From The Killing Fields to Heaven's Gate

By Karen Yanhs Anderson

This story is a memoir about the author and her family's harrowing escape from Cambodia's Killing Fields to America. The journey was fraught with physical dangers, and political intrigues. Physical dangers included traveling at night through Cambodia's dark jungle with many poisonous snakes, green-lantern-eyed tigers, giant spiders, land mines, mass graves, and U.S fighter jets' bombing. The family undertook this journey to escape the persecution and genocide and went to Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
When South Vietnam fell to the communists, the author's family was once again fleeing from Vietnam and traveling to Thailand. Just as the family thought they had found freedom and relief, pirates raped and plundered the family and tried to traffick the author and her sisters into Bangkok's brothels. Just in the nick of time, the U.S Navy pulled in and saved the entire family.
All through the journey, God's grace and protection was never too far away from the author and her family. God's invisible hand and love could be felt even by those who have no knowledge of Him. Our God is a God of love, omnipotent and all powerful. Praise be to the Almighty God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Yanhs Anderson
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223475385

Karen Yanhs Anderson

Author is a wife, dog mom, CEO of Photon Herbal Pets, inventor of Tumorid® (a salve that could remove your pets' tumors without surgery), a language specialist for an international translation company.   Author has been writing since a very young age. During the Vietnam war, the author and family were in Saigon during communist regime. Travel or recreation was severely restricted (think Covid 19 lockdown) for years. There was nothing to do so as a young girl, the author entertained herself and wrote. If you would like to know more about the author’s experience during that time, please check out the author’s other book: From the Killing Fields to Heaven's Gate.   The author currently lives in Arkansas and enjoys traveling, hiking, bird-watching and cooking.   Author is a dedicated member of the Seventh Day Adventist Community.      

Book preview

From the Killing Fields to Heaven’s Gate

A True Story

Iwas told by an army colonel once that I was very comfortable in my own skin. He said that most adult women he had met throughout his life were not very comfortable in their own skin. I wondered why most people (especially women) are not comfortable with their own bodies? 

Although, at that time, I was in my early thirties, I was being sheltered at his house because of a soon-to-be ex-husband was threatening my life.  Recalling my own history, I wondered what I should be ashamed of if I were to feel uncomfortable.  Am I supposed to feel ashamed because when I was four years old, I lied to my dad for the first time?  Should I be ashamed that I was raped at age eleven? Was it my fault because I was wearing a red blouse at the time of the rape?  Should I be ashamed because I married a guy for his looks? What is it in my life that I should be ashamed of and hide?

Indochina War and Background History

Hello, my name is Karen Yanhs-Anderson. I was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  My mom is Lee Chen and my dad, Yichhay Yanhs.  I was the second daughter in my family. I have an older sister; her name is Victoria. I have a younger sister; her name is Jessica. I have one younger brother; his name is Ken.

Mom & Dad

My mom was as an acupuncturist and she practiced in a French doctor’s office. She also spoke multiple languages. Mom speaks fluent Vietnamese, French, Cambodian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Chow Zhou. My dad was a librarian and he could speak fluent Mandarin, Chow Zhou and Cambodian.

Besides their day jobs, both mom and dad also volunteered as teachers at night.  Dad taught drawing and mom taught Mandarin and also math. Both mom and dad taught me work ethics, getting along with others, and how to use herbal and energy medicine since birth.  They also taught us how to read, and write Mandarin. At home, we spoke a dialect called Chow Zhou (both Mandarin and Chow Zhou are dialects of Chinese).

This is a true story of our family escaping from Cambodia’s genocide known as The Killing Fields and also escaping The Vietnam War as boat people to America.

For many people, The Vietnam War was about United States fighting communist in Vietnam between the years of 1955 to 1975.

Unbeknownst to many, the Vietnam War was only a small part of fighting in a bigger sphere of conflict known as the Indochina War.  The Indochina War consisted of two parts. The first part was the fight to push out the French occupation from Vietnam. The French took over Vietnam and other surrounding countries including Cambodia, Laos and southern part of China and called the area French Indochina. The French exploited Indochina for their own country and citizens by exporting rice, rubber, tea, spices and rare minerals.

