Bad Lieutenants
Bad Lieutenants is a riveting account of how the Khmer Rouge remained a force to be reckoned with even after the fall of Democratic Kampuchea—and of the men behind the movement's strange durability. In 1979, the Vietnamese army seized Phnom Penh, toppling Pol Pot's notoriously brutal regime. Ye...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Cornell University Press
2025
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| Online Access: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/101394 |
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| _version_ | 1869522363021787136 |
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| author | Mertha, Andrew |
| author_browse | Mertha, Andrew |
| author_facet | Mertha, Andrew |
| author_sort | Mertha, Andrew |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Bad Lieutenants is a riveting account of how the Khmer Rouge remained a force to be reckoned with even after the fall of Democratic Kampuchea—and of the men behind the movement's strange durability.
In 1979, the Vietnamese army seized Phnom Penh, toppling Pol Pot's notoriously brutal regime. Yet the Khmer Rouge did not disintegrate. Instead, the movement continued to rule over swathes of Cambodia for almost another two decades even as it failed to become a legitimate governing organization.
Andrew Mertha argues that the Khmer Rouge's successes and failures were both driven by a refusal to dilute its revolutionary vision. Rather than take the moderate tack required for viable governance, it pivoted between only two political strategies: united front and class struggle. Through the stories of three key leaders—Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Ta Mok—Mertha tracks the movement's shifting from one strategy to the other until its dissolution in the 1990s.
Vividly written and deeply researched, Bad Lieutenants reveals the powerful grip political ideology can have over the survival of insurgent movements. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-159204 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Cornell University Press |
| publisherStr | Cornell University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1592042025-05-15T04:33:29Z Bad Lieutenants Mertha, Andrew Cambodian Insurgency, Civil War, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Ta Mok Bad Lieutenants is a riveting account of how the Khmer Rouge remained a force to be reckoned with even after the fall of Democratic Kampuchea—and of the men behind the movement's strange durability. In 1979, the Vietnamese army seized Phnom Penh, toppling Pol Pot's notoriously brutal regime. Yet the Khmer Rouge did not disintegrate. Instead, the movement continued to rule over swathes of Cambodia for almost another two decades even as it failed to become a legitimate governing organization. Andrew Mertha argues that the Khmer Rouge's successes and failures were both driven by a refusal to dilute its revolutionary vision. Rather than take the moderate tack required for viable governance, it pivoted between only two political strategies: united front and class struggle. Through the stories of three key leaders—Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Ta Mok—Mertha tracks the movement's shifting from one strategy to the other until its dissolution in the 1990s. Vividly written and deeply researched, Bad Lieutenants reveals the powerful grip political ideology can have over the survival of insurgent movements. 2025-05-09T09:12:16Z 2025-05-09T09:12:16Z 2025-05-08T09:29:46Z 2025 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/101394 9781501780998 9781501781001 9781501781025 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/159204 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/101394/1/9781501781018.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/101394/1/9781501781018.pdf Cornell University Press 10.7298/97H1-S710 10.7298/97H1-S710 05937e7b-c222-4680-9580-c09c5ce7a11e 9781501780998 9781501781001 9781501781025 277 open access |
| spellingShingle | Cambodian Insurgency, Civil War, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Ta Mok Mertha, Andrew Bad Lieutenants |
| title | Bad Lieutenants |
| title_full | Bad Lieutenants |
| title_fullStr | Bad Lieutenants |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bad Lieutenants |
| title_short | Bad Lieutenants |
| title_sort | bad lieutenants |
| topic | Cambodian Insurgency, Civil War, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Ta Mok |
| topic_facet | Cambodian Insurgency, Civil War, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Ta Mok |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/101394 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT merthaandrew badlieutenants |