James Alexander Malcolm Caldwell, académico marxista escocés de la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos de la Universidad de Londres (SOAS), nació en 1931. Hombre de izquierda durante toda su vida, había sido presidente de la Campaña por el Desarme Nuclear y miembro durante mucho tiempo. del Partido Laborista.
Candidato en las elecciones locales de 1977 en Bexley, Kent. También había sido seleccionado por Bertrand Russell para formar parte de la junta fundadora de una revista mensual radical, The Spokesman, que contaba con el apoyo de la Fundación Russell. Era conocido por hacer algunas profecías absurdas, afirmando que para la década de 1990 no quedaría petróleo en el mundo y que para mediados de la década de 1980, Escocia sería independiente de Inglaterra. Pero Caldwell se encontraba más en su elemento cuando escribía sobre “las fortalezas demostradas del sistema comunista”.
Si bien finalmente se hizo conocido por su apoyo al régimen comunista en Camboya, Pol Pot no fue el único despótico dictador en obtener su aprobación. Caldwell creía que la Corea del Norte de Kim Il-Sung era “un tributo sorprendente no sólo a la energía, la iniciativa y la creatividad del pueblo coreano, sino también a la corrección esencial de la línea Juche”. que había visitado (incluida China) lo había “impresionado” más “en términos de sus logros económicos generales”. En un informe de un viaje que hizo a Corea del Norte.
Kim II-sung
Caldwell
Pol Pot
Caldwell había ido más allá de las críticas vocales contra la guerra de Vietnam; quería que ganara Vietnam del Norte. Dirigió el Centro para la Educación Socialista del Sureste de Londres que organizó un evento en 1966 para recaudar fondos para “la compra de armas” por parte del Vietcong para utilizarlas en “su heroica resistencia a la agresión militar extranjera”. Su pasión por Vietnam del Norte llegó tan lejos que en 1967, Caldwell, junto con el radical Tariq Ali de la década de 1960, estaban considerando abrir un restaurante norvietnamita y se habían acercado a Hanoi, quien “prometió proporcionar un súper chef”.
Puede ser peligroso conocer a nuestros héroes, dependiendo de quiénes sean esos héroes. La historia de Malcolm Caldwell sirve como una gran advertencia… Caldwell fue un académico escocés y un prolífico escritor marxista. Era conocido por ser uno de los simpatizantes occidentales más famosos del movimiento Jemeres Rojos de Pol Pot en Camboya.
Caldwell es uno de los mejores ejemplos de “idiota útil” que uno pueda imaginar: un hombre de libros, dedicado ferozmente a la revolución popular. Este profesor académico estudioso fue uno de los más acérrimos defensores del régimen de Pol Pot. Trató de restar importancia a los informes sobre ejecuciones masivas por parte de los Jemeres Rojos en Camboya y fue ampliamente criticado por su propio país y otros académicos. Finalmente, en 1978, volaría a Camboya para reunirse con su héroe, Pol Pot, en persona…
El 22 de diciembre de 1978, Caldwell tuvo una audiencia privada con Pol Pot. Apenas unas horas más tarde, una hora después de medianoche, el intelectual escocés fue asesinado a tiros en su habitación. ¿Qué le dijo a Pol Pot, a quién insultó, qué terrible paso en falso cometió el mayor fanático occidental de los Jemeres Rojos? Nunca se sabrá. Pero nos enseñó una lección: si tu héroe es un maníaco genocida, no lo conozcas.
Caldwell’s fate may have resulted from his failure to read Francois Ponchaud’s “Cambodia Year Zero” which recommended it as “serious and worth reading.
Cambodia was rapidly developing after the independence from Colonial France. We had a booming manufactures, great infrastructure, and many of intellectuals who are ready to take the country to catch up many nations and modernize our country. Even Lee Kuan Yew admire our development and call us the Pearl of Asia. Then, the political turmoil came, chaos erupted, and civil war broke out, eventually led to the heinous Pol Pot regime. My family lost 11 relatives due to them being educated and worked for the government. In just a little more than 3 years, Pol Pot sent Cambodia 100 years backward. Many intellectuals was killed, infrastructure destroyed, struggle for power just among other civility problems that Cambodia had. Just to how destructive it was, almost 50 years after, Cambodia is still struggle reach the status it once had. We are getting back on the right track now but it was nowhere near before the Khmer Rouge Regime.
I was stationed in Cambodia for a time and the scars are still there. A foreign filmmaker was abducted and murdered for asking the wrong questions, and every couple of weeks in the local newspapers, they report some poor kid got his leg blown off from a mine or bomb dropped during the Vietnam War from the US. Extremely sad recent history, incredible people and friends I made, and the global community failed Cambodia during this period.
