Michael Theodore Vickery (April 1, 1931 – June 29, 2017) was an American historian, lecturer, and author known for his works about the
history of Southeast Asia
The history of Southeast Asia covers the people of Southeast Asia from prehistory to the present in two distinct sub-regions: Mainland Southeast Asia (or Indochina) and Maritime Southeast Asia (or Insular Southeast Asia). Mainland Southeast As ...
.
Life
Vickery was born on April 1, 1931, in
Billings
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Met ...
,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
.
After acquiring a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
in
Russian studies
Russian studies is an interdisciplinary field crossing politics, history, culture, economics, and languages of Russia and its neighborhood, often grouped under Soviet and Communist studies. Russian studies should not be confused with the study of ...
from the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
in 1952, Vickery became a
Fulbright scholar in Finland from 1953 to 1955 before joining the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
in Germany from 1956 to 1958.
He then taught English in
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, Turkey, from 1958 to 1960, in Cambodia from 1960 to 1964, and in Laos from 1964 to 1967.
He carried out a thesis research in Cambodia and Thailand from 1970 to 1972 and halted it in 1973 when he became a lecturer in Southeast Asian history at the
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Universiti Sains Malaysia ( 'Science University of Malaysia'; abbreviation, abbreviated as USM) is a public research university in Malaysia. Founded on 1 June 1969 as a statutory body with its own constitution, it is among the oldest institute ...
in
Penang, Malaysia, where he worked until 1979. He resumed and completed the research in 1977, naming it ''Cambodia After Angkor: The Chronicular Evidence for the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries''.
In the same year, Vickery received a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in history from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
Following that, he became a research fellow in Southeast Asian history at the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
from 1979 to 1982, a research fellow in Southeast Asian history at the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
from 1982 to 1988, and a senior lecturer in Southeast Asian history at the Universiti Sains Malaysia from 1988 to 1998.
He then taught
Cambodian history at the
Royal University of Fine Arts
The Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA; ; french: Université royale des beaux-arts) is a university in Chey Chumneas, Phnom Penh specialising in architecture and fine arts. It is the oldest university in Cambodia, having been in existence since ...
in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 1998 to 2002.
He worked as an independent scholar based in
Chiang Mai Province
Chiang Mai ( th, เชียงใหม่, ; nod, , ) is the largest Province (''changwat'') of Thailand. It lies in upper northern Thailand and has a population of 1.78 million people. It is bordered by Chiang Rai to the northeast, Lam ...
, Thailand, from 2002 to 2008.
The next year, he became a visiting professor at the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry,
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
, where he worked until at least 2011.
On June 29, 2017, Vickery died of a heart attack at the age of 86 in
Battambang Province, Cambodia, where his funeral was held for five days.
He was survived by his Khmer-American wife, Angelina Vickery, and his two daughters, Angelina and Mimi (the latter of whom is adopted).
Work on Southeast Asian history
Vickery's research and writings have concentrated on ancient and modern history of
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...
and
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
with publications ranging from early history to contextual studies and interpretations of recent and contemporary Cambodia - being one of only a handful scholars, who comprehensively examined regional events during the 1980s.
Vickery essentially contributed to and helped to extend the scholarly debate of the
Pre-Angkorian kingdoms, the
classic age and the
Post-Angkor Period
The post-Angkor period of Cambodia ( km, ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាក្រោយសម័យអង្គរ), also called the Middle Period and Dark Age ( km, យុគ្គអន្ធកាល, lit=Isolationism, link=yes; ( km ...
, introducing and integrating the works of the Cambodian scholars
Khin Sok and Mak Phoen by utilizing their alternative view-points. On the basis of volumes of previously non-deciphered epigraphic inscriptions, Vickery elaborated on the fact, that many works of earlier scholars, "...written 20 years ago may be simply refuted by the discovery or the deciphering of a
ewinscription". and further: "To study nowadays Cambodian history with
eorges Coédès would amount to do geography with
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
".
In 1984, he published his book "''Cambodia 1975–1982''" that covers the years of the
Pol Pot era and its
immediate aftermath.
Vickery's work has been described as falling into "Marxist schools of thought"
by some scholars although he wasn't a communist.
He is considered to be, and regularly cited as, a "Cambodia expert", one of the leading historians on Cambodian history and as a "giant of
Southeast Asian scholarship".
Vickery was a member of the ''
Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars
The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) was founded in 1968 by a group of graduate students and younger faculty as part of the opposition to the American participation in the Vietnam War. They proposed a "radical critique of the assumptio ...
.'' In ''Volume 21, 1989, he wrote'':
Vickery contributed a number of columns for the
Phnom Penh Post
''The Phnom Penh Post'' ( km, ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍, ) is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest Eng ...
from 1992 to 2007 during which time he engaged in political debate. In 2008 it was announced, that he had been working with former Khmer Rouge foreign minister
Ieng Sary
Ieng Sary ( km, អៀង សារី; 24 October 1925 – 14 March 2013) was a Cambodian politician who was the co-founder and senior member of the Khmer Rouge. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea le ...
’s defense team at the
Khmer Rouge Tribunal, serving as an analyst and historical expert.
Publications
Dissertation
* ''Cambodia After Angkor: The Chronicular Evidence for the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries'', Yale University, Ph.D., December 1977. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, University Microfilms.
Books
* ''Cambodia 1975–1982'', Boston, South End Press; Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1984; second edition, Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 1999.
* ''Kampuchea, Politics, Economics and Society'', Frances Pinter (Publishers), London, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., Boulder, 1986.
* ''Society, Economics and Politics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia: The 7th-8th Centuries'', Tokyo, The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, The Toyo Bunko, 1998.
* ''Cambodia: A Political Survey'', Phnom Penh, Funan Press, 2007
Collections
* ''Kicking the
Vietnam Syndrome
Vietnam Syndrome is a term in U.S. politics that refers to public aversion to American overseas military involvements after the domestic controversy over the Vietnam War. In 1973, the U.S. ended combat operations in Vietnam. Since the early 198 ...
in Cambodia, Collected Writings 1975–2010,'' published on-line, 2010
See also
*
History of Cambodia
The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a ...
*
Post-Angkor Period
The post-Angkor period of Cambodia ( km, ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាក្រោយសម័យអង្គរ), also called the Middle Period and Dark Age ( km, យុគ្គអន្ធកាល, lit=Isolationism, link=yes; ( km ...
*
Democratic Kampuchea
Kampuchea ( km, កម្ពុជា ), officially known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK; km, កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ ) from 5 January 1976, was a one-party totalitarian state which encompassed modern-day Camb ...
*
People's Republic of Kampuchea
The People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), UNGEGN: , ALA-LC: ; vi, Cộng hòa Nhân dân Campuchia was a partially recognised state in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as So ...
*
Khin Sok
References
External links
Michael Vickery's publicationsBCAS/Critical Asian Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vickery, Michael
1931 births
2017 deaths
American educators
Australian National University faculty
Deaths in Cambodia
American historians
Historians of Southeast Asia
University of Adelaide faculty
University of Sydney faculty
University of Washington alumni
Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni