreign friend. A French friend whom [I] have a close relationship with, until today. This friend had some political activities in the French Party before. Then he stopped and left the Party for a long time. [He was] also friends with Comrade Cheat Thor who is already dead. Nowadays, this French friend is trading as a normal person. [4] When I met him, I never said anything about Cambodia beside the news which was not secret. He did not ask me much either. He just wanted to stay away and be happy. 
 

IV- From 1956 to 1963: a confusing period in internal affairs: 
 

1. I returned to the country at the end of December 1955. I worked at the Railroad [Department]. The Party advised [me] to organize another branch of the Railroad [Department]; to educate the workers and the people who worked there. At that time I received advice from the Party continuously. [I] was a Secretary of the Party branch at the Railroad [Department]. Secretly, [I] educated some of the workers and also participated in writing for L’Observateur newspaper. 
 

2. From November 1958 to April 1959, according to the request from the Ministry of Railroads and according to the Party decision, I went to an internship in the Japanese Railroad Ministry. At that time, I received the news about the traitors Sam Sary and Dap Chhuon. And [I] learned about the activities of a Japanese spy named Tadatoma from among the Khmer students in Japan. 
 

3. Having returned from Japan, I was part of the Railroad branch up until June 1961. It was the time that Sihanouk made strong attacks on me. The class enemy did that because the movement of the Railroad workers was very strong at that time. 
 

4. The Party decided to cut off its connection with me for a while (almost a year).

The exploiting class government relocated me to the Public Works Ministry. In 1962, the Party removed me to do activities among the intellectuals instead; to investigate the authoritarian class and the foreigners. At that time I knew one French Captain named Marré. Through this connection, I got some information. But he (later on I learned that he was a spy of the French Second Office) also tried to get information from me. But according to my personal reflection, I did not spill secrets to him. 
 

[5] 5. In 1963, after the 34 people event, the Party raised a plan for me to escape to France for a while. At first, I was concerned very much because I did not know how I could live in France. But because the situation was very severe, I decided to make a request to the Party to go to France. The Party agreed. At that time, I saw the escape had many complicated elements. But after I studied and examined myself, [I] saw the escape was appropriate to the real situation of me and my family. 
 

6. In June 1963, after two months urging for a visa from the exploiting class authority, I went to France with my eldest daughter. My wife and my other two children came to join me in December 1963. I went to France via Prague. Because I wanted to take that opportunity to get to know the city of the country which was called Socialist. I stayed in Prague two months waiting for a flight to Paris. 
 

7. Within this past 7 years, I received a lot of education from the Party and participated in many activities, struggled against the capitalists and the authoritarian class. [I] had some learning experiences with the workers and with the intellectuals. Although the enemy investigated [me] and took some actions to suppress [me], [my] consciousness was happy and persisted. But at that time [I] still had a strong idealism. And the other thing was [my] class standpoint was not clear. [I] lived like the exploiting class.

At that time the situation of revisionism occurred (in 1958-1960). I did not see clearly and did not have a clear standpoint toward the situation. At that time I followed the Party’s advice respectfully, “think about the nation first, consider Kampuchean problems as the most important, the Kampuchean revolution considers the benefits of the nation as the most significant.” 
 

[6] V- From 1963 (June) to 1970 (March): 
 

1. I came to France with some information from the Party regarding the situation within the country for Comrade students in France and [I] held on to the standpoint that the Party had advised about the conflict between the revisionists and China. That meant the conflict between the revisionists and the revolution. This Party standpoint helped [me] to solve some problems among the students who were in a complicated situation. 
 

2. During the time which was close to seven years, my political activities were only among the student union and among some other Cambodians. I recontacted my French friend whom I had once studied together with. And Marré whom I had known from Phnom Penh also came to contact me. But it was not constantly because he lived far from me. After the coup d’etat in March 1970, he clearly defended the traitor Lon Nol. I stopped having contact with him since the beginning of 1971.

