This study examines Western responses to human rights abuses in Cambodia between 1975 and 1980, years which included the murderous rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, a Vietnamese invasion, a civil war, and a famine. The author looks at the responses of Western populations, concerned academics and intellectuals, international human rights agencies, Western governments, and the United Nations, and how these responses changed over time.

The choice made by these states was manifest in Western policies towards the Cambodian refugee crisis and famine and in numerous United Nations fora. The implications of that choice laid the groundwork for the thirteen years of civil war which followed the invasion.