Kampuchea Will Be Victorious (sound)

[Music] God [Music] These scenes of Cambodia were shot by a delegation of the Canadian Communist League Marxist Leninist which visited the country from the 23rd to the 30th. of December [Music] 1978. Cambodia's real name is Democratic Campuchia. We were the first Canadians to visit Campuchia, a small socialist country in Southeast Asia with a population of 8 million. Just a couple of days after our visit, 100,000 Vietnamese soldiers led and heavily armed by the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the [Music] country. They attacked with Mig 21 and Mig 23 jets, aided by 4,000 Soviet advisers, Russian bomber pilots, and East German tank commanders. The Campuchin people drove out American imperialism in April 1975. Now they confront the other superpower, the USSR, in its attempt to control Southeast Asia. But throughout our trip, we saw that the Campuchians are ready to put up an unrelenting resistance to Vietnamese and Soviet domination. Just several days before the invasion, we traveled up to 5 kilometers from the southern battlefield. There we saw how the soldiers of the Campian army and the peasants were prepared for an all-out defense of their socialist [Music] homeland. We traveled over a thousand kilometers through six provinces, stopping all along the way to talk to the peasants. When we met with Paul Pot, prime minister of the country and general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchia on December 29th and during our long talks with Yangsari, the minister of foreign affairs. We were struck by the leader's confidence in the victory of their people. An aggressor is never strong. Yangire said, "We will win because the people are with us." Right now, Paul Pot and Yen Sari are with the people in the countryside leading resistance to the Vietnamese invasion. The Western press has launched a continuous campaign of slander against Kampuchia, talking of famine and massacres. But these famine and massacres were in the past the work of American bombs. Today, it is the Vietnamese soldiers and Russian bombs that spread misery and death. This old peasant told us of the changes he had seen since liberation. He has retired and his food, lodging, and clothing are all provided for by the cooperative. In 3 years of socialism, the people have achieved a great deal and they are determined to defend it. To understand the deep roots and wide support the Campian government has among the people, one has to realize how far the people have come in rebuilding their country from the ruins left by the Americans. All along route number six that took us northwest from Nenen to CM Riap. We could see the craters left by the American bombs, the forests that were destroyed, and the houses that were leveled. The United States dropped 5,000 tons of bombs every day on the country, killing 800,000 people, close to 10% of the population. In 1973, for 200 days and nights, B-52s continuously bombarded the [Music] country. This is all that is left, for example, of the high school in the town of Skoon. Once a city of 50,000 people, now completely [Music] level. Our guides told us that at first the people were terrorized by the bombing, but they learned how to protect themselves by digging foxholes and counterattacking. They became so skillful that with rifles alone they were able to bring down planes and helicopters everywhere. We could see the effects of the war. 50% of the livestock killed 70% of the rubber trees [Music] napal. These war stories showed us the strength of a people that fight for their freedom. At the beginning, the revolutionary army only had old rifles. But it had the support of the people and it defeated the American arsenal. On this battlefield, close to a thousand revolutionary fighters gave their lives to liberate the Ankorwatak region and defend these monuments of Ankorwat, part of the national treasure of Campuchia. [Music] [Applause] When Campuchia was liberated, April 17th, 1975, a people whose culture dates back centuries at last had their national dignity [Music] restored. The detailed carvings at Ankorwak describe the people's history. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Now the three towers of Ankoret are on the flag of Democrat At Campuchia, a symbol of a liberated [Music] nation. When the liberation forces marched into the capital city of Nen on April 17th, one of the first tasks they undertook was the careful and safe evacuation of the city. Everyone attacking Campuchia presents the city's evacuation as a crime. But let's look at the facts. From the military point of view, an immediate threat to the city came from the Americans. Even one year after liberation, the US bombed the city of Samri. It was only in the middle of 1977 that the US resigned itself to its defeat in Campia. Since then, the Vietnamese and Soviets became the main threat to Campuchia's independence. The Campuchians foresaw an eventual invasion. By evacuating Nen, they now have the Vietnamese occupying an empty city while people's wars