ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the entire late revolutionary period. The aggressive "pacification" program was destroying the traditional village system, and their "waters" thus dried up, the revolutionary fish were left lying in the mud, to be turned to ashes by the covert US counterinsurgency program, Operation Phoenix. Social psychological research has shed some light in the area, suggesting how individuals can become committed to a revolutionary cause. The extent to which identification will be important as a source of revolutionary recruitment depends upon the relative attractiveness—in terms of pre-existing social values—of the revolutionary group as compared to the status quo group. The revolutionary ideology provides the individual with an intellectual framework through which s/he can understand and explain his or her life-conditions. Political scientist-journalist William Shawcross has argued that part of the burden for the tragic events in Cambodia must be borne by the US officials who were responsible for US foreign policy during the late revolutionary period.
