1970s Communism Research Paper

Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, the Chakravartin of the Khmer Empire ruled through their ability to build temples and perform Buddhist rituals. Throughout its history, Buddhism had a large and devout following in Cambodia, and for this reason, the Khmer Rouge sought to replace it. The Angkar, the name ascribed to the state by the Khmer Rouge, banned the practice of religion to extend its power through the loyalty of its subjects. According to Loung Ung's brother Kim in her memoir, "the Angkar do not want people worshipping any gods or goddesses that might take away devotion to the Angkar. To ensure that this rule is enforced, the soldiers destroyed Buddhist temples and worshipping sights throughout the country." By banning Buddhist religious practice in its state and eliminating historical remnants of Buddhism, the Khmer Rouge revised Cambodian history and established the Angkar as the only higher or more powerful force for people to look up to. Though Pol Pot had a particularly atypical cult of personality due to his secrecy, Loung Ung explains that many began to see him as a patriarchal, god-like figure: "They whisper that he is a soldier, that he is brilliant, and that he is the father of the country […] Pol Pot makes us work hard because he wants to purify our spirit and help us achieve beyond our potential as

Later that same year, Pot and the Khmer Rouge took control over Cambodia. Pot wasted no time in starting his mission to reconstruct Cambodia. He thought that all the educated people needed to be killed (Melicharova). Also he thought that all noncommunist aspects of Cambodia needed to be wiped out. All rights you had were now gone. Religion was banned and if you were any kind of leader among the Buddhist monks, you were killed instantly (Melicharova). All kids were taken away and sent to work in the fields (Melicharova). If anyone was currently working and had a job, they were immediately killed along with their family members. It got so bad that you could be killed for just laughing, crying, and knowing another language. The Khmer Rouge motto was “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss” (Melicharova). If you were lucky enough to escape death, you were put into the fields working usually from 4am to 10pm unpaid (“Pol”). From lack of food and sleep, people often became very ill which sadly led to death.

Cambodia is a small country of Southeast Asia, less than half the size of the state of California (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian Genocide”). The Cambodian government in the mid 1970’s was unstable as Lon Nol, the Cambodian prime minister, and his forces were being stretched dealing with conflicts of Vietnamese communists, and a rising group of Cambodian communists called the Khmer Rouge Party. (Peace Pledge Union) As the government grew weaker and began to loose control, The Khmer Rouge Party overthrew the country. They began killing for their cause in 1975. The Khmer Rouge Party, under the rule of a man called Pol Pot, enforced a new way of life following values and rules similar to Maoist-Communism (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian Genocide”). The Khmer Party attempted, in simplistic terms, to nationally centralize the middle or farming class of Cambodia (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian

In the 1960’s a group named the Khmer Rouge surfaced, but was with few members. They were led by Pol Pot, a man who would soon bring terror to all Cambodians. Their goal was to bring Cambodia into a primal state, where everyone

These people ranged from intellectuals, doctors, children and other Khmer Rouge members. Anyone who could not travel to the camps or work was seen as useless, and would be killed in cold blood. Even children and infants were targeted because the Khmer Rouge thought that in order “ ‘to stop the weeds you must pull up the roots’ ” (“The Cambodian Genocide”). Pol Pot knew that if the children understood the torture that they were going through, they would go against him in the future. The Khmer Rouge did not want any chance for a revolt and would do anything to keep it that way. Pol Pot believed that Cambodia should be a rural, classless society without any rich or poor people where people were forced to farm rice to trade to other

There exists a country in Southern Asia, known as Cambodia. This is a small and poor country that experienced dramatic changes in the past century. The Cambodian, or Khmer, society was a very capitalistic country consisted a small population of the rich and a large majority of the poor. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor proved to be fatal. This unreliable economic system soon became the cause of the Khmer Civil War in 1967. This civil war was started by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), who later renamed themselves to Khmer Rouge. Led by Pol Pot, this Kampuchea party was made up of mainly the lower and middle class who greatly despised the rich, who they believed shared a narcissistic view and an extreme corruption. The Khmer Rouge was able to defeat the Khmer Republic and took over

The communist group known as “Khmer Rouge” was lead by Pol Pot during the Cambodian genocide. The Genocide began in 1975 to 1979. Due to the leader shutting down schools, universities, hospitals, private institutions and factories, people died of overworking. People also died of starvation and illnesses. About 2 million people died in Cambodia when Pol Pot took power in the country. The Khmer Rouge forces targeted religious groups and other ethnic groups and also banned the groups. In reality almost everyone was a target to them. The families were separated. The children and adults were sent to different camps. Anyone who attempted to disobey or refuse to do something was automatically shot and killed. The people in Cambodia did not live in