being waged in the [Music] countryside. This is the American embassy. When the Americans were defeated, they were forced to abandon it. But they left behind a whole network of CIA agents in the city. [Music] The destruction of the National Bank of Campia is an example of the CIA sabotage. They had planted explosives in the bank and they blew it up 2 days after the city was liberated. So on the political level, the evacuation of the city broke up these networks of agents and thwarted all their plans. After the evacuation, the Campo discovered numerous stockpiles of arms and detailed American plans for a coup [Music] d'eta. Nonpen was not left a ghost town. When we visited, several thousand people were working on going to schools there, keeping the city neat and clean. The evacuation was also necessary for economic reasons. Of the 3.1 million inhabitants, over 2.5 million were refugee peasants forced off their land by the American bombing. 300 people were dying of hunger [Music] daily. The evacuation of the people to the countryside where there was food ensured their survival. Cooperatives were set up in the liberated zones. They were ready to welcome, feed, and house the population of Nen. The majority of the population of democratic Auchia, 85% of whom are peasants, belong to cooperatives. It's within these cooperatives that the Communist Party organizes the rebuilding and defense of the country. [Music] [Music] The planting, harvesting and threshing of rice that we see here is done collectively. Women participate fully in all aspects of the work. Each cooperative is autonomous, self-sufficient in rice, and capable of providing its own defense. The peasants in each cooperative have formed guerilla squads. As Paul Pot told us, the cooperatives guarantee that we can wage a war of national defense for a long period by relying on our own forces. Everywhere the army participates fully in agriculture. It's a people's army. As a soldier said, in our country, the army works like the people and the people fight like the army. The soldiers and the peasants united in common efforts have transformed the agriculture of their country. The key to this transformation is the vast system of irrigation projects. The peasants and soldiers built floodgates and dug canals for this reservoir to bring the water far into the interior and irrigate the land. With water we have rice and with rice we have everything. The Campuchians say the irrigation work in the past 3 years is impressive. In 1977 over a third of the country's agricultural land was in production thanks to irrigation. The January 1st dam is another example of the remarkable achievements. It was named to commemorate the launching of the final offensive against the Americans in January 1975. The imperialist had always said that it was impossible to build a dam here. After liberation, the party mobilized 20,000 people to build it in 5 months with almost no machinery. Throughout the country, the peasants have built small irrigation works such as this dam in the CM Reap Co-op, which irrigates 7,000 acres and provides fish for the entire co-op. Irrigation plays a vital role in a country like Campuchia, where two seasons, a rainy season and a dry season, bring the double danger of floods and droughts. Now under socialism, for the first time in years, the Campuchans have been able to harvest two crops a year. As our guide said, these vast expanses of green are the pride of our people. These are the new sprouts of the dry season that will be harvested in June. Peasants like this woman who lived in Nen before liberation explained Before there was always famine, but now we are assured of 312 kg of rice per year for every one of us. This is quite a change from the past when poor peasants ate rice for only 4 months and had to get by on roots and wild plants for the rest of the year. Thanks to the collective efforts and organization into co-ops, the Campuchian peasants, in contrast with Vietnam, were able to overcome the floods of 1978, the worst to hit the region in the past 70 years. 50,000 acres in the northeastern part of the country were flooded. The party called on other cooperatives to increase their land under cultivation. 70,000 new acres were planted. The surplus was enough to feed the entire population. But in Vietnam, it was a different story because its leaders did not organize the reconstruction of the country since liberation. Today, in attacking Campuchia, the leaders will try to make off with Campuchian rice as they did in 1977. That's why during our trip everywhere we saw peasants hurrying to bring in the harvest to store rice and arms before the Vietnamese attack they foresaw for the month of January. [Music] The tremendous advances in agriculture has meant that Campuchia even has enough rice for export. Now its children are healthy. Nowhere do we see the signs of malnutrition. The bloated belly so common in other third world [Music] countries. The people since 1975 have also turned their country into a huge construction site. When you