Harrison Forman Diary, Cambodia, April 1953

In this diary, Harrison Forman, photographer and journalist, writes from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam during the First Indochina War (1946-1954) when the French Expeditionary Corps of the French Union Army and Emperor Bao Dai's Vietnamese National Army were fighting against the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh (Prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and Vo Nguyen Giap (principal commander). Forman begins his journey in Cambodia, escorted by His Excellency Tep Phan, who Forman describes as the Director of Planning, MSA (possibly the Mutual Security Administration, which supervised all United States foreign aid programs). They discuss aid received by the U.S., which enables them to purchase machinery, despite French control of foreign exchange. Forman meets with the Royal Delegate of Kampong Cham province, Khim Tit, and his wife at the Governor's Palace. Khim Tit takes Forman on a tour of the countryside. Forman arrives in Siĕm Réab, and visits the ruins of Angkor Wat. In Hà Noi, Forman writes about the Viet Minh planning to take Laos (now the Lao People's Democratic Republic) and French efforts to prepare for the attack. While the French are trying to determine where the Viet Minh would strike next, commercial planes are being diverted for military use, however, Forman manages to get permission to fly to Vientiane and Pakxan, Loas near the Thailand border. He meets with a French colonel and observes the operations with troops digging trenches and building machine gun posts. Forman flies along during a supply drop to Vientiane, then to Na San where French Union forces fought a significant battle the previous October defeating the Viet Minh. Forman and a large group of troops drive by jeep to the Plain of Jars, where he sees the ancient, carved stone burial jars for which the area is named. He describes the landscape, planes overhead parachuting supplies, and hearing bombs being dropped in the distance. Forman is taken to Xiangkhoang, which was just recently bombed and is expected to be the target of a Viet Minh counter attack. Forman ends the diary with his thoughts on the French Union forces and France's reluctance to admit defeat.The diaries are part of the Harrison Forman Papers 1931-1974 housed at the Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. UWM Libraries received the dairies on a loan from the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries and digitized them to accompany the digital collection of Forman's photographs. The diaries were digitized to provide research materials for the Forman's negatives scanned as part of the NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images.