The holocaust in Cambodia had been going on for three years; somewhere

between 15 and 25 per cent of the population had been killed. Mr. Vin had escaped to tell the tale, and although his English is weak, he is a moving witness ("I don't think that what is reported to the world is exaggerated. What is said about the holocaust, the executions, the crimes, starvation, hardship, and sickness, is true, absolutely true"). To the question why are so many people denying the magnitude of the killing, Mr. Cherne points out that some of those who were initially the most skeptical (partly because of "their previous knowledge of the Cambodians as a gentle people; and it seemed inconceivable to them"), once they saw the evidence, "are today the most impressive among those who have assembled the data which make Mr. Vin's story a modest one."