Abstract
While mistaken as zealot ideologues of Marxist ideals fused with Khmer rhetoric, the Khmer Rouge (KR) cadres’ collective profile better fits that of the convert subjected to intense thought reform. This research combines insights from the process and the context of thought reform informed by local cultural norms with the social type of the convert in a way that captures the KR phenomenon in both its general and particular dimensions. Relying on textual analysis of KR party cadres’ notebooks and their own self-confessions during state-sanctioned ‘lifestyle’ meetings, this article provides new insight into how conversion and radicalization happened at a mass level. This process of conversion allowed the KR to establish its social influence over the mass and to carry out its social engineering plans. These KR notebooks provide a window to peer into the everyday practices of KR thought reform and assess its social-psychological impact on lower level cadres at that time. Towards the end of the KR regime, thought reform degenerated into terror.
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