Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Photographs
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by John Pilger
- Foreword by Gavan McCormack
- Introduction
- 1 The Atomic Plague [1945]
- 2 With Mick Griffith to the Plaine des Lacs [1941]
- 3 Who is Wingate Anyway? [1944]
- 4 The Trial of Cardinal Mindszenty [1951]
- 5 Liberty in Eastern Europe [1951]
- 6 The Microbe War [1953]
- 7 Koje Unscreened [1953]
- 8 The Ball-Point Pen Murders [1954]
- 9 South of the 17th Parallel [1955]
- 10 Front-Line Village [1959]
- 11 Welcome Home [1961]
- 12 Gagarin: The First Interview with Western Journalists [1961]
- 13 Virgin Lands [1962]
- 14 Lilac and Outer Space [1962]
- 15 War Against Trees [1963]
- 16 The Tragedy of South Vietnam's Ethnic Minorities [1964]
- 17 Interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap (April 13, 1964)
- 18 A Fortified Hamlet [1965]
- 19 Patriots & Mercenaries [1965]
- 20 At Ground Level [1966]
- 21 A Spurned Olive Branch [1967/1977]
- 22 Personal Leader [1968]
- 23 The Tet of Peace [1973/1977]
- 24 ‘Something from Nothing’ Township [1976]
- 25 Evaluating the Past [1976]
- 26 Mercenaries: British Export Model [1977]
- 27 The Geneva Conference [1978]
- 28 How to be a Good Khmer Rouge [1981]
- 29 China Prepares to Attack Vietnam [1981]
- 30 Afterword [1983]
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
29 - China Prepares to Attack Vietnam [1981]
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Photographs
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by John Pilger
- Foreword by Gavan McCormack
- Introduction
- 1 The Atomic Plague [1945]
- 2 With Mick Griffith to the Plaine des Lacs [1941]
- 3 Who is Wingate Anyway? [1944]
- 4 The Trial of Cardinal Mindszenty [1951]
- 5 Liberty in Eastern Europe [1951]
- 6 The Microbe War [1953]
- 7 Koje Unscreened [1953]
- 8 The Ball-Point Pen Murders [1954]
- 9 South of the 17th Parallel [1955]
- 10 Front-Line Village [1959]
- 11 Welcome Home [1961]
- 12 Gagarin: The First Interview with Western Journalists [1961]
- 13 Virgin Lands [1962]
- 14 Lilac and Outer Space [1962]
- 15 War Against Trees [1963]
- 16 The Tragedy of South Vietnam's Ethnic Minorities [1964]
- 17 Interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap (April 13, 1964)
- 18 A Fortified Hamlet [1965]
- 19 Patriots & Mercenaries [1965]
- 20 At Ground Level [1966]
- 21 A Spurned Olive Branch [1967/1977]
- 22 Personal Leader [1968]
- 23 The Tet of Peace [1973/1977]
- 24 ‘Something from Nothing’ Township [1976]
- 25 Evaluating the Past [1976]
- 26 Mercenaries: British Export Model [1977]
- 27 The Geneva Conference [1978]
- 28 How to be a Good Khmer Rouge [1981]
- 29 China Prepares to Attack Vietnam [1981]
- 30 Afterword [1983]
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When he finally entered Cambodia – after the Vietnamese ‘invaded’ Cambodia and overthrew the Pol Pot regime – Burchett witnessed the full extent of the horror and the complicity of China. Instead of peace in his beloved Indochina there were mass graves, and his two ‘best friends’, China and Vietnam, were at war. Nothing in his decades of reporting had prepared him for this. He simply did not see it coming, and here lies one of his greatest journalistic failures.
This was the time he resigned from the New York National Guardian, at the time his only means of material support, because they were toeing the Chinese line and refusing to publish his articles denouncing China's role in the tragedy of Cambodia. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Khmer Rouge crimes against humanity, the US, UK, France, China and other countries backed the Pol Pot regime against the Vietnamese-installed government of Kampuchea. Burchett took the side of Vietnam and was ostracised by many of his friends on the Left and in China. The following chapter's description of life in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City demonstrates his convictions about the pernicious influence of China on their neighbour to the south.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rebel JournalismThe Writings of Wilfred Burchett, pp. 296 - 302Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007