ABSTRACT
In the midst of casual conversation, a close personal friend once told me that “it is necessary that we Cambodians hate the Vietnamese.” The animosity, and furthermore, the exigency of such animosity expressed so succinctly in this statement will come as no surprise to the reader at all familiar with Cambodia, or Kampuchea, and more specifically, with the history of relations between Kampuchea and Vietnam. A level of enmity between the two nations, and subsequently, between Cambodians and Vietnamese, has its roots in centuries-old territorial conflict and is well-known to laypersons and scholars alike.1 However, when I pressed my companion for an explanation as to why, in 1995, Cambodians necessarily must hate Vietnamese, he unhesitatingly responded, “There is no why — it’s just a fact.” Of significance here is the effortlessness with which my companion made the initial statement and subsequent response, both of which, I argue, would not be inconsistent with those of a significant number of Cambodians, both in Cambodia and abroad.2 Cambodians are bombarded with anti-Vietnamese propaganda from a variety of sources on a regular basis, reminding them that the Vietnamese are the “hereditary enemy,”3 the perpetual “threat to Khmerness.”4 They are thieves, gamblers, traitors, prostitutes. They are the antithesis of all that is Cambodian. The anti-Vietnamese response on the part of Cambodians is expected, and has become almost automatic.
