Chapter 5

Paris

Diary entry: Khieu Ponnary - 12 September 1949:

Written in Khmer, translated to English:

He was walking out of the Moulin Rouge, in Paris , France , the place where the Artists of the Petite Boulevard , such as Vincent van Gogh, Charles Angrand, Louis Anquetin, Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec came to watch the Can Can Girls and drink the Absinthe. I didn’t know his name yet. He was Saloth Sâr.

Today the Khmer students probably drink French wine or fine Cognac . But they had come from a backward rural society, as I did, in Kampuchea , and this was the capitol of civilization. It was an inspiration for both artists and leftist political thinkers.

As with any young man at the time, Sâr was sewing some wild oats. I couldn’t blame him. There was so much to do there. Paris was filled with city lights and people from all over the world. The Moulin Rouge was a huge brightly lit building, easily living up to its reputation as a bright red attraction. It always had that fake windmill on top that was always brightly lit in red.

Sâr was short, shy, and a thin boy with a boyish look. He was very attractive.

One day I approached him as he walked out with some friends.

“You’re Khmer aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“It’s always nice to meet another person from Cambodia .”

“Yes. I’m Saloth Sâr.”

“I’m Khieu Ponnary. I’m attending the University of Paris . I came to study Shakespeare and Khmer linguistics. Since I got here, I’m interested in politics and philosophy.”

“I’m going to the Ecole Française de Radio-Electricité. I like music so this is a good field for me to get into. I like poetry also.”

“Do you like politics?”

“Sure. This is the home of the French Revolution. They chopped off the king’s, and queen’s head, and the Directorate took control and brought order to this country, until Napoleon took it over.”

“The Communist Party has encouraged us to study the Paris Commune. It impresses me because women took such an active role in setting it up and defending it. One who really stood out was Louise Michel.”

Sâr and I began walking down the busy Paris street, with its heavy traffic, and we stopped at a sidewalk café.

“Care for some coffee?” Sâr asked.

“Yes.” We went into the cafe and decided to talk further.

We went to a small place on the main street, with white wicker chairs and white tables. The tables were outdoors had had umbrellas. Ours was red. So there we sat drinking French coffee and talking politics.

“Why don’t you come to the next meeting with me?” Ponnary said.

“The French Communist Party? But I’m Khmer,” answered Sâr

“There’re several Khmers that come and are members. We have a Khmer Association. It’s like a chapter within the party. There are many non-French people who belong to out party. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso? You’ll love meeting him. Everyone likes him and his paintings. He’s a party member. He did some wonderful paintings on the Spanish Civil War.”

“Well, if you’re going to be there, how can I say no? Where’s it at and what time?”

After we decided to meet up at the next party meeting, Sâr asked me to his apartment, for some wine. For weeks we met at the same café, a colorful café with red awnings on a street in the Latin Quarter , near the 5th Arrondissement. There were many cafés and bistros on its streets. It was also along the left bank, an area known for its philosophers, artists and intellectuals. It was here that I introduced Sâr to many of his future comrades, at least three times a week. We also attended meetings. We went to a meeting hall at my university, a small brown corner building. I think the real reason he wanted to come is that he liked me. I didn’t care. I found him attractive also. It took him a while to get used to the ideals of communism, but he was very devoted to a free Kampuchea , and very nationalistic. Even though he didn’t seem that political, I could tell he was someone who would take politics seriously. Maybe it was just a gut feeling. But I knew he would fit in.

Journal Entry: 18 July, Sâr:

I met Ponnary near the Moulin Rouge as we were leaving. I was instantly struck by her beauty and the fact that she wore no makeup and avoided ostentatious clothing or jewelry. She was real earthy and I liked that. We went to a sidewalk café, which became a regular hangout for us. I had taken some interest in politics. I hated living in a country dominated by the French, turning us into a colony and bastardizing our culture, and I hated having a king. Here we were in the 20th century and we still had a powerful monarchy. The French destroyed their monarchy and that’s one of the few things I liked about them.

Ponnary went a step further. She had read all the classics on Marxism, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, VI Lenin, and Joseph Stalin. She had also read the Asian revolutionaries Ho and Mao Zedong. I had never met a woman as smart as Ponnary. She had a political answer to everything. She just didn’t read the books, she fully understood them. We spent hours discussing the possibilities of Marxist revolution in countries such as France and at home.

But we also talked of ourselves. I told her of my love of music and how I saw music as a great way to change the world. I wanted to write and perform my own music. Then we spoke of each other. One night she invited me back to her place. She had a tiny tan room with a red metal-framed bed, a black and white clock on the wall and some small posters of communist events. She had no place to make tea, but she did have a bottle of some French red wine. We had a few glasses and then sat on the bed to talk. It didn’t take long for the small talk to change to kissing. Next we were in bed together. I was taken in by her bronze skin, her long dark hair and deep brown eyes. She seemed like the perfect Khmer woman. We made love that night and it was far more exciting than I could ever have imagined at the women’s quarters (red light district) at home.

