It appears to have taken six years to kill nine million human beings in Nazi Germany and in the countries it occupied. It appears to have taken one day to inflict catastrophic disaster on more than three million Cambodians.“

With these words Freedom House three years ago filed an appeal with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for an inquiry into events in Cambodia. The U.N. High Commission for Human Rights took three months to respond to that appeal—negatively. During these three years, a few books and articles have focused our attention on Cambodia, but governments have, for the most part, remained silent. In July, 1977, the House International Relations Subcommittee initiated a congressional inquiry into the events in Cambodia, and Richard Holbrooke, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, eloquently denounced what was taking place in what is now called Democratic Kampuchea.