History: The Khmer Rouge

After they seized power in Cambodia in April 1975, Saloth "Pol Pot" Sar and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the death of 1.5-3 million Cambodian's and were perhaps one of the most ruthless regimes of the 20th century. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate Pol Pot's means of maintaining power from 1975 to 1979. An account of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's drastic internal reforms including the slaughter of millions, economic reorganization, political restructuring, and the cultivation of social/ethnic groups will appear in section B. External forces including funding from China and the United States and repressive measures such as censorship, torture, and execution will be assessed. This

The killing of so many Cambodian people fueled the Khmer Rouge to begin a power grab, where they staged a coup to take control of the government. They succeeded and

The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators and the world’s response to the genocide.

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 .

m. When the Americans started bombing in Cambodia, it pushed people to join a rebel group called the Khmer Rouge.

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

This paper investigates and distinguishes, through my opinion, the impacts that Khmer Rouge’s also known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) had on a global scale. First, by addressing the impacts to the immediate country, Cambodia and the tactics used by this abhorrent organization. Furthermore, the ideologies used by said organization, to instill fear and distrust in the population; which lead to there early demise, but not after 1.7 million people lost or sacrificed there lives for their country, per se. The lesson to be learned from this is, no matter who you are or what power you have, eventually you will have to answer to the international community if you commit such egregious acts of violence.

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

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, claimed that this would help return them to their basic times creating a utopia, even though he went in the other direction. Khmer Rouge was the group of cambodian communist that took control. Him and his followers, killed 25 percent of their population by murdering, overworking and starving them to death. They mainly targeted doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, the rich, artists, and/or anyone with an education. They also targeted various religious and ethnic groups during the genocide like, religious enthusiasts, Buddhists,

The underlying foundations of the Cambodian genocide are found in the Maoist political and economic beliefs of the Khmer Rouge administration. The most important leaders, all of whom studied in Paris in the 1950s and became active in the communist movement together, were Saloth Sar (who would later re-brand himself as Pol Pot), Ieng Sary, and Khieu Samphan. 30 The significance of their time together in France is that they developed what to them seemed a coherent political and economic model for the future of their home country, Cambodia.31 The last real stage in transforming

Genocides are defined as a large group of killings often of a specific ethnic group or nation. Genocides targeting specific groups happen all over the world. Sometimes they are well known, while in other cases they are hidden and not published as much. Unlike the Holocaust, The Khmer Rouge Regime caused a smaller scale genocide in the heart of Cambodia. Beginning in the late 1960s the Khmer Rouge Regime came into power. Their leader Pol Pot committed atrocities, killing a little over two million innocent people. Pol Pot believed that this new society was becoming evil. He decided to bring the city of Phnom Penh back to the middle ages with communal farming. He murdered every “intellectual” of the country. He killed anyone who had any education, or even worse, glasses. He isolated the city and everybody in it. There are many stories coming from the victim's point of view and how they felt as 2.2 million of their own were killed. There are also reasons of why the Cambodian government's committed this atrocity. Finally, there are the views from America and its feelings towards watching the genocide go down from outside the country. Looking through all of these different lenses of this genocide help get a big picture of how and why something so horrific could have happened.

Khmer Rouge began out of the struggle against French colonization and was influenced by the Vietnamese. The movement was fueled by the first Indochina War in the 1950s. Growing into

Ever since the actions in Cambodia occurred, it has been debated whether it was an actual genocide. The general definition of genocide is the purposeful and methodical execution of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia demonstrated that a government can be guilty of genocide against its own nation. The radical communist party led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. After 1979, the Khmer Rouge left a traumatized Cambodian culture that continues to undergo the repercussions of the genocide. People over the age of forty in Cambodia have stories to tell of fear, cruelty, hunger and the loss of family members. However, the Cambodian government is not making an effort to recognize the negative occurrences that have posed itself in the history of their culture.

Located in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia was home to one of the bloodiest political regimes to exist in the 20th century. In a country, in which American government reports in 1959 documented, was full of “ ‘docile and passive people…[who] could not be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of US aims and policies’”, the United States conflict in neighboring Vietnam brought about incredible changes to an unsuspecting people (qted. in Dunlop 70). The countryside was bombed by the United States in order to uproot suspected North Vietnamese holdouts and supply routes starting in 1969. These bombing raids, which devastated

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