R. Z. Halleson

From 1975 to 1979, the nation of Cambodia became victim to one of the most radical social experiments of all time. The Communist Khmer Rouge, after overturning the existing government, sought to create new socialist man and new socialist woman within one generation. The result was the mass upheaval of a country and the mass slaughter of millions of people as the nation descended into chaos. Chhalith Ou was twelve when it began and sixteen when he finally escaped. How he endured and how he and his family finally got out is one of the most harrowing escapes ever recorded.