Qualla: Ba Chuc Massacre

Ba Chuc Massacre: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nguyen Van Kinh woke beneath a pile of corpses. His wife, four children, and six grandchildren lay dead around him. In the darkness, he crawled free and hid in a cave on Elephant Mountain, listening to the screams of the mutilated echoing through the Mekong Delta night. It was late April 1978, and the Khmer Rouge had spent twelve days turning the small Vietnamese town of Ba Chuc into a killing field just 6.4 kilometers from the Cambodian border.

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Image: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ba Chuc Massacre: A Border That Bled

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, CC BY 3.0. The violence at Ba Chuc did not erupt without warning. For years, the Khmer Rouge had been probing Vietnam's southwestern frontier, their cross-border raids growing bolder and more lethal with each incursion. In March 1977, they struck Kien Giang Province. Days later, they hit An...

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Image: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên | CC BY 3.0

Ba Chuc Massacre: Twelve Days in April

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, CC BY-SA 3.0. On April 18, 1978, the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army crossed the border, surrounded Ba Chuc, and cut every road into town. What followed was methodical. Soldiers went house to house, looting valuables and slaughtering livestock before setting the buildings ablaze. They herded vill...

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Image: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ba Chuc Massacre: The War That Followed

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dchart, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ba Chuc became a turning point. At the end of 1978, Pol Pot mobilized ten divisions for a full-scale invasion of Vietnam, but the Vietnamese struck first. On December 7, 1978, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam authorized military action to overthrow the Khmer...

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Image: Dchart | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ba Chuc Massacre: What Remains at Ba Chuc

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1979, the An Giang provincial government built a cemetery for the dead. The two temples where the massacres took place are now designated national historical sites, and every year on the 15th and 16th of March by the lunar calendar, collective ceremonies honor the victims. In ...

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Image: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên | CC BY-SA 4.0