And nor did I have contact with other foreigners nor participate in any of [their] activities. Even the Vietnamese whom Comrade students contacted in Paris, I did not know them either. I did not recontact the French Communist Party either. I spent my time making a living to support myself and my family. 
 

3. Ideally, I lived in France for a period of time waiting for the Party to call me back some day. During my waiting time, I also participated in the activities with Comrade students among the Khmer students union. And [I] further tried to educate some students according to my capability. During this past seven years, [I] lost contact with the Party completely. 
 

4. In the duration I was living in France, I received some money from my mother. Especially in 1968, I received 50 thousand Tranaots. 
 

5. From 1965 to 1968, I worked in an oil company ( coal and oil). In 1968 I got a job at the Paris Airport. 
 

6. During the time I was living in France, I received a lot of capitalist influences, both in living and in standpoint. Although I was waiting for the Party to give me work to do some day and following the situation within the country, [7] my revolutionary standpoint was very much weakening. [My] revolutionary standpoint was unclear. [I] was hiding for my own happiness. [I] was mostly thinking about the comfort of the family and of the children. [I] did not educate them to be conscious and to come close to Kampuchea. Material [factors] had a great influence over me. At that time I did not realized that was the revisionist concept. After I had training after the coup d’etat, then I understood that that was the revisionist standpoint. In reality, if there was no coup d’etat and if the Party did not call me on the mission to Beijing after the coup, I probably would have been unable to reclaim myself again. [I] probably would have stayed in France forever. And continued to served the French capitalists, and completely lose the spirit of the nation. The Party has pulled me from the wrong path, and has educated me to walk on the sophisticated path. This path is complex because you have to give up many things. But this path is meaningful, honorable and clean. 
 

7. Because I was waiting for the Party to call me back some day, and because I realized that the revolution required me to separate from my family for some period of time, I tried every possible way to make my family be independent in both making money and in living. That is why all our money in the bank is under her [my wife’s] name or under both of our names.

Because of the capitalist influence over me, I thought of buying a house by paying with my salary (taking a loan). [That way] was better and cheaper than renting a [place]. In 1965, [I] did that. In 1969, because the house was far, and on the other hand I received some money from my mother, and I got a stable job at the Paris airport, I decided to change houses. [I] borrowed money from the Paris airport temporarily, until I sold the old house.

All those activities showed that I sank into the capitalist society. Because of those complicated things and because of the Paris airport system which indicated that [you] had to give up three months of your salary before you quit your job, it delayed my performance of the mission to [8] Beijing that the Party appointed me to go on, by three months. 
 

8. The present condition of personal property is as noted below:

- About the house: since 1970, I’ve given it to my family to live in until they die. [I’d] like to clarify that the house ..(text cut off).. bought with joint money between my wife and me ..(text cut off).. had between 1/3.

- About the money in the bank: because the account is under our names, and because I’ve been away more then six years, I don’t know about it. Another account is under my name. I gave permission to my wife so that she can withdraw or deposit money. I got the news this past May that [it] still has 2700 Tranaots in it. But now I don’t know whether my wife withdrew all the money or deposited some more money.

All of these problems made my feelings complicated sometimes. I haven’t found a way to solve it. We need to get divorced in order to sell the house. According to French law, the divorce won’t take long if both of the people agree. But if one of them disagrees, they can’t get a divorce. In reality [I] have only two choices. And they are, bringing my family [wife] to live in Kampuchea, or getting a divorce so that it will make everything clear.

When some members of the Front donated their houses in Paris to ..(text cut off).. the Party, I was so ashamed. But I did not know what to do. Nowadays, I am trapped between the situations. 
 

About my wife: she works at the Orly Subdistrict. The head of the Subdistrict is a Communist. According to my knowledge, she works at two or three places because she is a family planning counselor (conseillère planning familiale). I don’t know how much money she makes. I guess she can live on it. She joined the French Party in 1970. But she did not agree with the French Party on many things. In general, she wants to gain benefits and wants to be comfortable. She is not a politician. 
 

