People who start their regime by vacating a capital city probably have some disturbing plans.

Fifty years ago, in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated all residents (including bedridden hospital patients) of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and all other sizable population centers.

Those who survived the evacuation were sent to do agrarian work at labor camps in rural areas. This unusual and alarming development elicited a very strange reaction, though, from relevant scholars in such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Sweden, which seemed to think the forcible relocation was a positive step forward.

In ensuing months, emaciated Cambodian refugees began to surface at the border with Thailand. These refugees largely gave reports of forced labor, starvation and appalling savagery.

And yet positive views of the Khmer Rouge remained prevalent among Western scholars who — embracing revolution from thousands of miles away — dismissed the myriad Cambodian refugee reports and pounced on anyone who wrote stories that corresponded with refugee accounts.

Cambodia, also known in that period by the euphemistic name Democratic Kampuchea, had basically ended all contact with the outside world. But it might have been fruitful to visit the Thai side of the Cambodian border, where thousands of emaciated and traumatized refugees had gathered. This type of setting could have helped even the most intransigent of scholars realize that reports of Khmer Rouge atrocities likely had validity.

Among those who took up the cause of minimizing Khmer Rouge misdeeds was Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist and all-around guru Noam Chomsky, who contended that reports of atrocity were part of a “vast and unprecedented propaganda campaign” perpetrated by Western media.

Though Chomsky was the most prominent Khmer Rouge apologist, he was by no means the only significant one. Far from being the pursuit of a kooky fringe, the defense of the Khmer Rouge came to represent a mainstream view among relevant scholars.

This viewpoint was so prevalent in the West that it was labeled the “standard total academic view” (STAV) on Cambodia by Sophal Ear, a Cambodian refugee who became a political scientist in the U.S. and is now an associate professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.

“Many academics indeed treated Cambodia as a testing ground for their theories,” Ear said. He said they were also enamored with the concept of peasant revolutions and the Khmer Rouge policies of self-reliance, which they viewed as “an authentic anti-colonial stance.”

Additionally, it was feared that acknowledgment of Khmer Rouge atrocities would validate the U.S. military endeavors in Indochina, which many people — especially leading scholars — had come to excoriate.

In their 1976 book “Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution,” co-authors George C. Hildebrand and Gareth Porter stated, “Cambodia is only the latest victim of the enforcement of an ideology that demands that social revolutions be portrayed as negatively as possible.”

But perhaps no one was drawn to Pol Pot as much as Scottish scholar Malcolm Caldwell. Caldwell had written that the Khmer Rouge revolution “opens vistas of hope not only for the people of Cambodia but also for the peoples of all other poor third world countries.”

Caldwell received a rare invite to visit the utopia and even scored a private meeting with Pol Pot on Dec. 22, 1978. But hanging out with “Brother Number One” was always rather risky, and later that night, the visiting scholar was gunned down. It is likely this case would have received more interest from Western media, but less than three days after Caldwell’s murder, Vietnam invaded Cambodia.

The Vietnamese were fed up by that point: In addition to committing a genocide against Cambodians of Vietnamese ancestry, the Khmer Rouge had launched repeated attacks on Vietnamese soil, including the massacre of an entire village.

Vietnam’s military was superior in size, organization and morale. Troops easily invaded Phnom Penh, causing high-ranking Khmer Rouge to flee to western Cambodia’s mountainous terrain along the Thai border.

With Cambodia’s door forcibly opened, the ensuing revelations of killing fields and grisly interrogation centers was about as close as you can get to incontrovertible proof of widespread atrocity. Among Western scholars, some former supporters emerged to recant their previous statements. Other supporters quietly withdrew from the now-obvious horror they had spent several years denying. However, some scholars remained as unrepentant as the war criminals, unmoved by any amount of ghastly hard evidence, or at least not sufficiently moved to forsake the revolution.

“Saying, ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong,’ is just too much for some people,” Ear said. “They want to be correct in their minds, always.”

Even in 1981, after the consequences became grotesquely clear, Egyptian-French scholar Samir Amin described the Khmer Rouge period as “one of the major successes of the struggle for socialism in our era.” Not only did Amin express approval for what happened in Cambodia, but he also recommended that African nations adopt the Khmer Rouge model. As if Africa had not endured enough, what it really needed, according to Amin, was its own Khmer Rouge.