History paper from University of Paris , February 1949:

Written in French, translated to English:

The women’s role in the Paris Commune

By Khieu Ponnary

The Paris Commune was created in March of 1871, after France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian war. Free elections were held in that city and it was declared an autonomous zone. The elected council was made up of Jacobins (based on a religious order) Republicans and socialists, mostly Blanquists (more traditional socialists) and followers of the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. They wanted to recreate France as a federation of communes. There were a few others formed in other parts of France . They were all called Communards.

Many anarchists played a role within the commune, including Louise Michel, a woman activist. She had been a schoolmistress at Audelancourt. She wanted to go to Paris believing it was the one place she could make a difference. While in Paris , she focused on teaching, writing, poetry and reading.

She began to see the poverty of many Parisians and how they had to live. It inspired her to write and recite this poem:

“I have seen criminals and whores

And spoken with them. Now I inquire

If you believe them made as now they are

To drag their rags in blood and mire

Preordained, an evil race?

You to whom all men are prey

Have made them what they are today.”

The Paris Commune was considered a socialist revolution, and the first communist uprising, which tried to create freedom and equality for all the people of Paris . Louise Michel, along with others, gave her total self to the revolution. She fought on the street’s barricades, and devoted herself to the cause. She was eagerly willing to sacrifice her life for the freedom she sought. The commune was possible because Prussia had beaten France . France had a weak government, which only encouraged the new radicals to try and take action.

The French Army, then led by Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who by now was calling himself Napoléon III, began attacking Paris in the name of “capitalist civilization” and "liberty." Government troops entered the city, May 21st and there were seven days of bitter street fighting. Squads of soldiers and armed thugs of the bourgeoisie wandered through the streets, killing and maiming at will. Over 25,000 people lay dead, their blood running like a river in the ditches and sewers. Many in the French army murdered Communards after they had surrendered, and their bodies where dumped in mass graves.

There was no distinction between men women. The women ended up fighting at the blockades along with the men. Many women took part in the government and the Central Committee of the Union of Women for the Defense of Paris and the Care of the Wounded ended up defending the commune with their lives.

According to Karl Marx, The Paris Commune was one of the first attempts at a communist workers state or a proletariat dictatorship.

History paper from Ecole Française de Radio-Electricité, 15 November 1951:

Written in French, translated to English:

The French Revolution and The Directorate

By Saloth Sâr:

Thanks to the French Revolution all history had changed. There was nothing like it at the time and the shock wave from it rippled out and changed all of Europe forever.

King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette plus many other aristocrats were beheaded by the Guillotine in 1793.

The monarchs of Europe were so outraged over the beheadings, that in 1793 Britain , Spain and the Netherlands declared War against France . Needless to say they were unsuccessful and the French proved that kings and queens were unnecessary. The slogans of the revolution were:

“Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité.”

The US at the time actually had some revolutionaries who inspired this event. It’s odd that such a revolutionary state could become so reactionary in 200 years. A man called Robespierre ruled during the time period from the fall of the Bastille to the reactionary “Reign of Terror.” During that time, many innocent people had their heads lopped off by the Guillotine. During one stretch of paranoia, 1,376 individuals were guillotined in 47 days, filling the streets with streams of blood. Blood gushed as each head fell into a brown wicker basket.

The executioners must have been soaked in blood by the end of the day, with blood seeping into their shoes. It must have been a sticky mess.

In 1795 the Reign of Terror ended with the Directorate. The Directorate had saved the French people from the terror of Robespierre. The Directorate was an organization without a king or godhead expecting the people to bow down to. The leaders seemed to stay secret. They operated and ran the new revolution. They secularized the country, even starting a new calendar with the year 1, to get away from the Christian calendar the rest of Europe was using,

They also had to protect the revolution, so the Guillotine still had to be used against those who would try to destroy it. The country and the ideals of the revolution were worth losing a few lives, especially when there were so many traitors among them. But there was one traitor the Directorate did not count on. That was their own General, the appointed young Corsican soldier, Napoleon Bonaparte, who led the armies of France against the revolution and all its progress. By 1799 Napoleon had become head of a new government that was in fact a dictatorship. He abolished the Directorate and set himself up for one-man rule. He had betrayed the revolution. He set himself up as a king-head or godhead, calling himself an emperor. He proceeded to try to conquer most of Europe . He was indeed a traitor to the people of France .

I’ve always hated kings. I saw a picture of a revolutionary holding up high the head of King Louis XVI by his hair. The king’s body was clothed in a white prison uniform. The Guillotine stood on a tall, large wooden platform. Seeing the royal family beheaded and the shock it caused must have been one of the most important events in history.