[9] VI- From March 1970 to December 1975:

That was the period that I came back to serve the revolution within the Front and under the Party’s advice, until I returned to the country. (I returned to the country once in August. But I stayed there only two days).

I arrived in Beijing on 8 July 1970 via Moscow. At that time people didn’t like to fly the French airline because it flew through Thailand. [I’d] like to clarify some of my activities concerning outlook and standpoint during this time of more than five years. 
 

1. Party’s work: I came to Beijing to perform the Party’s directives. I didn’t come right away [because of] the reason I’ve mentioned above. And I decided with our Comrade in France to send my elder brother, Comrade Thiounn Mumm, to [Beijing] first. My first goals in Beijing were to contact the Party, to report to the Party and to act according to the Party’s directives. That was until February 1971, when I met the Party again in Hanoi. In the beginning, because I hadn’t had the Party’s education for a while and because of the influence from the French capitalists, [my] revolutionary standpoint was weak… I had many difficulties performing the Party’s plans. But then, because [I] constantly received educational advice from the Party, one at a time I gave up personal property and private property. I reattached myself to the Party and to the revolution. Step by step the Party believed in me. All of these factors enabled me to claim victory over the exertions of the work which the Party assigned to me. At the same time, [I] started to understand and started to hold onto the essence of Communism. And [I] improved myself one degree. My returning to join the revolutionary movement made my life became meaningful again. 
 

[10] 2. The Front’s work: When I arrived in Beijing, Penn Nouth and Sihanouk appointed me to be a Minister, responsible for contacting the [people] who lived inside the country. At that time Comrade Keat Chhon was also appointed to be a Deputy Prime Minister. That appointment happened not because of my request; nor did I demand it. Penn Nouth and Sihanouk wanted to gather forces to their side. And at that time they didn’t know the internal connection of our Party. And they didn’t know clearly who I was. They recognized me as being in their same class. At that time, my bigest goal was geting salary so that [I] could feed my family in France. Position and honor were not important [to me].

The higher ranking members within the Front were not happy with the appointment. They strongly blamed me because they saw me as against their class interest, as having betrayed their class, and wanted to stop their plan of taking over power, or [I] didn’t allow them to have trick negotiations with the Imperialists, stopped them from stealing money. They accused me of being a French person’s slave (because my wife is French), I was a revisionist, I was Vietnamese…etc.

But I had many weak points among all of those things:

- [I] understood the Front’s political line and the activity plans of the Party inefficiently. [I] caused a tight atmosphere and had no open solidarity.

- A lot of foreign (French) character still remained [in me], [I] was not so considerate, sent money to the family. These weak points were left over from the exploiting class.

But the truth was that the class struggle within the Front ranks was very sharp. The exploiting class attacked the Party. And they attacked it through me. Because I was contacting [the people] inside the country, [I] was afraid that they didn’t like me; They attacked my weak point.

This weak point enabled me to be an inefficient Party representative. That was my painful [experience] during the time I worked within the Front. 
 

[11] 3. With the Vietnamese:

At the end of July 1970, I went to Hanoi with Chau Seng as the Vietnamese government invited. Before I got on the plane, a Chinese Comrade came to tell me that someone wanted to see me. At that time I met Comrade Rat Samuoeun. He was supposed to fly to Hanoi also. He wanted to meet me and tell me to be careful not to let Chau Seng notice anything. Comrade Rat Samuoeun sat in the cockpit. When I arrived in Hanoi, I again secretly met with him many hours. I asked him, “whether the Party’s policy and the Vietnamese policy are the same?” He clarified that, “they are about the same; trust each other.”

When I went to Hanoi, I opened my mouth to borrow money from the Vietnamese for the Khmer students in France. At the same time I borrowed their money to pay back my house in France. I’m always very angry at myself whenever I think about this big mistake. That was because I had no political experience, had no national dignity, and had a wrong international point of view. That was an event that I could never forget.

