Noam Chomsky on Vietnam and the Ethics of Debate

Reports of what was going on in Cambodia began to reach the West in the summer of 1975. Refugees reaching Thailand told of numerous atrocities. One of the first books to be published was that of Francios Ponchaud, who wrote Cambodia Year Zero first in French in 1977, which was the translated into English in 1978. It is here that Noam Chomsky makes his appearance. In the preface to the English edition, Ponchaud has this to say:

Even before this book was translated it was sharply criticized by Mr Noam Chomsky and Mr Gareth Porter. These two “experts” on Asia claim that I am mistakenly trying to convince people that Cambodia is drowning in a sea of blood after the departure of the last American diplomats. They say there have been no massacres, and they lay the blame for the tragedy of the Khmer people on the American bombings. They accuse me of being insufficiently critical in my approach to the refugees’ accounts. [5]

www.paulbogdanor.com/chomsky/wma.html