Today, Dr. Widyono spoke on Cambodian history as well as its relations with the United States and China. He started off by explaining Cambodian’s geographic location, just in case anyone in the audience was unaware. Cambodia is located in Southeastern Asia, neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. “Originally”, Cambodia was a French protectorate, until France installed a Cambodian figurehead. Sihanouk was apparently a well-versed leader, but he was eventually overthrown by his prime minister Long Nol in 1970. Immediately, the United States took action. It invaded Cambodia for 90 days trying to shut down the operation of some Southern Vietnamese working in Cambodia at the time. All this did was cause a Cambodian civil war, and the U.S. dropped an unnecessary amount of bombs on the country of Cambodia. Khmer rouge started working about this time, and it managed to orchestrate the deaths of over millions of people. Many people were forced to give confessions of crimes they never committed, and then executed immediately after their “confessions”. That was Dr. Widyono’s concise history of the recent conflict in Cambodia; he still managed to discuss China’s influence and his travels.

He argues that the conspiracy that China will take over the world is completely false. Widyono believes that a country has to have a good foundation within itself for it to succeed in its relationships with other countries. China, he believes does not have the completely well-functioning government to start making huge moves in the world, at least not now. For example, China tried to gain a foothold on Cambodia, however, Cambodia had a well-coordinated, military bureaucracy so China was not able to make an influence there.

Dr. Widyono was able to visit Cambodia to see the depth of the relationship between Cambodia and China. He was able to go through national archives, and he eventually came across a text of blueprints for war materials. The subject was too dense in Mandarin for him to decipher it, so he took it to some Chinese friends, then Chinese engineering friends, and finally one of his students. The student’s grandmother was able to put Widyono in contact with some people in China who would be able to decode the riddle. His trip was a success because he found people who lived and worked on projects in Cambodia during the time period who were able to translate the text.