Radio War Nerd EP #475 — Blowback: Cambodia, feat. Brendan James & Noah Kulwin
Guests: Brendan James & Noah Kulwin, Blowback
The co-hosts of the always-brilliant Blowback show join us again to talk about their newest series on America's Cambodia War, which lasted longer than the Vietnam War it grew out of, produced some of the grotesquely evil leaders in history (along with Pol Pot), exposed dark cleavages in both the communist and US-led worlds, and would prefer us to memory-hole it, if it wasn't for those nosy co-hosts...
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Check out RWN's previous episodes with the Blowback hosts:
-EP #395 — Afghanistan Blowback
-EP #341 — Unforgetting The Korean War
Total time: 1:22:54
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (21)
A quick note: Thailand wasn’t a formal British colony. It was independent in the way Iran and China were: largely (but not totally) self governing but with large regions that fell under French or British spheres of influence. This is one reason why Cambodia and Laos were important to France: they acted as links to the extremely desirable economy of eastern Thailand (fwiw Thailand figures as extensively in supporting the KR as China was in the 80s). Also, I think if anything the continuity between Lon Nol and the KR is a bit underplayed here. The racial aspect is correct but also irredentism of both Lon Nol and the KR was equally shared. Had he won Lon Nol likely would have gone to full scale war with Vietnam/South Vietnam over Kampuchea Krom.
US government gave Pol Pot 25 million to join the UN. If he was really a communist and not just a CIA stooge to muddy the waters of what communism really is, they would have killed him let alone give him money. He was a blood thirsty US backed fascist.
He didn’t start off as a cia stooge but he certainly did become one quite quickly, and additionally one of Thailand and China too
I’ve heard Cambodia is a great place to vacation
Since it got mentioned on this show I think it’s important for people to understand how nationalism was key to the organization of “socialist” Yugoslavia from the beginning, there was an excellent interview with one of the editors of the Balkan anarchist journal antipolitika about the history of nationalism in the balkans as a modern phenomenon imported from Western Europe and carried to it’s final conclusion by the Marxist Leninists after World War Two: https://archive.org/details/tfsr-20240609-Antipolitika
Ray’s podcast is great too. I found it through RWN’s episode with him and Boris.
Do not sub to blowback. They just take your money and then don't give you anything.
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Taking bets on the next Blowback season. Even odds for Chinese civil war/Taiwan vs Yugoslavia
Central America?
John Dolan on America: "When we fall, we're going to fall in a Cambodian way, not a Vietnamese way"
The Khmer Rouge are maybe the ultimate example of why you shouldn't try to mix nationalism with leftism. You get something even more perverse and vile than regular right-wing ideology, because you end up justifying pogroms and genocide in the name of class war. It's really sick. Ezra Pound is a great example of this sort of thinking. He considered himself a "left-wing fascist." In his mind, the Jews equalled the ruling class, which meant that the Holocaust was a laudable revolutionary act. Disgusting.
I think I have an I idea where you're getting at, but left-wing nationalism has mostly been non-fascist in anti-colonial strugggles
"When we fall we will fall in a very Cambodian way." Painfully true.
This sounds like a Streetlight Manifesto lyric
They had a good interview on Chapo, but I imagine this will be good tool given that at least one of the hosts actually remembers this time
I feel like they had this prerecorded in the back pocket for when the comments got a little testy 😂
It was recorded when Nasrallah was still alive so at least 27th of September.
yes. Yes!
Well well well if it isn't the Blowback brothers
You boys have been busy lately. Thanks, and keep up the great work (both RWN and Blowback)