In 1966, Pol Pot took his first trip to China. Here, where the continuous Cultural Revolution was taken place, is where he was truly accepted by the extremist political figures. Pol Pot was said to have been thoroughly impressed and influenced by Mao Tse-Tung's ideologies of his revolution, and the ideologies of other political radicals of China. It, in turn, helped transfer his loyalties and develop a new model for his revolution. With this new influence, Pol Pot would attempt to join forces and receive aid in fighting from the Vietnamese. The Workers' Party of Kampuchea was now known as the Kampuchean Communist Party, but more commonly now known as the Khmer Rouge. (Templer, 1998)

In 1975 in Cambodia, Asia a warlord named Pol Pot with his party named Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. You may asked what their plans were there plan was to change the country into a communist agrarian utopia. If you are asking what is Agrarian utopia this means perfect society. So to complete this goal he evaluate millions of people in the city of Cambodia. Then the Khmer Rouge took the citizen of Cambodia to labor camps where they were starved, tortured, and abused. Doctor, Teachers, Monks, Rich people, and other educated people where the people who were mostly tortured and killed. This genocide had a humongous death toll of 1.7 to 2 million Cambodians that died in the four years of the Khmer Rouge rain. With little to no help from

The Khmer Rouge group was created in the 1940s, but it was during the Vietnam War that the KR gained more power and became more prominent. The Khmer Rouge is an off-shot from the North Vietnamese government and essentially was funded by their government. The Vietnamese helped to make the KR a real political party in the Cambodian political system. Without their help, they could not afford to provide a whole army guns, military vehicles, and other military resources. It was in 68’ when the group launched a full scale national uprising. They wanted to make a unrealistic “fair” society where there was no

Before any research, I vaguely understood why Vietnam liberated the Cambodians. As I was the first generation in the United States, it concealed me from Vietnam’s history and their interactions with foreign nations. Nonetheless, I understood that North Vietnam previously sponsored the Khmer Rouge Regime. The financing was as a result of the Allies funding the Lon Nol, Capitalistic Administration during the Vietnam War. A few years after the war ended, the new Communist Regime turned against their subsidized, Vietnamese government and commenced a war. Unfortunately, lacking information meant I could only conclude one thing: Communistic expansion commenced the war. Cambodia’s extreme ideologies must have angered Vietnam. When juxtaposed, the

The Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979) was a period of complete chaos and destruction. In The Killing Fields, Eyewitness Accounts The Cambodian Genocide, and The Endurance of the Cambodian Family Under the Khmer Rouge Regime: An Oral History, Cambodia became controlled by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge entered Cambodia on April 17, 1975 in preparation for a nationwide “liberation campaign” (Mam, 119). The Khmer Rouge’s goals were to create a communist revolution that would place power in the hands of the peasants to benefit the state. They wanted to increase agricultural production and transform the Cambodian society (Mam, 119). Before the Khmer Rouge rose to power, Cambodian class, family, and religion played a huge role in Cambodian identity. The family tried to remain strong through resistance, making it difficult for the KR to implement their harsh plans. However, the Khmer Rouge did implement horrific policies that caused many Cambodians to endure suffering that lasted until the Vietnamese forces liberated Cambodia in 1979.

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power,

Pol Pot just got hooked and the idea of Communism and The Khmer Rouge played a huge role his plan because without them he would be nothing. The Khmer Rouge is really what has him so powerful putting him the driver seat doing whatever he wants, really the Khmer Rouge is his own little army. ”The Khmer Rouge was a brutal, murderous revolutionary group intent on revolutionizing Cambodian society. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge army marched into Phnom Penh, the modern capital. Khmer Rouge soldiers, young peasants from the provinces, mostly uneducated teenage boys who had never been in a city before, swept through town.

Some say that Pol Pot was responsible for the power and control of Cambodia because “Pol Pot cut Cambodia off from the world. He banned foreign and minority languages and attacked the neighboring countries of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand in an attempt to regain ancient ‘lost territory’” (The life of Pol Pot- Cambodia 4). This statement is true because the Khmer Rouge did gain part of their power by isolating the country, but Pol Pot is not fully responsible for that. There were other people involved, like Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan all of these people were also leaders in the Khmer Rouge. Nuon Chea was the second leader in the Khmer Rouge he is known as “The evil genius of the movement” (Chandler 1), because he is the one who was in charge of the prison system. He was one of the one’s with a heartless mind, planning tortures and executing innocent people.