Bibliographical Essay
For a general overview of the Cambodian genocide within its historical context, begin with David Chandler, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
See also Michael Vickery, Cambodia, 1975-1982 (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1984); Craig Etcheson, The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984); Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996); Alexander L. Hinton, Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005). More detailed accounts of the rise of the Communist Party in Cambodia include Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power: A History of Communism in Kampuchea, 1930-1975 (London: Verso, 1985) and Steven Heder, Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamese Model: Imitation and Independence, 1930-1975 (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2004). More broadly, for overviews of the conflicts leading up to the Cambodian genocide, specifically the Cambodian civil war (1970-5), see Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); Wilfred P. Deac, Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997); William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002).On more specific aspects of the Cambodian genocide, see David Chandler, Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); Peg LeVine, Love and Dread in Cambodia: Weddings, Births, and Ritual Harm under the Khmer Rouge (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2010); Ian Harris, Buddhism under Pol Pot (Phnom Penh: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 2007); Boraden Nhem, The Khmer Rouge: Ideology, Militarism, and the Revolution that Consumed a Generation (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013).
On foreign relations and Cambodia, see Odd Arne Westad and Sophie Quinn-Judge (eds.), The Third Indochina War: Conflict between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-79 (London: Routlege, 2006); Kenton Clymer, Troubled Relations: The United States and Cambodia since 1870 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007); Andrew Mertha, Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014).There are a number of accounts written from the perspective of journalists who covered the events, including Elizabeth Becker, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (New York: Public Affairs, 1986); Nayan Chanda, Brother Enemy: The War after the War (New York: Collier Books, 1986); Henry Kamm, Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land (New York: Arcade, 1998).
Overall there is a dearth of biographies written about the main perpetrators. Two now exist on Pol Pot, including David Chandler's Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, rev. edn (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999) and Philip Short's Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare (New York: Henry Holt, 2004). For accounts of Kaing Guek Eav, commandant of S-21 security-centre, see Nic Dunlop, The Lost Executioner: A Journey to the Heart of the Killing Fields (New York: Walker, 2005) and Thierry Cruvellier, The Master of Confessions: The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer (New York: Ecco, 2011). There are many autobiographies written by survivors; see for example Someth May, Cambodian Witness: The Autobiography of Someth May (London: Faber & Faber, 1986) and Loung Ung, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (New York: Harper Perennial, 2000).
There are a growing number of books that have explored Cambodia after the genocide. For a discussion on the conflict between Vietnam, China and Cambodia after the genocide, see Stephen J. Morris, Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999).
For more general accounts, see Craig Etcheson, After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005); Evan Gottesman, Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge: Inside the Politics of Nation Building (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003); Margaret Slocomb, The People's Republic of Kampuchea, 1979-1989: The Revolution after Pol Pot (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2003); Peter Maguire, Facing Death in Cambodia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005). Many books are now appearing on the Cambodian genocide tribunal; see for example Tom Fawthrop and Helen Jarvis, Getting Away with Genocide? Elusive Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (London: Pluto Press, 2004) and John D. Ciorciari and Anne Heindel (eds.), On Trial: The Khmer Rouge Accountability Process (Phnom Penh: Documentation Center of Cambodia). For discussions on the memorialisation of the Cambodian genocide, see Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012) and James A. Tyner, Landscape, Memory, and Post-Violence in Cambodia (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).