Cambodia Research Paper

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.

In the late 70’s, nearly 2 million Cambodians died of overwork, starvation, torture, and execution in what became known as the Cambodian genocide. A group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country in April 1975. Over the course of

The Khmer Rouge forces took over Cambodia, and evacuated the nation's cities. They emptied schools, hospitals, factories and abolished all forms of money and wages. Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self expression were forbidden. They were forced into the countryside to do forced labor, and got less than 90 grams of rice a day. Where most people died from fatigue, disease, execution, and starvation. Now people of Cambodia are exchanging this terrible genocide for healing. Trying to find peace and a resolution for all those who have lost loved ones, or encountered this terrible genocide

During times of trouble it is the structure of families which bring stability and fuel resilience. Families often support each other to survive a trauma because they are support systems. The Cambodian genocide led by the Khmer Rouge regime attempted to tear apart families and exploit their special bond. The Khmer Rouge soldiers took towns captive or burned them, and recruited youths to join their cause (Pran IX). From 1975 to 1979, all Cambodians were forced to live in labor camps and were forced to work fourteen to eighteen hours a day with only a single bowl of rice to eat. Family members were separated from one another purposefully to lower morale. During this period an estimated one-third of Cambodian’s population died due to malnutrition, illness, and execution (Pran X). Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors compiled by Dith Pran is important because it confirms the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, explains how the Khmer Rouge gained power, and how the Khmer Rouge attempted to indoctrinate young children against their parents.

The aftermath of this mass genocide made Cambodia known for its infamous “Killing Fields” during the time of Pol Pot and his men. Last but not least, the genocide nearly exterminated the population of two million Cambodians out of six millions (Yale University, 2003).

I have chosen this topic because I have always been interested in learning more about “The Killing Fields.” The Killing Fields of Cambodia refers to the genocide which took place in Cambodia after the takeover of power by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. They were in power for four years until 1979 when the Vietnamese, who were engaged in an often violent border dispute with the Khmer Rouge, finally invaded in force and seized power from the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot took advantage of Cambodia’s corrupt government and their lack of military support from the U.S. after the Vietnam war. Not only that but during the Vietnam war Pol Pot started a civil war within cambodia with his army which greatly weakened Cambodia’s army who was protecting themselves from North Vietnam but also fighting off Pol Pot’s army, the leader of Cambodia eventually fell and Pol Pot and his regime took over the capital city for nearly four years causing over a million deaths.

The Cambodian genocide began in 1975 when Pol Pot, a Khmer Rouge leader, attempted to for a Communist peasant farming society. About 1.5 million Cambodians died. [10]

A genocide is the systematic extermination of an entire social, racial, or political group or nation, specifically those of a particular ethnicity. While the genocide in Cambodia is not as widely recognized as that of Rwanda or the Holocaust, millions of Cambodian citizens were murdered between the years of 1975 and 1979 under the control of the Khmer Rouge. The government depopulated cities and forcibly relocated citizens to collective farms known as Killing Fields because of the unspeakable amount of deaths of all ages that occurred there. Approximately 14,000 lives were taken in these fields due to the stringent rules placed upon the citizens. The Khmer Rouge advocated for social equality and transformed Cambodia into a pre-industrialized nation centered around agriculture. The loss of millions of lives led to significant demographic changes, ranging from an increase in the amount of elderly, homeless citizens, and to a decrease in ethnic diversity across the nation. The dictatorship simultaneously lessened the culture and identity of coming generations due to the execution of artists and musicians who brought forth important aspects of tradition. The destruction of infrastructure also contributed to the limitations of postwar Cambodia. In summary, The Khmer Rouge carried out a genocide that strongly influenced the demographics, culture, and infrastructure of Cambodian society.

Cambodia experienced mass death, approximately 1.7 million lives, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975 through 1979. The Khmer Rouge regime dominated the Cambodian government and attempted to purge the population of intellectuals, professionals and supporters of the original government. In an attempt to better the country’s economic standing at a horrendously rapid rate, the country instead experienced mass destruction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways devastation was brought upon Cambodia and how it affected the populace. In the 1950’s the country was engulfed by the civil war north and south Vietnam was waging after gaining independence from France. The battlefield of the war overflowed into Cambodia and caused physical

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 the years of 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot became the head of the most murderous revolution of our time. His communist regime with the Khmer Rouge created one of the largest, yet greatly under-looked atrocities of the time. The genocide in his Democratic Kampuchea has created a death toll that could be as high as 3,000,000 people, or 25% of the country's population. (Chandler, 1999; Cambodia Genocide) In an attempt to refashion his country, "people were simply sacrificed to our struggle, not killed," as Pol Pot himself stated. (Pol Pot: Life of a Tyrant, 2000)

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 were followers of a communist party of Kampuchea, which took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The party’s existence was kept a secret until 1977, anyone outside of CPK knew the leaders as Angkar Padevat. A genocide was born, where they tortured and killed thousands of innocents under the order of dictator Pol Pot. They set policies and rules to reach their main goal, which was to build a new Cambodia focused on agricultural success. When the Khmer Rouge took power people were forced into the countryside to work. In order to ensure this they banned money, private property, schools, churches, shops, government builds, universities. Prisons and reeducation camps were formed from schools and buildings. They would murder

In the southern portion of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia lays the small country of Cambodia, a country that has been in economic turmoil for decades. One economic downfall after another has led to about a third of the nation existing below the poverty line which was at 2,473 Riel or 61 cents per day in 2010. Cambodia’s population is estimated to be around 15,000,000 people. So that leaves about 5,000,000 in poverty. The current struggle Cambodia has to face is the future. The private sector needs to create enough jobs to handle Cambodia’s demographic imbalance. Nearly half of the population is under 21. Due to the poverty in this country children are victims of malnourishment from a very young age. As you can imagine, growing up in conditions such as these lead to impacts on their education and learning skills. This puts Cambodia’s youth in a highly vulnerable position as it would it any country. Migrating to the urban areas without any money, knowledge, or support these youth get pushed into a life of alcoholism, drug addictions, sex trade, HIV exposure, theft, and killing. There is an estimate of about 24,000 children who work and live on the streets. Cambodia is a society where it is not common to share your family problems. They are considered private issues and no one really cares to hear about them. Sharing things like this is considered a weakness. This could be a cause or effect of the lack of social services and counseling in Cambodia. The education