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Malcolm Caldwell

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The Resume

    (September 27, 1931-December 23, 1978)
    Born in Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom
    Birth name was James Alexander Malcolm Caldwell
    Academic and journalist
    Research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London
    Chaired the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1968-70)
    Founded the 'Journal of Contemporary Asia' (1970)
    Co-wrote 'Cambodia in the Southeast Asian War' (1973), 'Marx and the Third World' (1977), and 'The Wealth of Some Nations' (1977)
    With two Americans, became the first Western journalists invited to Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge took power (1978)
    Was murdered several hours after interviewing Pol Pot

Why he might be annoying:

    He held a fundraiser to buy weapons for the Vietcong (1966).
    After a tour of North Korea, he declared that no other country impressed him more 'in terms of its all-around economic achievements.'
    He dismissed reports of mass killings in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge as exaggerated if not completely made up.
    He said any executions by the regime had been of 'arch-Quislings.'
    He called the mass evacuation of Phnom Penh -- in which hundreds of thousands of people died before even reaching the notorious 'killing fields' -- 'a well-thought-out operation to feed its starving people.'
    He wrote that the Khmer Rouge victory 'opened vistas of hope not only for the people of Cambodia, but also for the people of all other poor Third World nations.'
    Bernard Levin noted, 'Something in Dr Caldwell needs to believe that Cambodia under the genocidal dictatorship of the Khmer Rouge is Kampuchea under democracy. Whatever that need is, it is stronger than the facts and more tenacious than the evidence..'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was well-liked by his students.
    Colleagues described him as naive.
    Two of the soldiers guarding the journalists admitted to the killing, but since their confessions were obtained through torture, no one knows for sure if they were the actual killers or convenient scapegoats.
    The motive for killing him is uncertain.
    Popular guesses include: it was ordered by Pol Pot, who planned to blame the killing on Vietnam; it was done by a rival Khmer Rouge faction to embarrass the Pol Pot's ruling faction; it was done by Vietnamese commandos to highlight the Khmer Rouge's incompetence. And, just for completeness, Pol Pot's theory: one of the American journalists was a CIA agent who killed Caldwell to make the Khmer Rouge look bad.

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 136 Votes: 45.59% Annoying