Meanwhile, the real Khmer Rouge was not dead yet. Although forced out of Phnom Penh very quickly, the group still controlled much of Cambodia, particularly in the geographically rugged western part of the country. Along with holding significant military resources, the Khmer Rouge enjoyed a degree of international legitimacy: Into the early 1990s, the party of Pol Pot managed to hold Cambodia’s seat at the United Nations.

Moreover, many Cambodians thought the Khmer Rouge was going to make a comeback in the 1990s, regain control of the country and repeat the nightmare. Ear said, “This fear persisted until the Khmer Rouge’s final dissolution,” which did not occur until the end of the millennium.

Now 50 years since the invasion, both the Khmer Rouge and their Western apologists serve as a cautionary tale of the depths to which people can sink for their ideals.

Ray Cavanaugh is a freelance writer with an interest in Cambodian history. He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.

Six months before World War II ended in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a letter to his top science adviser. Could the wealth of technical knowledge developed for combat, he asked, spur the peacetime economy and improve public health? The resulting treatise, presented to Congress in 1945, established the nation’s commitment to funding university research.

Today, the federal government covers more than half of universities’ R&D spending, much of which flows through the National Institutes of Health. The agency spent more than $35 billion on almost 50,000 grants in 2023. NIH-funded research has supported lifesaving innovations from the hepatitis B vaccine and cancer therapies to MRI scans and gene-editing technology.

According to the current White House, drastic changes are needed to this system. Too much federal money is being wasted on “facilities and administration,” officials say, when it should be supporting research directly. Their basic criticism isn’t crazy. But their proposed solution threatens to impede essential scientific research without achieving its stated goals.

NIH grants are divided into direct and indirect costs. The former are expenses tied to a specific project, such as equipment and materials. The latter might include costs shared across various grant proposals — utilities at a lab, for example — but also expenses such as administrator salaries. The average so-called indirect cost rate, negotiated by universities and federal officials, has risen to 39% from a uniform 8% in the 1950s. At some schools, it’s more than 65%. (In practice, this means a $1 million grant is awarded an additional $650,000 for overhead.) More than a quarter of NIH funding dollars went toward indirect costs last year.

Some of the expenses covered by indirect costs are critical for the advancement of science. Others are more tenuous. Clerical staff and IT workers, parking lots and paint jobs — all can qualify as indirect costs. At some universities, meanwhile, administrators have started to outnumber faculty.

Sorting out essential expenses from administrative bloat isn’t easy. The painstaking rate negotiations between universities and the federal government attempt to do so, but they more often bog down the process and encourage school officials to inflate their needs. In theory, a flat rate would curb this perverse incentive, simplify the process, save money and thus free up funding for direct costs. (President Barack Obama’s administration considered a similar idea in 2012.) Better yet, a tiered system of flat rates would address discrepancies in costs by geography and type of research — an oft-cited reason for individualized rates.

It’s possible the administration had some version of this in mind when it proposed cutting the indirect rate to 15% last month, citing the standard for philanthropic grants. If so, it should’ve announced the policy in tandem with a commitment from Congress to increase funding and speed up the review process. (To qualify for grants, universities must show they’re compliant with dozens of rules.) Such a plan, gradually phased in to minimize chaos, might’ve resulted in a more prudent and transparent allocation of taxpayer funds.

Instead, by issuing so-called supplemental guidance, the White House circumvented Congress, which opposed a similar proposal in 2017. The administration has since been sued by 22 states and the cuts have been blocked. (The administration intends to appeal.) Universities, some of which stand to lose tens of millions of dollars annually, are preemptively reducing staff and putting clinical trials on hold. Suffice it to say, this isn’t the way to encourage American innovation.

A flat rate for indirect costs is a reasonable way to contain overhead and ensure that taxpayer funds support core research. But getting the details right, as any scientist will tell you, is essential. If it wants to ensure the U.S. remains the world’s leader in cutting-edge research, the administration should withdraw this heedless guidance and try again.

— The Bloomberg Opinion Editorial Board

This is what was promised

In his campaign Donald Trump made perfectly clear that he wanted trade wars, that there would be mass deportations and mass firings, and that people like Elon Musk would run the country. Now we have innocent people delivered to foreign prisons, political expulsions, books removed from libraries, help for the hungry in other countries axed, government agencies crashing, allies turned into adversaries – chaos, cruelty, and corruption. But this is exactly what was promised. This, evidently, is what most Americans want. This is who we are.

