Chomsky's Betrayal of ,Truths
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' • 31 photogtaph5, invented atroci,r.ies, Chomsky's and so on. Of cours-e. 3!pOlog,ists have r ��eu ��jt� �rs�fe f:�����= Cambodia �nto a land cf masn:.:re, betrayal of sta>:"vation and disease". It is in disput,able that tihe United States b.ombings made the Cambodian ,truths tragedy possib.}e� But wh.at re�pnn sihle person� let afIOne JintelieCluaL can doubt t1hat Camb.· between 1975 and 1978 suffered,a r-.eg,ime of terror',· with m.ass kill�, brut"l , m Q !Ir��ati�: :: cuIg!al 'srit:: �� ahoJi,tion of the family, 'the extrac tion of confessions, and torture" and atroOcities DIf all kinds? Many re�i,able OIlJ.serwers, jn-urnalists and relief-workers COThCUir in reporting these things, as do �ef.u.g€€ reports, which have been repeatedly check�d for consioStency. Of course, m:wy deaths resuhed from stal""ve'tion and disea'se, and from Chomsky's fav· ourite cause, "peasant revenge ", but the mass g awes SUf'rounding r purpose·built villages teJl their own .. S'tory, in any case well cor�h:nJMed, as do the reglime's albo�J{llon of printing presses, destruction of 'e books, and its order tha.t the poplda- o tion was to we-air blr.l.JCk. No reason- " able person can do,ubt that t,he Cam y bodian experiment wad a ghastly exercise in mass terro-r aud forced ; Steven Lukes collectivi7,ation. not merely of labour, but of life. e "It is the responsibility of intel What then a.re we to think' 01 lectuals", Noam Chomsky wrote Chomsky's suggestions tha.t the in 1967, "to sp€ak the truth and deaths in Cambodia were"attrihut· to expose Jies." His fine ('ssay'; able in large measure to peaSilrnt of those years brilliantly exposed revenge, undiscipli-rned milita·ry the ways in which liberal intel- units out of government control, s lectuals contributed to what he starvation and disease that, are rightly calle-d the "deceit and dis direct consequences of the United tortion surro<unding the American States war, or other such facrO<r<; ", invasion of Vietnam". that "the evacuation of Phnom What, then, is Chom-.ky doing Penlh, widely denounced at the time contributing to deceit and di<;tOT and �ince for its undoubted bru tion surrounding Pol POt',) regime tality, may actually have <;aved many in Cambodia? La ... t year he pub Jive" ", that"prngrammes o<f voca� li�hed a book After the Cataclysm llonal training fort 12-year-olds are PoSltvar IndochIna and the Recon- . 110t generally regarded £1<;; an t structiorl of Impclwl Jdeolo)?'t; with iltl"ocity in a po r peaosant society", Q ; Edward Herman, in which the re t!Jat "much of the p.opula1ion may cord of that horrcndou<; regime lS well have supported the regime ", subjected to an extraordinary and panicularly if "de-ci-siortts were perverse scrutiny, the conclusion<; taken collectively in th.e coopera of which are twofold that the tive" and even in the army", that atrocities and number of killings "the Khmer Rouge programme<; are most probably greatly exag- eliCited positive response from r n e sector" of the Cambodian peasantry ��lJ ' f: ���: �ase� � a �7:�t ull�� r" hecause they dealt with fundd standable response to the still mental pntblems rooted in the more concentrated and extreme feudal past and exacerbate(l hv the savagery of a United States -assault imperial system with its final out that may in part have been designed burst of uncontrolled barbarj<;rn?" to evoke this very response". There is Oilly one po<;sible 1hing Before dealing with Chomsky's t·) think: that Chomsky has become conclusions, a word about his focus so \?bsessed by his opposition to t·he of concern and method. United States' role in Indochina but His concern, he says, is "US he has lost all �nse of pers'pecIlve-. global policy and propaganda, and His argument is a ca'5e of ma.<;-Slve t'he filtering and distorting effect overkill, discrediting reiJiable al1ld of Western ideology," in particular, responsible observers and soholars, the role of the «free press" in and converting the Nurh that t-he «the engineering o-f con'sent", dis United States was indirectly respon crediting wcialism and communism sible into the l�e that it was direcfly by misdescribing the facts and so "effacing US responsibility". The But the responsi'bility of intellect· "mass media of the West", he uals is not only a matter of telling thinks, "has discovered Cambodia s ' the truth and exposing lies. It is travail. precisely because of its also a matter of us.ing la,nguage ideological serviceability". He responsibly. Chomsky is, after all, claims that" we have