‘Golden’ Ambassador Returns With Memoir
Sichan Siv arrived for a brief visit to Cambodia this week to discuss his memoir, “Golden Bones,” published earlier this year. (28 Nove
Sichan Siv was a victim of the Khmer Rouge. Among the nearly2 million killed under the regime were 15 members of his family. But Siv Sichanhas, as they say in Khmer, floating bones: He not only escaped death under theregime but rose to a high-ranking position in the White House. He arrived for abrief visit to Cambodiathis week to discuss his memoir, “Golden Bones,” published earlier this year. He was appointed in 2001 as US ambassador to United Nation’sEconomic and Social Council, having served as deputy assistant to then-president George H.W. Bush in Public Liaison office and as deputy assistantsecretary for South Asian affairs, from 1989 to 1993. The former ambassador told VOA Khmer in Phnom Penh that his successes came from the struggles and hardships he encountered as soon as he setfoot in America, in 1976. “I arrived in Connecticutwith $2 in my pocket, and I think I was successful because I had to work,” hesaid. “I didn’t think of the past; it was agonizing and terrifying. So Ithought about the future. I just kept working. I picked apples in Connecticut. I was ataxi driver in New York.And then I received a scholarship and got a master’s in international affairsat Columbia University.” His rise came from inauspicious beginnings. Sichan Siv worked for the American relief agency CARE beforethe Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penhon April 17, 1975, five days after he missed the last evacuation helicopter. Hehad attended a meeting in Kampong Speu province seeking a way to help 3,000stranded families. That missed evacuation changed his life. He and his familywere moved to Bati district, Takeo province, the birthplace of his alreadydeceased father, as the Khmer Rouge declared Year Zero and began implementingtheir vision of an agrarian communist utopia. Sichan Siv had been the only son in his family to attendcollege, earning a bachelor’s degree at Phnom Penh University.He spoke both French and English, making him a target of the Khmer Rougeguerrillas, who sought out intellectuals for execution. But it was not he whodied. “Among 16 of us, I was the only one who survived after weleft Bati,” he said. He survived in silence. “I shut my mouth. I knew nothing,I heard nothing, I saw nothing, I said nothing. I just kept silent.” The Khmer Rouge cadre would ask him about his background, hesaid, “but I kept telling them the same thing: I was a worker, worker, worker.” He found himself working for the regime as a timber haulerin Sisophon, near the Thai border. “On the 13 of February, 1976, I was sitting onthe roof of a truck at the back of a truck. I jumped off and walked three daysthrough the jungle to Thailand,”he said, falling into a pit of bamboo spikes along the way. “I was seriouslyinjured, but I tried to limp to Thailand,where after I arrived, they put me in jail, because I had no documents.” Once the Thais were convinced he was not a Khmer Rougesoldier, he was released to a refugee camp in Aragn, where he taught English toother refugees. By mid-1976, he was adopted by a family in the US. Thirteenyears later, aged 41, he was working in the White House, becoming the 28USambassador to the United Nations. The former ambassador said recently the success in his lifewas due to luck. He received his Columbiascholarship at a time when the university had announced it would admit peoplefrom poor countries. He entered the White House by chance, too, when the firstBush administration was looking for a foreign-language speakers and educationin international affairs. (He had been among thousands of volunteer in Bush’sfirst election campaign, in 1988.) Despite this seeming luck, some Cambodians view him as a manwith golden bones—words that emerged as the title of his memoir, published in Julyby Harper Collins. Siv Sichan presented a copy of “Golden Bones” to theNational Library on Friday, following a lecture at Pannasastra University ofCambodia Thursday. The former ambassador will attend a book signing at MonumentBooks in Phnom PenhSaturday evening.