Representative Press Blog

Chomsky Detractors' Inventions and Falsifications about his Khmer Rouge and Cambodia Statements

Chomsky Detractors hold this quote up as proof he said the Khmer Rouge would be liberators: "By the impulse it has given to the revolutionary forces, this vicious attack may have also prepared the ground, as some observers believe, not only for national liberation but also for a new era of economic development and social justice."

They cut and pasted things they clearly don't understand. "may have also prepared the ground". This means what to them? Do they know what the word "may" means? Chomsky was hopeful some good would come of it. It was written in 1972. He didn't say "it will" or "it has." Chomsky has pointed out that he wrote that in 1972 "when the Khmer Rouge were a marginal and largely unknown factor; this was before the massive bombing campaign of 1973, which played a large part in recruiting the Khmer Rouge. I said then that I hoped that something decent might yet emerge, referring to Prince Sihanouk's peasant supporters. This statement was then reinterpreted as a prediction that the Khmer Rouge would turn Cambodia into a grand utopia"

Chomsky did not defend Pol Pot’s regime. That is a fabrication.
This quote: “We do not pretend to know where the truth lies amidst these sharply conflicting assessments" is from the same 1977 article that detractors quote as "proof" that he "rejected the numerous reports of refugees". What they are doing is really ridiculous.

It is one of many attempts to dishonestly smear Chomsky. Those attempts continue right up to the present: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes in Bid to Smear World's Number One Intellectual