8/ Congressman Hoke's letter to State
Dear Colleague:
The oped piece by Stephen Morris, which appears on the back of
this letter, says it all. The State Department has wasted $500,000
on a research grant to Yale University's Ben Kiernan to study
Cambodian history. Kiernan is the notorious pro-Khmer Rouge "journalist"
who defended Pol Pot's genocidal revolution at every opportunity.
Yet this extremist is the person the State Dept. believes can
produce an authoritative study on Cambodian history.
I have drafted the following letter to Secretary of State Warren
Christopher protesting this outrageous misappropriation of taxpayer
money, asking that the grant be withdrawn and the process re-opened.
If you would like to sign on or if you have questions, please
contact Joe Eule (?) of my staff at 5-5871.
Very truly yours
(signed) Martin
Martin R. Hoke
Member of Congress
Honorable Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
U. S. State Department
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Secretary,
We are writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to
withdraw the $500,000 grant awarded to Yale University for a project
on Cambodia headed by Ben Kiernan. Given Kiernan's extremely controversial
and unorthodox views on Cambodian history, we have serious doubts
as to whether he could possibly produce any research on the subject
that would be anything but highly suspect. Indeed, we fail to
see the wisdom in spending half a million dollars of the taxpayers
money on a project that, once complete, will likely become a source
of controversy instead of an authoritative resource and would
lack credibility within the academic and foreign affairs communities
and in Congress.
According to Harvard professor Stephen Morris, Kiernan was "one
of the Khmer Rouge's most ardent defenders during Pol Pot's reign
of terror." While he may now disavow those [illeg.] he still
apparently supports a Vietnamese-backed Khmer Rouge faction that
is now part of the government in Phnom Penh. He has also maintained
a close professional relationship with French radical Serge Thion,
a leading supporter of the Khmer Rouge from 1972-78 as well as
the holder of revisionist views on the Holocaust. And just as
recently as 1986 he edited a book celebrating the life of Wilfred
Burchett, the infamous left-wing Australian "journalist"
who was a propagandist for both the North Koreans and the North
Vietnamese (according to Stanley Karnow, Burchett also advised
the North Vietnamese).
In short, we simply cannot believe that there aren't other teams
capable of producing a more scholarly products tha[n] Kiernan's.
We should therefore urge you to withdraw the Yale award and re-open
the grant process.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from
you.
Cordially,
END