Paul Nelson, St. Paul

 

Regarding the mistaken deportation

Several points regarding Donald Trump’s refusal to demand the return of Abrego Garcia who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador (and which the administration admits was a mistake) and the resulting flap:

— Judge Xinis is correct in ordering Garcia’s return and claiming that despite Trump’s claim to the contrary he can easily do so. If Trump is threatening to invade Greenland if he doesn’t get his way he can surely threaten to invade El Salvador if they don’t return him. He just doesn’t want to do it. Not right.

— DOJ attorney Reuveni is justified in feeling exasperated in Trump’s refusal to right a wrong, though perhaps it was poor judgment to publicly say so.

— Attorney General Pam Bondi cannot be faulted in suspending Reuveni.  Short of breaking the law and possibly being unethical, attorneys have an obligation to support their clients no matter what. For better or worse that’s how our justice system works.

Sandy Beitsch, St. Paul

 

A step backward

Gov. Walz’ “return to office” order to teleworking state employees is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

1. Over the past five years when state employees were ordered to telework, the advantages and cost-savings of mobile technology have contributed to agency decisions to permanently reduce footprints and move out of leased space. Therefore many teleworking state employees no longer have an office to return to.

2. During those same five years, a significant number of high-skill new state employees were hired as permanent teleworkers. They have never had an office, and their retention is now in jeopardy.

3. To implement the governor’s order, state agencies are scrambling to spend additional taxpayer resources leasing and furnishing office space so teleworking employees can commute and telework from rented cubicles instead of working from their home offices.  These employees have been successfully teleworking for five years and there is no business need to commute to a rented cubicle, waste time in traffic twice a day, add to pollution, and pay for expensive downtown parking, other than evident nostalgia for an old workstyle.

The governor’s order appears to have been made with zero advance planning by agency heads or any consultation with employee unions.  It is a step backward for the State of Minnesota as a cutting-edge 21st century employer.

David Bornus, Shoreview

 

Erasing history

The works of Maya Angelou have been removed from the Naval Academy by order of the current regime controlling the White House. Ms. Angelou is a literary icon around the world and spoke for many people in her books and poems, not just women of color. As a reminder, in Germany the extinction of Jews was not the only agenda; non-heterosexual and non-white people were also on the list of elimination. Their history has been lost.

Nancy Lanthier Carroll, Roseville

 

They’re not deranged

This past Saturday, an estimated 25,000 Minnesotans came together at the Capitol in St. Paul, and thousands more gathered in cities of all sizes across the state, to protest the Trump administration’s draconian cuts to the systems and institutions that we all rely on. The message was “Hands Off”: hands off our Social Security, hands off our Medicaid and Medicare, hands off our public education system, our rights to due process and self-determination, our libraries, our postal system, our scientific research, our veterans health care, and much more.

And while some writers in these opinion pages have referred to folks with these concerns as being addled by “Trump derangement syndrome,” I will tell you that these protestors were not deranged.

They were thoroughly, extremely, maybe boringly … normal.

They are your neighbors and your kids’ teachers and your pastors. They are rational, compassionate people who are worried about the future and are making their voices heard.

And if you don’t share their concerns right now, then I would urge you to look closer in the coming weeks and months. Pay attention. As the cuts this administration has made go into effect, you will notice changes in the services that you rely on, wherever you live. Ask yourself if those changes get you closer to the life that you want for yourself, or your kids. Also ask yourself if your elected representatives are actually responding to your concerns, or just repeating things you’ve heard someone else say a million times.

Finally, I would urge you to ask yourself if your engagement in politics — in the conversations you have, in the news you consume — provides you with stronger connections to other people, or if it leaves you feeling more isolated. The protest on Saturday was a celebration of connecting with others, of the empowerment of raising our voices together and supporting each other. If that’s something you need more of in your life, there is plenty of room for you too.

Amanda Davis, West St. Paul

 

Yup, that’s what I would do

If I were a leader of a nation that was an adversary of the United States and had compromising information on a president, hypothetically, I would direct he do the following:

1). Alienate our neighbors and best trading partners;

2). Weaken military alliances by withdrawing support;

3). Fire any military, diplomatic or department leader whose loyalty would be to the Constitution and the American People, and replace with dogmatic loyalists;

4). Undermine our intelligence-gathering network by massive dismissals in the FBI and CIA;

5). Weaken our economy under the guise of protectionism;

6). Massively reduce foreign aid that would allow other nations inroads to influence and access resources;

7). Sow the seeds of civil unrest by promoting a thinly veiled white supremacist philosophy;

8). Increase the national debt to diminish our ability to respond to international crises.

Yup, that’s what I would do.