realize that 90% of the houses were destroyed by the war, you can well imagine the efforts the people made to provide decent housing for all. This house, for example, was rebuilt from ruins. At the Angor cooperative we visited, every family had its own wooden house elevated from the ground to prevent flood damage. This is a great improvement from the straw huts many peasants had before liberation. Each family has a plot of land around their house to grow their own garden. [Music] Step by step, the people are developing the riches of their country. This woman is boiling silkworm cocoons. The silk will be used to make clothes for the people in the co-op. In small workshops like these in all the cooperatives, the Campines make tools, agricultural equipment, construction materials, and clothing. They rely on local raw materials. Slowly, the factories that were destroyed during the war are being rebuilt, but the economy remains mainly an agricultural one with the beginnings of light industry. [Music] This big house is the community hall of the cooperative. It serves as a dining hall, classroom, meeting hall, and cultural center. It's here that the peasants meet to collectively decide upon the work of the co-op. Around 4:30 when the peasants stopped working in the fields, this group came to play traditional musical instruments for us. [Music] The medical team we met explained that teams like theirs, there is about one team for every 100 families, had eliminated more than 80% of the malaria throughout the cooperatives. This makes Campuchia one of the few third book countries that has beaten this disease. This is the kitchen crew that was preparing a meal of fish, rice, vegetables, and food for the peasants of the [Music] cooperative. Everywhere we went, we saw the children taking part in the rebuilding of their country. These youngsters explained that they worked in the fields from 7 to 10 in the morning, rested from 10 to 2, and went to school from 2 until 5:00 in the afternoon. The Western press has claimed that children in Campia were mistreated. Donald Jameson, the Canadian Minister of External Affairs, violently attacked Campuchia at the UN, claiming that there were mass executions and attacks on human rights in the country. In the name of these same human rights, many of these girls saw their parents killed by American bombs, their houses destroyed four or five times. In the name of these same human rights, under the pretext of liberating the people, these children have seen their country invaded by Vietnam and the USSR. But for 3 years, under the Paul Pot government, these children, like all working people, had finally seen their human rights respected for the first time, the very right to live and the right to control the destiny of their country. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Many young people chosen by their cooperative were sent to this technical school in Nonen for a six-month course. When we visited, 300 girls and 400 boys from 13 to 23 years of age were attending the school. Before liberation, the campans were not even allowed to enter the school. It was only for foreigners. Now for half a day, the students get practical training on machines. They work on motors, machine tools, sheet metal, and learn about electricity. The rest of the day, they learn to read and write. They study the history of their country, the people struggle against American imperialism, and the party's line on the defense and building of socialism. When they go back home, these children know how to turn bomb shrapnel into agricultural machinery, how to make pipes out of old tin cans, how to rebuild motors such as the one used in this ferry boat. They will share what they've learned with other children in the co-ops. But in contrast to the Communist Party of Campuchia, the Vietnamese leaders did not make their people's welfare a priority. In a camp of Vietnamese refugees very close to the border, people gathered around us to explain why they had fled Vietnam. These people are from the Camair or Campuchian nationality, one of the national minorities in southern Vietnam. There are more than 4 million chimera in Vietnam. This man explained that in Vietnam the people are suffering from famine and persecution from their leaders. After his house had been burned to the ground, he spent more than 3 months walking to this camp. [Music] This woman fled with her six children. Her husband had been forced to enlist in the Vietnamese army. The old man is showing us the knife wounds inflicted on him by a Vietnamese soldier. The Campuchans welcomed these refugees and gave them this village. As they explained, despite the Soviet support, Vietnam is weak because the people do not approve of the aggression against Campuchia. And many are rebelling against their leadership. National minorities have taken up arms to defend themselves. The desertion rate in some army divisions is more than 20%. The Vietnamese leaders have betrayed their people. They have sold out their country's independence to the Soviet