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In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare

by Lachlan Peters
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Latest episodes

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  • 1972 - Life (and Death) in the Liberated Zones. Regrets for the Khmer Soul and M-13

    January 4, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min

    In 1972 a Phnom Penh schools inspector named Ith Sarin spent nine months inside Khmer Rouge territory and came back to write about it. Around the same time a French scholar named Francois Bizot spent three months chained in a jungle camp…

  • Chenla II: Lon Nol Strikes Out

    August 11, 2025 · 1 hr 37 min

    In February 1971 Lon Nol suffered a stroke and was flown to Hawaii to recover. Many hoped he would not come back. He did, and by December the army under his command had suffered a defeat on Route 6 from which it never recovered. Time…

  • S3: (Bonus) A Brief History of the Thai Cambodian Border Dispute

    July 25, 2025 · 32 min

    Hello everyone, I've put together a quick look at the long history of the Thai Cambodia border dispute to compliment what I'm sure many of you are reading and watching in newspapers and on television. The escalation is far from good, and I…

  • The Khmer Republic: The Lon Nol Line and Operation Chenla I

    June 15, 2025 · 60 min

    In late 1970 the Khmer Republic launched its first major offensive of the war, an attempt to reopen Route 6 and relieve the town of Kompong Thom. It was the first test of whether Lon Nol's army could actually fight. Time Period Covered…

  • Pol Pot Rises

    April 13, 2025 · 1 hr 28 min

    On April 3rd, 1970, a former maths teacher named Kaing Guek Eav walked out of prison in the general amnesty that followed the coup. He is better known as Duch. Within a year he would be running a jungle prison called M-13, and within five…

  • The Invasion (Part Two): Nixon's Cambodian Incursion

    January 26, 2025 · 1 hr 45 min

    On April 30th, 1970, Richard Nixon went on television to announce that American and South Vietnamese troops were crossing into Cambodia. He called it an incursion, not an invasion, and promised it would be brief. Within a week four…

  • The Invasion (Part One): Counting Bodies Floating Down the Mekong

    January 13, 2025 · 1 hr 22 min

    In April 1970, bodies began drifting down the Mekong into South Vietnam. They were ethnic Vietnamese civilians, killed by the forces of a Cambodian government that had held power for a matter of weeks. The new regime had declared war on an…

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About the show

A comprehensive, long-form history podcast about Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot Regime.