Mae Bunseng Taing > Quotes

“As Elie Wiesel put it regarding the Jewish Holocaust, giving up the responsibility to remember would be to consign the victims to a second death, this time from the collective memory of society.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“No other country but America has ever shown this type of legacy. And it is one the American public should admire and honor. It prevented greater human catastrophe, demonstrating how to deal with conflicts and disaster going forward. When Cold War fighting engulfed one country after another in Southeast Asia, further violence was averted not by bombs and bullets, as has been so common in past policy, but by aid, relief, and compassionate rescue.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“The impact was so powerful, I finally understood why my father feared this story would overwhelm me. It forced me to question whether I could finish documenting his journey. Was the nightmare some sort of a warning over my own mental state? What would happen if the nightmare returned? How many could I endure and still stay on the project?”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“The legacy of the United States in Cambodia has also taken on twin narratives. On one hand is a failure in foreign policy that justified bombing neutral Cambodia in the name of peacekeeping. The illegal and ineffectual bombardments were not only responsible for the deaths of thousands, but also created the terror and civil disruptions that enabled the Khmer Rouge to gain power. The ramification of this failure in foreign policy still lingers today, as seen when the U.S. has conducted other bombing strikes without Congressional approval in the years since.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“president once remarked after the fall of Saigon that, “History will judge whether we [Americans] could have done better.” Undoubtedly, that judge in history could only wish that more was made today of your selfless charity and lionhearted compassion. And it shall here. Thank you for following your heart and instinct by putting “humanity ahead of politics.” You are legends.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“How can foreign strangers love us like this? I wondered, touched by their affection. In this way our arrival in America was warm, amid the loving protection of total strangers.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide

“When men no longer believe in God, fear and mercy are lost. Nothing will guide their conscience except their own desires. They will no longer have a God to judge their actions. There is nothing that will stop them.”
― Mae Bunseng Taing, Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide