Abstract
Our political bestiary is growing. One new entry is “the [Soviet] paper polar bear,” whose mustache Deng Xiaoping tickled while “touching the [Vietnamese] tiger's buttocks.” In a long document published in September 1978, the Cambodian government denounces the Vietnamese as being “even more ungrateful than crocodiles.” Entitled Black Paper; Facts and Evidences of the Vietnamese Acts of Aggression and Annexation Against Kampuchea, this text airs the whole range of grievances of the Khmer communists against their former Vietnamese comrades. For this reason, it merits careful examination (since its authors are not usually very talkative) and a critical assessment of its implications.
Notes
There are a number of editions of the Black Paper.
Phnon Penh edition. September. 1975. 116 pages. Paris edition. January. 1979. E-IOO Edition du Centenaire. S7pages. Contrary to what it claims. this edition is not “the complete reproduction”of the first. Several phrases were omitted or truncated. The revisions were made in Phnon Penh.
English-language edition: Black Paper: Facts and Evidences of the Acts of Aggressionand Annexation of Vietnam Against Kumpuchea (New York:reprint [sic] Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea, Sept.. 1975). Availablefrom G.K. Ram. p.a. Box 5X57.Grand Central Station. New York. NY lOO 17. LSA. for 52.95.
Quotations from the Black Paper have been determined by the following criteria. The French language text {which I used in a previously published version of this article: Serge Thion, “sL'sIngratitude des Crocodiles”s in Les TempsModerncs, No. +02. January. 19XO. pp. 12X3-1323. Paris} has priority. Where citations coincide with those in the English-language version available to us the quotations arc reprinted directly as mthe English-language version. Where thereis a conflict. or the English version seemed inferior for any reason. the French text has been re-translated. Major discrepancies arc noted m the text of this essay. The name “Communist Party of Kampuchea ” is always cited in full in the English-Ianguage version: here It has often been abreviated to “CPK.”