[ad_1]
Podcasts | Society | Southeast Asia
A dialog with creator Leth Oun.
As a baby, Leth Oun loved a cheerful life in Battambang Metropolis in western Cambodia. His household was poor however his father, a lieutenant within the Lon Nol authorities, ensured he went to highschool and that there was meals on the desk. Then, in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge marched into city.
As a younger boy, Leth Oun’s life was turned the other way up. His father went lacking, by no means to be seen once more, whereas he was compelled to sow rice within the “killing fields” the place his mom concocted false names and hid her household’s background to be able to survive.
The chaos that accompanied the 1979 Vietnamese invasion meant little peace and to make ends meet, Leth Oun and his mom would make a treacherous journey from Battambang to the Thai border the place they purchased meals to be resold again house for a small revenue.
However it was on the Thai border that the household discovered some sanctuary within the refugee camps the place they had been granted refugee standing and flown to the USA.
Leth Oun now works for the Secret Service, the primary Cambodian to hitch these ranks in its 158-year historical past. He guards presidents, vice presidents, and their households with a concentrate on the K9 unit, coaching and deploying canines in bomb detection. He additionally “walks the White Home prefer it’s house.”
And he has written a ebook, “A Refugee’s American Dream: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the U.S. Secret Service,” with the assistance of Joe Samuel Starnes, a outstanding story of survival, stealth and success.
From Washington, Leth Oun spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Phnom Penh, about life underneath the Khmer Rouge and the aftermath of their brutal regime, which left about two million folks lifeless, the refugee camps, and eventually the U.S., the place he guards the president.
“A Refugee’s American Dream” is printed by Temple College Press.
[ad_2]
Source link
