Genocide In Cambodia Essay

The definition of genocide is killing a large group of people of a certain origin. The Holocaust was in Germany and started in 1933. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in charge of the Holocaust. The Cambodian Genocide took place in Cambodia. Cambodia is in Southeast Asia (“Cambodian”). Pol Pot was the leader of Khmer Rouge and the group was in charge of the Cambodian Genocide (“Cambodian”). The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1978 because Khmer Rouge was ended by Vietnam (“Cambodian”). The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide are similar in the administrations’ treatment of their victims and in the fact that their victims were desperate for a leader, but different in U.S. involvement and government motivation.

The Cambodian Genocide was the result of imperialism, ethnic supremacy, ultra-nationalism, anti-colonialism, a power grab, and religion. It began with the Cambodian people struggling against French colonization and grew in inspiration from Vietnam (end genocide). The French believed that Cambodia was a gateway into China to expand their trade with Southeast Asia. The French occupied southern Vietnam and wanted to expand their territory. There were many civil wars and invasions in Cambodia fought between the Vietnamese and Thai, and it greatly affected Cambodia. While the French did help Cambodia become independent and grew their infrastructure, while exploiting Cambodian labor, they failed to educate Cambodian people and establish a solid and effective judiciary system (Cambodia tribunal). Thus began their feelings of anti-colonialism. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used Cambodia as a base to regroup, but also bombed the country to kill suspected Viet Cong targets. This began their feelings of imperialism and ultra-nationalism. The Khmer Rouge began feeling great animosity towards the West for their influenced corruption to Cambodian land and its people. Between January and August of 1973, 300,000 Cambodians were killed by American bombers that had joined forces with Lon Nol, head of the Khmer Republic.

The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up

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 Cambodian Genocide happened between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge, a guerrilla group, over threw the government and started a regime to bring Cambodia back to year zero . The Khmer Rouge called this the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea . Their aim was to purify society from the influence of the west, and to create a communist country . The Khmer Rouge started this by destroying what was left of the old society and executing the wealthy, educated and military people. They banned all outside languages and religion. An estimated figure of 1.7 million Cambodians where killed during this period by the Khmer Rouge .

Many times we may hear but not respond, we see and don’t move and having the ability to take action we don’t even move a finger until the situation is out of control. It’s amazing how ignorant and stubborn the human race can be. This is exactly the response of many nations when it comes to genocide. Genocide is the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group. Two of the most recent genocides in history are the genocide of Rwanda and the genocide of Cambodia.

To many Americans the Cambodian Genocide was the most unknown genocide that took place. Just like the catastrophic event known as the Rwandan Genocide, this genocide is also not known. The Khmer Rouge committed the same crimes. Some of their murderous methods were very similar. During this time the Khmer Rouge put local Cambodians in prison, hospitals, and some schools to be executed or just to stay there to slowly suffer and eventually die.

Cambodia, my small country bordering Thailand, has recently descended into a grisly crisis of outright genocide of innocent citizens, my innocent neighbors. This genocide is very different from any other genocide because it isn't driven by racial or religious reasons, but by poisonous ideology, the ideology of my own neighbors. As of today a little less than a million Cambodians have died either from starvation, torture, disease, execution, and even exhaustion from hard labor carried out by their own families, by my own neighbors.

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,

From April 17, 1975 Until January 1979 Pol Pot forced the citizens of Cambodia to live in harsh labor camps and work 14 to 18 hour days. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s plan was to liberate their citizens. They told citizens that America was going to bomb the cities. They forced millions of people out of their homes and they were separated so they couldn’t stand up and win back their rights (DePaul and Kiernan). They didn’t like anyone that tried to come between them and their master plan. Anyone he deemed would “foil” their plan would be killed (Genocide in Cambodia 1975- 1979). They took particular aim at intellectuals, city residents ethnic Vietnamese, civil servants, and religious leaders (History.com).

Pol Pot killed 25% of Cambodia, equivalent to the entire city of Philadelphia. In a four year period, over 1.7 million Cambodians died of overwork, starvation, torture and execution. Pol Pot’s Communist ideals, extremely similar to the Stalinist USSR, called for a total collectivization of agriculture and for a complete nationalization of all sectors of the economy. Pol Pot’s ideology, Socialist Agrarianism, valued farmers, and wanted to rid the country of all other professions. Pol Pot was "creating a complete Communist society without wasting time on the intermediate steps," as the Khmer Rouge said to China in 1975 (Kiernan, Ben). Believing the city people to be contaminated by their past lives, Pol Pot would re-write their histories.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, drove by Pol Pot, came to Phnom Penh, took control and changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea. It expeditiously cleared the urban zones, and sent the entire masses on compelled strolls to provincial work wonders. They attempted to redo the country's cultivation on the model of the eleventh century, discarding Western medication and destroying havens, libraries, and anything that was seen as

There are many genocides that people are not aware of. One of them is the attempted genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was able to gain power and remain in control of Cambodia for years without interference because they isolated the country from any foreign influence. Other countries had no idea what was happening inside Cambodia until years later. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, wanted to create their own ideal communist society. So how did The Khmer Rouge gain so much power and control? Some argue that Pol Pot was the only one responsible for the power and control gained by the Khmer Rouge. On the other hand, others say that the notion of social hierarchy was

Prior to the history of the Pol Pot Regime that occurred in Cambodia, there were many conflicts that sparked within the government. In April 1975, Cambodia’s government had gone through significant drastic changes, and many of the citizens were forced to leave their own lifestyles.1 The importance of a changing government could be seen as crucial because during this time period, government reformations created a negative impact towards the citizens. “The Khmer Rouge were Maoist forces led by Pol Pot in Cambodia during the reign of terror that lasted from 1975 to 1979.” 2 It was a terrifying sight of exhausted victims, eyes widened with fear, arms and necks chained with bruises marking their features.3 Many of the children and parents had to endure endless harsh labor daily, while suffering exhaustion and limited sources of food.4