I Visited Cambodia a few years ago: S21 prison is preserved as a museum and the cells still have the blood stains on the walls from people tortured there.- The Killing Fields are gut wrenching. They stopped exhuming them as it was crippling the minds of the diggers, they wait for rain to bring them to the surface and only move the bones then.- These pits are strewn with the clothes people were executed in, and their skulls were put in the middle to show the toll. – Most were beaten rather than shot to keep the later victims calm – The only pit without clothes was one where all the bodies were women. The suffering that place has seen is unimaginable.
I’m the daughter of a Cambodian mother who made it out of the genocide alive, unlike so many, including my own uncles and grandfathers. It’s truly heartbreaking what they went through. Took me years to understand the gravity of what they had experienced. What they went through continues to impact them and their loved ones, even today. Many of my family members were able to make it out alive, but they still live with repressed trauma and pain that they passed onto the younger generation, myself included. I am still mourning what they went through but amazed by their strength. They came to a foreign world with no connections, no knowledge of English, but somehow managed to build a comfortable life for our family. Thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to learn about Cambodia and it’s history. If you know a Khmer person, get to know them…ask to hear their story and listen. We may seem a bit closed off and awkward at first (learned that in order to keep ourselves/family safe) but once you gain our trust, we will share more and more about ourselves and welcome you as family.
When someone talks about something they don’t know about, it is called “ignorance” or “ignorant speculation”. Alternatively, the Dunning Kruger effect refers to people who constantly express opinions about topics they know nothing about as if they were experts. That was Caldwell, a coffee talker.
If you somehow didn’t think that Pol Pot was already a monster, this man never faced justice as he was never arrested. In an interview after the regime, he stated that he regretted nothing as he was simply experimenting with the country. As such, he was hoping he could orchestrate a second revolution. All of this said with a soft voice deprived of any remorse or sorrow for the country he single-handedly brought down on its knees.
I come from a part of the world where Communists pretty much did the same, taking as many “allies” as possible to defeat the Fascists, and then, at the end of the war, for a couple of decades, hunted down most of these “temporary allies” as they were deemed “unfit” for and “enemies” of the Revolution (priests, seminarians, partisans who used to not side with Communism, etc); my grandmother was friend with some of those folks. But while I came to hate Communism, at the same time I learnt to not trust any other ideology as well, because, to a degree or another, they are all the same…they put “the ideal” over the reality of this world, this Vale of Tears, and thus I cannot tolerate them.
Almost every “green” party has people that loved the Khmer rouge every socialist esque party has people that or still do advocate for USSR or cultural revolution/great leap forward China. But people that associate with anything right compared to yesteryear is suspect of doing roman salutes.
When you convince yourself that your ideology can and more importantly will make the world better by every metric, possibly even achieve a perfect utopia, you can and will commit any evil to see it done, and you can and will be blinded to the fact that your utopia never comes, and that all you wrought was destruction in its name.
Messed up. It’s pretty obvious that Pol Pot never had any intention of letting Caldwell go. He just wanted a “moment” like the old dude in Squid Game. So he poured his heart out and then it was over.
Pol pot kill Malcom because he was afraid Malcom would go back to UK and let the world know about genocide and someone will come and overthrow the Khmer Rouge
♦
James Alexander Malcolm Caldwell, académico marxista escocés de la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos de la Universidad de Londres (SOAS), nació en 1931. Hombre de izquierda durante toda su vida, había sido presidente de la Campaña por el Desarme Nuclear y miembro durante mucho tiempo. del Partido Laborista.
Candidato en las elecciones locales de 1977 en Bexley, Kent. También había sido seleccionado por Bertrand Russell para formar parte de la junta fundadora de una revista mensual radical, The Spokesman, que contaba con el apoyo de la Fundación Russell. Era conocido por hacer algunas profecías absurdas, afirmando que para la década de 1990 no quedaría petróleo en el mundo y que para mediados de la década de 1980, Escocia sería independiente de Inglaterra. Pero Caldwell se encontraba más en su elemento cuando escribía sobre “las fortalezas demostradas del sistema comunista”.
Si bien finalmente se hizo conocido por su apoyo al régimen comunista en Camboya, Pol Pot no fue el único despótico dictador en obtener su aprobación. Caldwell creía que la Corea del Norte de Kim Il-Sung era “un tributo sorprendente no sólo a la energía, la iniciativa y la creatividad del pueblo coreano, sino también a la corrección esencial de la línea Juche”. que había visitado (incluida China) lo había “impresionado” más “en términos de sus logros económicos generales”. En un informe de un viaje que hizo a Corea del Norte.
