First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 42, October 30, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Earlier this month, leng Sary, the Deputy Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), invited United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to pay a visit to Kampuchea. We strongly urge Mr. Waldheim to accept the invitation and make a trip to Kampuchea soon.
Kampuchea is a newly-liberated country which is struggling to repair the damage of the devastating U.S. war of aggression there and build up a new socialist society. Because the Kampuchean people have made such a far-reaching revolution, and because Democratic Kampuchea refuses to take orders from any foreign power, the imperialists and reactionaries the world over have grown frightened and dismayed about the situation there.
From Washington and Moscow alike, a flood of denunciations of the Kampuchean revolution have been unleashed. Imperialism has launched a massive propaganda war designed to convince international public opinion that the revolution in Kampuchea is something terrible and grotesque, rather than the great experience of liberation that it has been for the masses of people.
Tales of “forced labor” and “genocide” have been used in the U.S. as a pretext for threatening aggression against Kampuchea, as Senator McGovern did in August. The same fraudulent propaganda is used by Vietnam which, following the Soviet Union’s dictates, is massing hundreds of thousands of troops on Kampuchea’s borders with the stated aim of toppling the Kampuchean government.
The slander campaign against Kampuchea has also j been carried to the floor of the United Nations by several countries who have urged the UN to “take action” against Kampuchea. Under these circumstances, it is especially important that Mr. Waldheim make this visit to- Kampuchea and see the situation for himself.
Politicians and newsmen in the U.S. are constantly lamenting the fact that they can’t get any “first-hand information” about the situation inside Kampuchea. This is their excuse for regurgitating fabricated “refugee accounts“ and passing them off as “the truth.” Naturally, the press has, for the most part, chosen to ignore the first-hand reports published by the Call journalists who visited Kampuchea in April. They have similarly chosen to ignore the reports of Japanese economists, Swedish diplomats, Yugoslav journalists, Belgian professors, Thai businessmen and a host of other recent visitors to Kampuchea who have all affirmed that the Kampuchean people appear well fed, well cared for, politically united and supportive of the new government.
It will be somewhat harder to ignore a report from Mr. Waldheim. That is why we encourage him to go, and go soon. Hopefully, such a visit will help spread more of the truth about the revolution in Kampuchea.