not developed a world authori.ty on me use of or expressed our views here on the language. Consider, however, these nature of the Indochinese regimes ", examp les of language ahuse. but of cOUrse he does and must have such views, since his aim is to show First, inappropriate analugy, in how the nature of these regimes has comparing the Camoodiaoll regIme, been distorted and misdescribed. not to the Nazis but to "France He does this by following an after liberation, where a minimum apparently rigorous but actually of 30,000 to 40,000 �ple were ludicrous method: demanding massacred within a few months " verifiable evidence '\ documen· with far less motive for revenge tary sources, etc. , and thus discredit and under far less rigorous condi ing refugee reports and "material tions than those left by tIle United that is subject to no check". He States war in Cambodia", Second, also exultantlY attacks observers fudging abstraction. as in the (such as Francois Ponchaud) fOl suggestion that "the worst atro-ci" " carelessness with regard to quotes, ties have taken place at the hands numbers and sources ". Of course, of a peasant army. recruited and such carelessness is always deplor driven out of their devasted village" able, but Chomsky pursues it here by United States' bombs and then with a pedantry that is grotesque, taking revenge against the urban • gIVen the circumstances, the meagre civilization [sic] that they regarded, results he attains and the consis- not without reason, as a oollaboi"ator c v u n in their destructi()Il and tJhelr long ��� 6b:;r�e�� l� �u��:i�� {��I!%�� history of oppressi'()II". And third, he in any case relies when it suits Illicit conjunctions, as when Chom· his case}. sky writes that: "it is an effective tactic to focus Indeed, Chomsky in turn protects on real or invented atrocities himself again<;t refutation by the committed in underdevelQped ex facts, writing: colonies that use the phrase "When the facts are in, it may , socialism ' in reference to their turn out that the more extreme programmes of mass ffiOIbilizariorJ condemnations were in fact cor under authoritarian state control rect. But even if that turns out to ca'rry out iiflduS'trialiwtion and to be the case, it will in no way modernization," alter the conclusions we have reached on the central Question What, pray, are real and invented addressed here: how the available sentence? facts were selected, modified, or It is sa.(l to see Chomsky writing sometimes invented to create a these things. Iii: is �n)Dic. given the certain image offered to the United States' Government's present general populafi{Jn. The answer pursuit of its global role in support to this Question seems clear, and ing the seating of Pol Pot at the UN. it is unafhcted by whatev�r may And it is bizarre, given Ohomsky's yet be discovered about Cambodia previous stand for 3!l1aI'Chist-libertaff in the future." ian principles. In writin,g as he does What, then, of Chomsky's conclu about the POll Pot regime ill Cam sions? Of course, pIOIpaganda has bodia, Chomsky betrays not o-nly been IJTlBde Oout of t,he Cambodialfl the responsi.bilities of jntell€<Ctuals. tr'age-dy:. inflated figure,'), faked but himself. \ ' ., , " , rr, I 'l+r:,';-.Jc' o'cC'"ci., ... "r<.'_ l,t!" ,I'>. lHl 1"(.'W"'· I""(:OIl1111t:nl.';i,C ( , -j . simp1:,.- 10 , ley\,:" f<dl <-!ddrc$5 that issui.!. I : Yours hithftllly. ' '�c l\'IARK BLACG, . .:< Unin:;":;it:l 'of Lond'j!) In:;dt\jt<� of I Educ,�'tio:1. i, j !. -I Post':'iar Inuoehina· I I Sirr-Tf:1� con:::spi)n::lenc� prnmptt!d 1 hy Sr";,/{:l1 Lukd'$ c(JmnH�nts (TIl!::;:;, No';emhcf 7)' ahout 'a' nHljril' SC'Cli(lH ' ;\ �- . or Ajte�" lhe . I Cattldysm: POSWN1' I1Hlochir.a . and Lh� R.econstruction of, Im!)ui(ll Ideo!og.Y is disti;i &,uished by. its common q'.w.lit:l·of �l'\ I .... cate�ory ml')tu�e. Professors Chon1- • I sky and H(:rm�n clatm to have· Set out 'not . f' to est<.Jb1i'::,h the 'h;cts with • r:eg!lrd to post\)'ar Ind()chi.na� "bttt I rather to inve·;tigate their rcfr::tc tion throu.;;h th� prism 'or ,'\VestcfI\" I ideolog:;" ..,.,;;. Des.pitr:." this "C'�Ve!!C� ' . th<!:;" do. ,::ttempt "to p:·ovide· an C:( phm:'nlon for the H fearful tolP'. II eX�lcted in C<!.nbodia "ft'Zr. Ap:ril 1975. A consti."!.:1t reiteratio':l' of tho:!' I theme' or p0il;;�nt revenge and 'un· disciplined ;:roops leaves th.e ·l·cadel' \ in lW douh. 'whatsoever of ttl:! · ;.:t\tcrn3tivE' e-s.tahlis.hment or' ·th<:! I I,nets 'which th.;:y s:!ek to eXp!1UlHl. ,[t is thi3 u:1sl.!bstanti<ltcu ar�t!!ncnt - I wbich rr.�er:ts Stc\'cn Lukes's· criti cisnl lhat Clw:T:s.!.:;y.