Chhang Song

The 1st of April is often referred to as April Fool’s Day. It’s expected that someone will be fooling someone else. What is providential for me is that April Fool’s Day of this year fell on a Tuesday. In 1975, Tuesday April 1 was the date I left Cambodia with President Lon Nol as the Khmer Rouge pressed their ferocious attacks against Phnom Penh from all directions. It was some 15 years before I could return to Phnom Penh. During that time, more than two million people in Cambodia died.

The March 18, 1970, overthrow of Cambodia’s head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, continues to be on my mind to this day and has kept me busy sorting out information for the past 45 years.