Union, transforming Vietnam into an aggressor. To control and dominate the region into what they call an Indo-Chinese federation, Hanoi's leaders have resorted to military attacks and occupations. The big Vietnamese push into Campuchia in early January came from the southeast. A few days before on December 28th, we went into this region to the southern part of Takio province, 5 km from the border. There we met Comrade Wang, son of a poor peasant family, a party member and commander at the front. These soldiers took part in the war against the Americans and last year in 17 days they drove back the Vietnamese army that had penetrated 25 km into Campuchia. [Music] Like all of the commanders in Campuchia, Carm Wang is responsible for both the fighting and the production in his region. He showed us rice fields cultivated by the peasants little more than a kilometer from the front. We have more than 700 km of common border with the Vietnamese. He said their aggression is not going to stop us from farming this land at all times. The peasants are ready to drop their farm tools and pick up a gun. In the background, in the bushes, the Campuchin artillery is hidden, ready for a counterattack. These peasants are returning from their fields to their cooperatives. Members of a mobile production brigade, they can rapidly become a gorilla squad. Brigades like these are found in all cooperatives. Not just the army, but the entire people are ready to confront an aggression. Backing up the regular army soldiers are two other levels of armed forces in Campia. The smaller regional forces can cut communication lines and capture arms. In addition, the guerilla squads of 20 people or so can harass the enemy by laying bamboo traps and planting mines. Now, the Vietnamese occupation troops are trapped in empty cities. In the countryside, no road, no field is safe ground for them. [Music] Already squads block their tanks by cutting off roads and destroying bridges. Hardly a month after sending 100,000 soldiers into Campuchia, Vietnam has been forced to rush in an additional 50,000 as reinforcement. [Music] From all reports, it appears that Commander Wang is accomplishing his tasks well. Since February, a good part of the Takio region has been in the hands of the liberation forces. The unity between the peasants and the Campuchian army means that an occupier once inside the country can never rest. The Campuchans today are ready to fight the same kind of people's war they waged so successfully against the Americans. For example, this is all that is left of the bridge that linked NEN to the whole northeastern part of the country. The bridge was a vital part of the American supply route. It was super protected, flood lit at night, surrounded by electrified nets that even went down to the riverbed in order to stop torpedoes and kill any divers that might attack it. Everyone who used it was [Music] searched, but the underground of the Communist Party blew it up in 1973. They prepared a delivery truck with a false bottom filled with explosives. In the middle of the bridge, they stalled the truck. The guard started shouting in anger that no vehicle was allowed to stop on the bridge. The young driver said, "Okay, okay, I'll go get a mechanic." Everything had been timed to the last second so that just as he reached the exit off the bridge, the truck exploded, cutting off another key route for the American aggressors. In 1975, when Nonpen was liberated, the revolutionary forces once again outwitted the enemy's plans. They attacked from all four sides, north, south, west, and east, from across the Meong River. Because of the river, the Americans had not foreseen an attack from this side. Under the cover of night, the divisions of the revolutionary army swam across the river and surprised the enemy from behind. This was a major contribution to the liberation of the city. In December 1977, the people were called upon to push back the first major Vietnamese offensive into their country. In addition to the American tanks we see here, Russian tanks and arms were captured from the Vietnamese. Paul Pot and Yangsari explained to us the importance of Kampuchia's struggle. By blocking the expansionist plans of the Soviet superpower in Southeast Asia, the Campuchian people are helping all of the world's peoples. The Campuchians today are the most determined obstacle to Soviet domination in this region. Their struggle slows down the Soviet social imperialist preparations for a world war. The Campuchin people refuse to be crushed by the B-52s and the American bombs. And they will not be crushed by the MiGs and the bombs of the Soviets. The Campuchian people are a proud and determined people. A people who have rebuilt their country from ruins with their bare hands. A people who for the first time control the destiny of their country. A people who will never stop fighting until they have liberated their country once again. The people's war has begun. The people's war will win. [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.