Under the French colonization, the peasants were poor and landless.  Peasants who worked the fields were paid less than twenty five percent for their produces and export. On top of that, the French taxed the people heavily because of their ambitious public work to fund the roads, bridges, railways, trains, and other infrastructures. After a period of time of being exploited, the peasants’ revolted against their overlords.  Viet Minh, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, was trying to push out the French by waging guerrilla wars with the support of China and Soviet Union.

In 1954, Ho Chi Minh’s forces waged a successful war on the French known as Dien Binh Phu. The French grudgingly signed over the lands to Ho Chi Minh led Viet Minh forces from the latitude of the 17th Parallel north at the Geneva Accord.  It was a temporary cease-fire. All Viet Minh forces were to withdraw north of that line, and all French and Associated State of Vietnam troops were to remain south of it. United States, fearing the spread of communism, gave massive amount of aid to the French and southern Vietnam. That was the beginning of the split of communist North Vietnam and Democratic South Vietnam.

After a period of time, the French gave up and departed Indochina. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were mostly reverted back to their own sovereign countries under their own rules and were peaceful for a very short period of time.  When there’s a power vacuum, someone always tried to grab power and fill that vacuum, and in this case, communist.  That is when the second part of the Indochina War started.  This second Indochina War officially started in 1955 and last until 1975. This time, it was the people struggling for power against communist regime.

CIVIL WAR BROKE OUT between the communist and democratic factions in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia during this second Indochina War. The democratic factions were supported by United States, South Korea, Australia and other countries, and the communist factions were supported by Russia and China. United States Armed Forces were stationed in South Vietnam and fighting against the communist north.

Vietnam’s neighboring countries are Cambodia and Laos (see map above). During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was a country ruled by Prince Sihanouk, a monarch. Sihanouk, according to historians, was a very benevolent ruler, and well liked.  During Sihanouk reign, peace and prosperity were everywhere in Cambodia.  Sihanouk would routinely travel around the country interviewing and talking to people and visiting schools and businesses. He graced the people with his presence and listened to their opinions, and helped to resolve their problems.

During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong routinely utilized Cambodia to funnel weapons and soldiers into southern Vietnam by shipping through the Mekong River.  Mekong River was known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail and U.S fighter jets routinely flew into Cambodia and also Laos to bomb them. U.S. Presidents Nixon and Johnson, without congressional approval, authorized the bombings, and later on, Nixon got impeached partly due to the deception. I1

Prince Silhanouk, the monarch of Cambodia, was not in favor of the United States’ bombings.  He also did not like the United States’ installation and backing of Lon Noi, the new prime minister and puppet in his country. So he requested help from communist China and North Korea.  That’s when China and Vietnam stepped in and funded the campaign against United States by helping to install Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge (French for Red Army) to take over Cambodia’s government while Sihanouk was exiled to China.

Many people believed in Communism and its ideology at that time.  In its purest form, communist means everyone is equal and everyone lives in a classless society. For example, if we apply it here in the west, it would mean the janitors would be paid the same amount as the CEO. If communist is successful, everyone would live in a utopia where equality reigns supreme. No one would live in a McMansion while others live on the streets. It is a theory put forth by Karl Marx and adopted by Lenin, Mao and later on Pol Pot. Furthermore, Prince Sihanouk was very popular to many Cambodians, so when he backed Pol Pot and gave the green light for communist, many people joined Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s Red Army.

Communist is a good theory, and sometimes, good theory just doesn’t work. For example, during the time of Russia’s communist regime, there was an unproven good theory put forth by a scientist named Trofim Lysenko. Lysenko said by exposing seeds to moisture and cold temperature before planting would make the plant cold tolerant and hardy; he said. It could produce abundance of crops and higher yield. It wasn’t tested, but supported by Joseph Stalin during his reign in 1935. This pseudoscience led to massive starvation and death in The Eastern Bloc and Russia.

In Cambodia, during Pol Pot’s communist dictatorship, he believed that everyone should be a productive citizen. His definition of productive means farming. So he herded everyone, doctors, teachers, janitors, cooks, and even children and sent them all into the jungle to clear the land and farm.

Farming is fine in Cambodia because it has very fertile soil and regular monsoon rain to water the crops. The only logistic problem is, if monsoon rain is not captured and contained correctly, the crops would be destroyed and flood resulted.

By that time, most of the people who had the means and foresight could see through the madness. Especially the professionals, massive amounts of