During the first nine years, I had a lot of misunderstandings about Vietnam. Ideally, I thought they were honest with us, respected us. Because of [these] misunderstandings, I reported to them about our internal affairs situation openly. It enabled them to know all our weak points. Until February 1971, I happily met the Party again in Hanoi.

At that time the Vietnamese hoped that they could entice me. They knew my weak point: [I] lived in France, my grandfather was Vietnamese, had a free point of view as they [did]… etc.

Before I joined the Front, I did not know [any] Vietnamese. I thought that the Vietnamese were constructing a revolution. And they were also revolutionaries. During this five years, [12] the Party’s continual education and some of the true experiences on the international stage enabled me to realize the Vietnamese’s hypocritical faces and the threats that our country faced. Their present plans are to crush our Party leaders and to crush our glowing revolution..(text cut off).. again it illuminates the mortal conflict between us and the Vietnamese. They do not give up their ambition of swallowing us. Their present Party congress.. (text cut off).. clarified that ambition.

From 1970-1971, at the international conference, there was some cooperation.. (text cut off).. Since 1972, even though the conference talked about.. (text cut off)..of the three [countries], our delegations were independent. 
 

4. With Russia: 
 

1. The first time I met the Russian revisionists was when I went through Moscow.. (text cut off).. on my way to Beijing with Chau Seng. When [we] arrived in Moscow, Chea San who was our Front’s ambassador to Moscow took me and Chau Seng to meet the leader.. (text cut off).. Russian Peace Organization which was the masses’ organization. At that time Chau Seng and Chea San who talked (I didn’t have any right to), thanked them, and explained things to them. 
 

2. In September 1970, the Front government sent me to a meeting in Berlin, East Germany. [I] attended a meeting of “the Vietnam Stockholm Conference” to talk about the new situation in Kampuchea at their invitation. But they did not talk about anything. They just listened. 
 

3. In October 1970, the Front government sent me to the “American Crimes in Indochina Research Conference” in Stockholm. At that time I met the Russians. But we didn’t talk about anything. But they watched me and also investigated me. 
 

4. In November 1970, the government sent me to a conference about Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea in Stockholm. Through Moscow, I gave a stone sculpture as a present to the Russian Peace Organization. In Stockholm, [13] the Russian ambassador invited the Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian delegations to have a meal at his embassy. The Cambodian delegation was me, the traitor Pituret and Krin Lean. During the reception, I thanked [them] for the Russian support. On the way back through Moscow, the Russian Peace Organization had a meeting to support the struggle of Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea. I gave a speech about the situation in Kampuchea and thanked the Russians for supporting our struggle. 
 

5. In Moscow [we] waited to go to another meeting in Paris in December 1970. One of the Russians who was in charge named Kovalongko (it is said that he was a member of the Russian Central Committee, responsible for Asian affairs) came to meet me in my hotel room. He said that Russia is a big powerful country but had no intention to exploit Kampuchea. He said he did not recognize Sihanouk. He would recognize Sihanouk if the Cambodian Party asked him to do so. He wanted to meet the Cambodian Party. But if he was not allowed, he requested a letter from our Party asking them to recognize our Front.

That was the first time that I had met with a Russian face to face. I replied to him that I didn’t know there was a Party in Kampuchea. But I would report [his request] to the leaders inside the country.

[I] arrived in Beijing at the end of December. I gave a complete report to the Party regarding that conversation. I openly sent the [report] through the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing. Because [they] knew that the Comrade Party representative was in Hanoi, the Vietnamese gave [the report] back to me to take to Hanoi and present it to the Party representative myself, after they read it and kept the telegram for a day. 
 

6. After I met the Party, and learned and received education from the Party, in February 1972, the Party advised me to go to the International Conference for Peace and Independence for Indochina which was held in Versailles (France). That was a Masses Organization conference which was hosted by the revisionists.

