15 For details, see Kiernan, HPP, pp. 159ff. See also Great Britain, Public Records Office, FO 371/117126-117127, reports from British Legation in Phnom Penh, 1955; and author’s interviews with Keng Vannsak (November 1986) and Thonn Ouk (May 1987).

16 Justin Corfield (personal communication) examined the original (not microform) copies of Cambodge in this period and discovered that the first published results of the election showed that the Sangkum had lost five seats. Before the edition was circulated, these results were “corrected” to a unanimous victory by pasting a slip of paper with other figures over the original results. Nuon Chea, “History,” wrote of the 1955 elections that those who voted for the Pracheachon were “arrested and imprisoned and their wives had to sell rice and land to find the money to get their husbands released. Some people had their stomachs cut open and their eyes stabbed with bayonets.”

17 Pol Pot, “Long Live the 17th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea,” speech delivered September 29, 1977 (English translation; Chicago, 1977), p. 22. Steve Heder has pointed out that these “repressive tools” were supposedly to be swept aside by the revolution. See also Vorn Vet’s confession, pp. 3-5, where he stated that the results of the election “demoralized” him.

18 See author’s interviews with Lim Keuky (November 1997), Chea Samy (October 1990), Suon Kaset Sokho (June 1990), Chheam Van (November 1987), Pel Nal (January 1990), and You Sambo (July 1989). Some sources asserted that Ponnary was a dedicated revolutionary; others doubted that she was ever a party member. Siet Chhae in his confession said that Ponnary brought him into the Cambodian Communist party in 1959.

19 From author’s interview with You Sambo (July 1989). The phrase s’aat s‘om also cropped up in my interview with Ith Sarin (November 1988), when he spoke of his admiration for Cambodian radicalism in the 1960s. The term was also used to describe the uncorrupted Communist society promised by the revolution (see Tiv Ol’s confession, 1977). S’aat s‘om translates into French as propre (Alain Daniel, personal communication).

20 On the foundation of Kambuj’bot, see author’s interview with Thonn Ouk. Among the Communists who taught there were Ieng Sary, Hou Youn, and Khieu Samphan. Chamraon Vichea was located in a set of humble buildings near the Lycée Yukhanthor, not far from Tuol Sleng. I am grateful to Sok Pirun and Om Narong for information about it.

21 From author’s interview with Chhay Yat.

22 From author’s interview with Soth Polin (October 1988) and from Polin’s letter to author (November 1989). See also Polin’s “La Diabolique douceur de Pol Pot.”

23 From author’s interview with Om Narong (March 1991). Narong’s older brother told him in the 1960s that it was “inevitable” that Cambodia turn Communist, although he was not a radical himself. Still another former student, who prefers anonymity, remembered Sar’s geography classes as “prudent and conscientious,” adding that Khieu Ponnary had a reputation at the time of being far more categorical and intolerant than her husband (author’s interview, January 1992).