Andy Lynn, Mendota Heights

 

Not that sermon

As the world teeters on financial collapse and our retirement accounts were being wiped out by our King’s reckless tariffs, he was riding in the back of a limousine to a golf tournament tweeting what he really believes in his cruel and addled brain. In all caps he wrote “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL.” Coming from a person who mocked a handicapped person in front of the world and called soldiers who died in combat suckers and losers, Trump’s statement shouldn’t surprise anyone. I guess that’s the version of Mathew 5:5 from his Lee Greenwood (made in China) God Bless the USA Bible where from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says: “Blessed are those who aggressively seek money and power for they shall inherit the earth and those that are humble, gentle, patient, and I guess weak, shall fail.” Tired of winning yet?

Greg Kvaal, Mendota Heights

 

Jim Brandenburg — a requiem

Jim  was the kind of man you thought would live forever—perhaps because he so often stood in places where time itself seemed to stop. My wife and our children were lucky to have known him, and luckier still to have called him a friend.

Our adventure with Jim and Judy Brandenburg began more than 50 years ago, back when youth was abundant, and the future seemed like something we had all the time in the world to figure out. We played in the same rock and roll band, though never at the same time. A small, local band, known only in the dusty corners of southwestern Minnesota. But Jim never forgot it, never failed to mention it — even in interviews that reached across the world. That was Jim, always tying the grand to the humble, always finding the thread that connected it all.

Jim and Judy lived on a little farmstead on Lake Ocheda when he got his first contract with National Geographic. It was a project to capture the nesting habits of a Great Horned Owl, an assignment that, like so many others, would take him deep into the quiet places where he always seemed most at home. We watched as his reputation grew, as his work carried him across continents, as his images spoke in ways that words never could. The world took notice. Outdoor Photography Magazine named him one of the 40 most influential nature photographers in the world. Camera companies clamored for his endorsement. Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad—they all wanted his name beside theirs. But Jim was never one for pomp. He was more interested in the work, in the stillness, in the magic.

That’s what he called it — magic. When asked how he managed to capture such extraordinary moments, he’d shrug and say, “My job is to look for the magic. I just look for the magic.” And look he did. Not in a hurried way, not with the frantic clicking of a shutter, but with patience. With reverence. He understood something that many forgot as the digital age came crashing in — sometimes, the more you take, the less you have. His book “Chased by the Light” was his answer to that. One photo a day, and only one. No second chances. No retakes. A meditation on restraint, on seeing the world as it is and accepting that some moments, no matter how beautiful, are meant to pass by untouched.

Jim’s work took him far. His photographs won awards in the grand halls of London (Natural History Museum), where contests drew tens of thousands of entries, and his name became known around the world (The  World Wildlife Photography Competition). But he never changed. He never let the noise drown out the quiet. His photographic craft stood so high above other photographers Jim was asked to oversee the judging of this competition, a worldwide competition that had received 24,000 submissions. The people in charge looked at him and saw not just a photographer, but someone who understood something deeper — how to see. How to feel. How to find the heart of an image.

We saw less of Jim as the years went on, as he traveled from one far-off place to another. But when we did see him, we always found time to reflect — to remember the little things, like playing music in a small-town band, or hiking the Blue Mounds, or paddling the Kanaranzi Creek when the oak leaves were no bigger than a squirrel’s ear. He helped protect the prairie, bringing together government agencies, conservationists, and private landowners to create something lasting — Touch the Sky Prairie, a legacy written not in words but in land and open sky.

There are stories — so many stories. There’s the one about James Taylor using Jim’s Peeking Wolf image as an album cover, turning it into one of the best-selling nature photographs in North America. There’s the time he sat down for supper with David Attenborough, two giants of their craft, sharing a meal and, no doubt, the quiet satisfaction of men who had seen wonders most never would. There’s the tale of the stone alignment at Blue Mounds, fearing we were going to be late for the cold morning sunrise … where, our lungs burning from the climb, Jim captured the first known photograph of an ancient phenomenon — the sun rising in perfect alignment on the spring equinox.

But for all the accolades, for all the recognition, Jim remained what he always was — a quiet, kind man, drawn to the hushed beauty of the world. He knew, better than most, that photography was not glamorous. It was cold mornings before dawn. It was standing in the shadows long enough to see how the light changed. It was patience and solitude and an endless pursuit of something fleeting and fragile.

When it came time to say goodbye, Jim’s hugs always lasted just a little longer than most. Not by much — just a second or so — but enough that you noticed. It was his quiet way of showing that your connection meant something to him. No big words, no grand gestures — just that extra moment, a small sign of meaningful friendship that stuck with you long after.