[14] At that time there was an incident between the Cambodian delegation and the Russian delegation through the French delegation. The Russians did not allow the complete [statement] of the Cambodian standpoint to be included in the conclusion of the conference. After hours of discussion, I told them that if they could not include the complete [statement] of the Cambodian standpoint, they did not need to include any of it. The conclusion did not need to mention Cambodian issues. But if the conclusion talked about Cambodia but inappropriately, I would protest at the big upcoming meeting. Everyone knew about this argument. The French newspaper and the foreign television talked about this. In the end the Russians decided to agree [with us]. At that time our standpoint was to solve Cambodian problems with the five points in the announcement on 23 March 1970. And [we] asked more people to recognize the Front government. 
 

7. In May 1973, the conference of the Stockholm Organization about Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea invited a Cambodian delegation to talk about the Cambodian situation. At that time there was no more fighting in Vietnam and Laos, only in Kampuchea. The Party decided to appoint me leader of the delegation to convene an international conference on Kampuchea. At that time the Russian delegation played many tricks to stop this conference from happening. But after our victory on 15 August 1973, they supported this conference in order to show that they also supported the struggle of the Cambodian people. 
 

8. The international conference on Kampuchea was held in December 1973 in Paris. The Party decided to appoint me to be the leader of the Cambodian delegation. [We] gained a big victory at that conference. The Russians were so isolated. In my speech, I talked about solidarity with other peoples who valued peace and justice. Especially between Kampuchea, Vietnam, Laos, China and Korea. Two or three days after the conference ended, Kovalongko (who had come to meet me in December 1970 in Moscow) requested to meet me. I welcomed him at our mission in Paris. [15] In order to prevent him from talking about Party to Party contacts, I invited four or five of the Front members to participate in the meeting. At that time Ieng Kunsaky was there. Kovalongko said, “You have talked about solidarity. Especially with those five countries. Does Kampuchea want only those five friends? What about the others who also supported Kampuchea, doesn’t Kampuchea consider them as her friends? If you continue to talk like this, it will cause bad effects on the relationship between Russia and Kampuchea.” That was a big threat on our internal affairs. And [it] violated our sovereignty. I replied that, “I talked about the solidarity of those five peoples, and mentioned those five names because those countries have been honestly supporting our struggle from the beginning on everything. And unlike other countries, they never interfere in our internal affairs.” Kovalongko was angry. His face turned red. He stopped talking about this issue. He talked about the victory of the conference instead. Before he said good-bye to me, he said that he was happy that he could see me because we got to know each other more.

When [I] returned to Beijing through Moscow (with the ticket that the conference had provided), the people who were in charge of the Russian Peace Organization were waiting to greet me at the airport. And they invited me to have a meal at the airport because I didn’t have much time in Moscow. I just waited for my flight to Beijing. They were so friendly. And they said that the Cambodians should write a book about the failure of the American coup because that had never happened [before] in history.

That was the last time that I met with Russians, [16] until I went to the United Nations in 1975. 
 

9. Among the revisionists, Cuba was the most active with us. Because it was the revisionist countries that had recognized us from the beginning. As in every conference, their delegation came to talk to our delegation.. (text cut off). But that was just the appearance. The truth was Cubans just got up to read their speeches.. (text cut off). I gave a very friendly response to them. Especially with the head of their delegation, named Melba Hernandes. She was the second or the third woman who had joined the struggle with Fidel Castro. There was nothing important beside the friendliness.

According to my knowledge, the Russians and the Cubans knew that I was a Party member..(text cut off). The Vietnamese told them. That was one of the reasons that made them try to be friendly with me. But nowadays they already know me. That is why the friendliness has been reduced a lot. The Party sent me to Cuba in May, they [the Cubans] clearly didn’t offer the Cambodian delegation a warm welcome. 
 

10. My view and my standpoint toward Russia:

In 1970-71, I didn’t know what revisionism was. [I] was not sure about Russia either. That was why as a standpoint, I wanted those revisionist countries to recognize us. I tried to be genteel and explained to them because [I] thought they also had revolutionary qualities. So, if they recognized us, that could help our..(text cut off).