Caldwell había ido más allá de las críticas vocales contra la guerra de Vietnam; quería que ganara Vietnam del Norte. Dirigió el Centro para la Educación Socialista del Sureste de Londres que organizó un evento en 1966 para recaudar fondos para “la compra de armas” por parte del Vietcong para utilizarlas en “su heroica resistencia a la agresión militar extranjera”. Su pasión por Vietnam del Norte llegó tan lejos que en 1967, Caldwell, junto con el radical Tariq Ali de la década de 1960, estaban considerando abrir un restaurante norvietnamita y se habían acercado a Hanoi, quien “prometió proporcionar un súper chef”.
Puede ser peligroso conocer a nuestros héroes, dependiendo de quiénes sean esos héroes. La historia de Malcolm Caldwell sirve como una gran advertencia… Caldwell fue un académico escocés y un prolífico escritor marxista. Era conocido por ser uno de los simpatizantes occidentales más famosos del movimiento Jemeres Rojos de Pol Pot en Camboya.
Caldwell es uno de los mejores ejemplos de “idiota útil” que uno pueda imaginar: un hombre de libros, dedicado ferozmente a la revolución popular. Este profesor académico estudioso fue uno de los más acérrimos defensores del régimen de Pol Pot. Trató de restar importancia a los informes sobre ejecuciones masivas por parte de los Jemeres Rojos en Camboya y fue ampliamente criticado por su propio país y otros académicos. Finalmente, en 1978, volaría a Camboya para reunirse con su héroe, Pol Pot, en persona…
El 22 de diciembre de 1978, Caldwell tuvo una audiencia privada con Pol Pot. Apenas unas horas más tarde, una hora después de medianoche, el intelectual escocés fue asesinado a tiros en su habitación. ¿Qué le dijo a Pol Pot, a quién insultó, qué terrible paso en falso cometió el mayor fanático occidental de los Jemeres Rojos? Nunca se sabrá. Pero nos enseñó una lección: si tu héroe es un maníaco genocida, no lo conozcas.
PrisioneroEnArgentina.com
Enero 16, 2024
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Like Sigfried and the lion
Caldwell’s fate may have resulted from his failure to read Francois Ponchaud’s “Cambodia Year Zero” which recommended it as “serious and worth reading.
ម្តាយរបស់ខ្ញុំស្ថិតនៅក្នុងស្នូលផ្គត់ផ្គង់សម្រាប់ការវាយលុកនៅឆ្នាំ ’78 ។ ម្តាយរបស់ខ្ញុំមិននិយាយច្រើនទេ ខ្ញុំអាចយល់បានថា គាត់បានឃើញអំពើឃោរឃៅដ៏គួរឱ្យរន្ធត់។ មួយឆ្នាំមុន ប៉ុល ពត បានវាយលុកភូកុក និងថូជូ និងតំបន់មួយចំនួនក្នុងខេត្តជាប់ព្រំដែនកម្ពុជា ដូចជា តៃនិញ ឬហាទៀង។ ពួកគេបានសម្លាប់រង្គាលប្រជាជនវៀតណាមស្ទើរតែទាំងស្រុងនៅកោះថូជូ តាំងពីកុមាររហូតដល់មនុស្សចាស់ ពីបុរសដល់ស្ត្រី មានមនុស្សតិចតួចប៉ុណ្ណោះដែលរត់គេចខ្លួនទាំងរស់។ យើងបានប្រើការទូតគ្រប់បែបយ៉ាង ដើម្បីសុំឱ្យឧក្រិដ្ឋជនបញ្ជូនប្រជាជនយើងមកវិញ ថែមទាំងបញ្ជូនឃាតករ pol pit ឱ្យពួកគេមកវិញ។ យើងបានមើលថែពួកគេគ្រប់ផ្លូវទាំងអស់ពីការមើលមុខរបួសដើម្បីផ្តល់អាហារដល់ពួកគេ (នៅពេលនោះ ម្ហូបអាហារមានតម្លៃណាស់នៅវៀតណាម)។ វាជារឿងគួរឲ្យសោកស្តាយដែលឃើញខ្មែរមួយចំនួនត្រូវបានបង្រៀនពីប្រវត្តិសាស្ត្រខុស ហើយគិតថាយើងជាអ្នកឈ្លានពាន។
Cambodia was rapidly developing after the independence from Colonial France. We had a booming manufactures, great infrastructure, and many of intellectuals who are ready to take the country to catch up many nations and modernize our country. Even Lee Kuan Yew admire our development and call us the Pearl of Asia. Then, the political turmoil came, chaos erupted, and civil war broke out, eventually led to the heinous Pol Pot regime. My family lost 11 relatives due to them being educated and worked for the government. In just a little more than 3 years, Pol Pot sent Cambodia 100 years backward. Many intellectuals was killed, infrastructure destroyed, struggle for power just among other civility problems that Cambodia had. Just to how destructive it was, almost 50 years after, Cambodia is still struggle reach the status it once had. We are getting back on the right track now but it was nowhere near before the Khmer Rouge Regime.
