But on that very first day of what was so romantically called the ‘liberation,’ came the stunning order to all to evacuate the city. The old and the young, the healthy and the invalid, those who had secretly wished for the victory of the Khmers Rouges as well as those who until the last moment had served the Lon Nol regime, whatever their beliefs – all were driven out. For weeks the roads of Cambodian were clogged with masses of wretched men, women, and children heading away from home, far from where they wished to be, from where they wanted to begin their lives anew in a time of newfound peace. The new rulers drove them to distant places, whose principal attribute was as often as not unsuitability to sustain life.