But the education [I received] from the Party and a lot of experience [that I had], helped me to gain a better knowledge of revisionism. And [I] understood the dangerous effects of revisionism on our revolution. As in the activity plans, I never caused any conflict with them. But [I] firmly did not let them interfere with our internal affairs or allow them to violate our sovereignty and our dignity.

But because I had undergone a lot of capitalist influence, I still had revisionist qualities when I joined the revolution. Because of this, I was always careful. Especially when I went on missions to foreign countries.

[17] Both imperialists and revisionists knew a lot about my biography. They tried to influence me. They hadn’t lost their hope that they could possibly influence me. It was a great thing that I came to live in [my] country. So I could establish roots, and demolish most of the revisionist point of view. 
 

5- With the American imperialists: [I] struggled with them strongly and could not compromise. They were mortal enemies from the beginning. As a standpoint, I saw and tried to educate the Front’s high ranking officials that this is the last war. [We] must struggle in order to achieve our Front’s five points completely. But until 1971, I hadn’t found a way. And I also didn’t give up the negotiation plans completely. Since 1973, especially since August, I strongly believed that we could achieve victory without negotiation.

The long-lasting struggle did not affect me who lived outside of the country. Because, besides family separation, there was no other difficulty. The long-lasting struggle depended on the strength of our people who lived inside the country.

On the international stage, I held onto the absolute standpoint of the struggle without compromise. I did not mistake it at any point. 
 

6. Conclusion:

During the period of more than five years, I was very happy because I served our People’s Revolutionary Party with my emotional strength and physical strength. It was a time that had a lot of meaning for my life because I participated in the activities to glorify the Party and our People’s Revolution on the international stage. [I] participated in serving the national democratic revolution until it achieved victory completely. I was happy because I had met the Party and to be part of the Party again.

But because I had undergone a lot of French capitalist influence, especially during the time that I was separated from the Party from 1963 to 1970, it prevented me from improving myself as quickly as I wanted to. The private property question and family matters also still had a lot [in me] at that time. Besides, [18] in general, even if I understood the Party’s politics, outlook and standpoint, I didn’t understand them in detail. Especially, in terms of ingenuity in implementing foreign policy. This inefficiency was revealed clearly when I returned to the country at the end of 1975. 
 

VII- In this [year] 1976:

1. The war’s end: after the greatest victory in history, I was still active within the Front until the end of August 1975.

Since then, the Party has sent me to work on the international stage. Especially to participate with our Cambodian delegation to a Foreign Ministers conference of the Non-Aligned Nations in Lima and in the United Nations. I stopped working with the Masses Organization which was headed by the revisionists.

Since then, my activities were importantly with the third world countries and with the Non-Aligned Nations. At the United Nations, [I] saw clearer [than before] the capitalists’ and revisionists’ activities and subterfuges. They were very genteel and friendly with the Cambodian delegation. The American Imperialists came to make contact [with us] by themselves. The Russian revisionists tried to contact [us] through their people. That was through Byelorussia who sat close to the Cambodian delegation. As the aim of activities which I understood, I didn’t do anything that could cause a bad atmosphere with them on both sides. But I was cautious. And later on, in hindsight, I was more cautious with the American imperialists than with the revisionists. The present betrayal situation makes me perceive the danger level of revisionism toward our revolution. [19] With the third world countries, I also tried to strengthen solidarity and friendship with them. Especially with those countries who supported us during the war. Because those countries had complicated problems, I tried to find ways not to get involved with their situation. And [I] tried to make them conscious of the necessity of the struggle against both imperialists and revisionists in order to fortify the friendship among the third world countries, and to work out individual problems independently.

In this 1976, my mission [was] at the United Nations, at the Law of the Sea Conference, when I toured some African countries, at the Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Nations in Kuala Lumpur. I also participated in the activities of implementing the Party’s plans, strengthening and expanding friends and to isolate enemies in the world.

