The Political Tightrope: Sihanouk's Balancing Act Amidst Domestic Unrest

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 thinks - and just who are these Cambodian communists in his eyes?

Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare
David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History & Brother Number One
Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power and Peasants & Politics in Kampuchea
Milton Osbourne Sihanouk
Steve Heder Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese Model
Elizabeth Becker When the War was Over
Nic Dunlop Lost Executioner
ECCC Case 001 Witness Testimony 2009