And now, he is gone. But I can still hear his voice, that calm, measured tone that always carried a quiet wisdom. He once said that his job was to look for the magic. But now, looking back, I see the truth of it.

He did not just look for the magic. He was the magic.

Bill Keitel, Worthington

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An MRI confirmed Wednesday that Twins right-hander Pablo López has a mild strain of his right hamstring.

López made it through 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday before pain in his right leg forced him off the mound. A day later, López walked around the visitors clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium with a cheery disposition and without a limp, his right leg covered in a sleeve for apparent warmth.

López did not get an immediate chance to talk with reporters about a pitching plan going forward, but he was optimistic before the imaging that he would not miss his next turn in the rotation. It would come this weekend against the Tigers at Target Field. López has never missed a start with the Twins.

Manager Rocco Baldelli said the club has an open mind and will watch López closely over the next few days.

If the Twins go conservative and put López on the injured list, they could look to right-hander Zebby Matthews at Triple-A. Matthews tantalized in Spring Training and has made two strong starts for St. Paul, allowing a combined two runs, five hits and a walk while striking out 13 in 10 innings.

Twins mourn Cruz’s sister

Baldelli said the team feels for former Twins slugger Nelson Cruz, who lost his sister Nelsy Cruz in the Jet Set club disaster in the Dominican Republic early Tuesday morning.

“On behalf of the organization, I would like to send our heartfelt condolences to him and his family,” Baldelli said of Cruz, a popular player who hit 76 home runs for the Twins from 2019-2021.

At least 124 people have died, and hundreds more were injured when the roof collapsed at the iconic club in the Dominican Republic’s capital city of Santiago.

Among the dead was Nelsy Cruz, who was the governor of the Montecristi province in the northwest. Also killed were former major leaguers Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco. Dominican-born Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martínez said Wednesday he has family members who are unaccounted for that were inside the club at the time.

“We are all affected,” Martinez said. “I still have family members who are still in the rubbles and we don’t know what happened to them. But we just want to be strong, like we have always been. We’re a country that prays a lot and remains united all the time, so I just hope everybody has the same courage.”

Dozens of people paid their respects to Dotel, who pitched for 13 teams over 15 seasons until 2013 at a funeral home on Wednesday.

“He was a person whom everyone loved. It’s very hard, very hard, truly,” said Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who was at the memorial and recalled how he spoke with Dotel almost every day. “He was very funny. Octavio was a guy who was a fighter.”

Mauer ready for bronze age

Twin Cities native Joe Mauer cut a statuesque profile playing catcher for the Twins on his way to induction in baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2024.

This weekend, his hometown team plans to immortalize Mauer with a statue outside of gate 34 at Target Plaza. Mauer’s will be the ninth statue unveiled at Target Field and the first since 2017, when manager Tom Kelly had the honor.

Mauer is set to join Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Carl and Eloise Pohlad, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek and Kelly in statue form. All of the Twins statues, which are slightly larger than life, were created by Minnesota-based artist Bill Mack.

Mack has promised to get the sideburns right.

In addition to Mauer, the Twins said in a press release that teammates Justin Morneau, Corey Koskie and Glen Perkins are scheduled to attend the ceremony. Paul Molitor, a fellow Hall of Famer, Twin Cities’ son and Mauer’s final manager also is scheduled to be there. So will Oliva, Kelly and the artist himself, Mack.

The ceremony is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Jenkins bad ankle returns

The Twins’ Double-A team at Wichita placed top prospect Walker Jenkins on the seven-day injured list because of a left ankle sprain. It’s the same ankle he sprained before spring training that sidelined him for much of February and March.

Ober ready for Missouri challenge

One of right-hander Bailey Ober’s best career starts came late in 2024, when he shut out the Royals at Kauffman Stadium for seven innings. The Twins blew a two-run lead and lost after he exited, but Ober was splendid.

Ober’s performance showed he could pitch in the state of Missouri, where he has a 7.63 ERA in eight career starts. Much of his ERA in Mizzou is because of two starts, his first of the season in ’24 at Kauffman, and his opening start this season at Busch. Ober insisted there’s nothing odd that happens to him in Missouri.

“No, it’s just how baseball is,” Ober said. “It’s a weird game. You never know what’s going to happen. You just got to go out there and control what you can control. And there’s certain days where you can will yourself to a victory, or will yourself into a good outing. For the most part, you just got to go out there and do your part, execute and compete.”

— This report includes information from the Associated Press.

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