I’d like to note that, among the countries that [we] toured, Cuba and Geneva did not offer a friendly welcome to the delegation of which the Party appointed me to be the leader. Their high ranking leaders did not come to meet the delegation. In Cuba they honored the Vietnamese very much. 
 

2. About the history of the revolution in Kampuchea: 
 

Before I returned to Kampuchea at the end of 1975, I didn’t realize that 17 April 1975 was a day of the complete ending of the People’s Democratic Revolution. I thought that this revolution would have to continue a little longer. And I did not realize about the enormous plans such as evacuating the people and stopping the use of money. Because I did not see those strategies as class struggle strategies for continuing the socialist revolution and for the building of socialism. At that time I thought they were significant strategies which after the war the destruction required us to do. And [I thought] they were only temporary.

[20] [I had] that kind of assumption because of idealism. [I] did not know clearly about the movement within the country. [I] only thought about the escape that I saw.

After I studied continuously, I understood and..(text cut off).. the strategies that the Party used for continuing the socialist revolution and for building socialism. In the world history of socialist revolution, this happened only three times. They were: in October 1917, the first socialist revolution in Russia which was led by Lenin, on 1 October 1949, the Chinese revolution, and on 17 April 1975 the Cambodian revolution. The strategies that the Party used for continuing the socialist revolution were never used in the past. And I believe that, if [we] didn’t use those strategies, Kampuchea would have fallen into a complicated situation. And [we] would have lost our independence and our sovereignty. The blood of more than a million of our people that flowed would have been for nothing. If the Party was not strong in taking up those strategies, the Vietnamese would have invaded our country. Even though we used these strategies, they still came to steal our land. What if we didn’t use these strong strategies, what could have happened?

Now the situation of our socialist revolution is good. It is much better than in Vietnam and in Laos. In only a year, we can solve the supply problems in [every] base [area]. That never happened [in the past]. After the war of liberating the nation and the people, we immediately accomplished the People’s Democratic Revolution. And [we] took a step [forward] to build socialism and to continue the socialist revolution. This also never happened [before]. Not only that, in our country we don’t use money which is a situation that has never happened in the world. All of these things had never happened in history. It makes me so proud. It makes me want to continue to serve the socialist revolution within the Party, and under the bright leadership of the Party.

[21] Another thing is the movement to abolish personal property within individual thought. This movement is the most profound and the most righteous for destroying the root of revisionism within the revolutionary ranks. This movement makes [me] very conscious of understanding that I who come from the exploiting class am the object of socialist revolution. That means that I strongly need to struggle within myself in order to destroy personal property completely, and to build up collective property. The class struggle inside me is very strong, too. The giving up of personal property is happening constantly. It makes me happy constantly. But this struggle is very long-lasting. I need to try harder.

Family property still plays arole, especially the emotions toward my children. But comparing [this feeling] to the beginning of the year, it is lighter and more stable than before.

But no matter how hard it is, I strongly won’t walk away from the revolutionary ranks or from the Party ranks. The Party educated me and trusted me constantly. I won’t forget that. When the coup d’etat happened in 1970, the Party thought about me and immediately called me back to join the ranks. I consider that was the very important way of rescuing me. Because of the education and the trust from the Party, I walked in the revolutionary line all the way, until [we] achieved the victory of the People’s Democratic Revolution. And I participated in the continuation of serving the socialist revolution and building socialism on Cambodian land. In my life, I don’t know what would I be if I hadn’t met the Party. I could never forget this greatness. And it encourages me to improve myself, to come close to the Party and to the revolution, to continue to serve the Party, the revolution and the people strongly and honestly with all my emotional strength and physical strength. And [I’ll] continue to act in any way that makes my life more meaningful and profound.

This biography is not good in every section and on every part of my life. I’m happy to clarify any point or any period of my life which I could not recall and if the Party thinks that [point or that period] is important.