I was stationed in Cambodia for a time and the scars are still there. A foreign filmmaker was abducted and murdered for asking the wrong questions, and every couple of weeks in the local newspapers, they report some poor kid got his leg blown off from a mine or bomb dropped during the Vietnam War from the US. Extremely sad recent history, incredible people and friends I made, and the global community failed Cambodia during this period.
I Visited Cambodia a few years ago: S21 prison is preserved as a museum and the cells still have the blood stains on the walls from people tortured there.- The Killing Fields are gut wrenching. They stopped exhuming them as it was crippling the minds of the diggers, they wait for rain to bring them to the surface and only move the bones then.- These pits are strewn with the clothes people were executed in, and their skulls were put in the middle to show the toll. – Most were beaten rather than shot to keep the later victims calm – The only pit without clothes was one where all the bodies were women. The suffering that place has seen is unimaginable.
I’m the daughter of a Cambodian mother who made it out of the genocide alive, unlike so many, including my own uncles and grandfathers. It’s truly heartbreaking what they went through. Took me years to understand the gravity of what they had experienced. What they went through continues to impact them and their loved ones, even today. Many of my family members were able to make it out alive, but they still live with repressed trauma and pain that they passed onto the younger generation, myself included. I am still mourning what they went through but amazed by their strength. They came to a foreign world with no connections, no knowledge of English, but somehow managed to build a comfortable life for our family. Thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to learn about Cambodia and it’s history. If you know a Khmer person, get to know them…ask to hear their story and listen. We may seem a bit closed off and awkward at first (learned that in order to keep ourselves/family safe) but once you gain our trust, we will share more and more about ourselves and welcome you as family.
When someone talks about something they don’t know about, it is called “ignorance” or “ignorant speculation”. Alternatively, the Dunning Kruger effect refers to people who constantly express opinions about topics they know nothing about as if they were experts. That was Caldwell, a coffee talker.
If you somehow didn’t think that Pol Pot was already a monster, this man never faced justice as he was never arrested. In an interview after the regime, he stated that he regretted nothing as he was simply experimenting with the country. As such, he was hoping he could orchestrate a second revolution. All of this said with a soft voice deprived of any remorse or sorrow for the country he single-handedly brought down on its knees.
Can’t fight stupidity. Caldwell, like everyone, got what they deserved.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice,” [Evil] can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I come from a part of the world where Communists pretty much did the same, taking as many “allies” as possible to defeat the Fascists, and then, at the end of the war, for a couple of decades, hunted down most of these “temporary allies” as they were deemed “unfit” for and “enemies” of the Revolution (priests, seminarians, partisans who used to not side with Communism, etc); my grandmother was friend with some of those folks.
But while I came to hate Communism, at the same time I learnt to not trust any other ideology as well, because, to a degree or another, they are all the same…they put “the ideal” over the reality of this world, this Vale of Tears, and thus I cannot tolerate them.
Almost every “green” party has people that loved the Khmer rouge every socialist esque party has people that or still do advocate for USSR or cultural revolution/great leap forward China. But people that associate with anything right compared to yesteryear is suspect of doing roman salutes.
When you convince yourself that your ideology can and more importantly will make the world better by every metric, possibly even achieve a perfect utopia, you can and will commit any evil to see it done, and you can and will be blinded to the fact that your utopia never comes, and that all you wrought was destruction in its name.
Hollywood needs to make a dark comedy about his life
Gary Oldman or Jeff Goldblum as Caldwell?
Pol Pot Was the result of French university education.
Messed up. It’s pretty obvious that Pol Pot never had any intention of letting Caldwell go. He just wanted a “moment” like the old dude in Squid Game. So he poured his heart out and then it was over.
He got what it was obvious…
It is easy to talk seating on your mommy’s lap. Then, he faced reality.
Most people who are pro-socialist or pro-communist have absolutely no idea what the Khmer Rouge was.
Pol pot kill Malcom because he was afraid Malcom would go back to UK and let the world know about genocide and someone will come and overthrow the Khmer Rouge
He was killed by thing he loved the most. Huh, how ironic is that
Idiotas utiles hay a parvadas.