Khmer Rouge And Pol Pot Downfall

“To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.” Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, once said this truly horrifying statement (Cambodian Genocide 1). It is no wonder that he went on to orchestrate the killings of more than two million innocent Cambodians. At the time of the mass killings in Cambodia, the Vietnam War was raging on. It is possible that the Vietnam War masked the true horrors of what was happening in Cambodia. The terrible events left emotional scars and traumatized countless people.

“During the three years, eight months and twenty days that the Khmer Rouge held power it is estimated that around 2 million people perished…from torture and execution or from starvation or untreated illness”. One may look at this figure, and automatically assume that these brutalities committed by the Khmer Rouge, fit the definition of genocide. Through a critical appraisal of a variety of sources, one may discover two very contradictory arguments towards this statement. One perspective illustrates that because the Khmer Rouge targeted specific groups, such as the Cham Muslims, Vietnamese and Buddhist monks it can be considered, ‘clear cases of genocide’. However, there is a great degree of counter arguments revealing that the actions of the

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.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist group that believed they could turn Cambodia into a communist agrarian utopia. Pol Pot set his eyes on first overthrowing the current government. Once he took the capital of Cambodia the group began forcing victims to go on long marches to get to different parts of the country. The Khmer Rouge also began killing those they thought were intellectuals, for example, doctors, teachers, lawyers, and other educated people they thought of intellectuals were immediately killed. (wikipedia)

As a strong communist organization with aims for Cambodia that would leave the country in dire need of help, the Khmer Rouge defectively impacted the easy-going life Cambodians knew. With much determination,

Time and time again, power corrupts those who receive it, whether or not their intentions were benevolent in the first place. From 1975 to 1979, an attempt by Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, to form an egalitarian Communist farming society led to the death of 25% of the country’s population. The Khmer Rouge’s brutal social engineering targeted intellectuals, urban dwellers, civil servants, and religious leaders, among other existing groups occupying a high position in society. By the time the dust settled, Pol Pot’s regime had already became known as one of the most brutal and despotic in world history.

Pol Pot forced the people to work so arduous and treated them so bad that 1.7 million of the 8 million people in Cambodia died of disease, starvation, overwork, or simply being executed. Pol Pot wanted to control everything he got rid of everyday freedom, any form of transportation or communication, the outside world seemed to be non-existent. He wanted to control what they ate every day, who they married, how they spoke, and even what they thought. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge even stated “To keep you is no gain, to destroy you is no loss.” (Hinton, 2015)

Genocides typically occur during a civil revolution or political upheaval. Prince Sihanouk put into effect 2 policies that dealt a severe blow to Cambodia’s economy in his efforts to keep Cambodia independent, safe, and neutral during the Vietnam War. He cut off economic and military support from the United States and “nationalize all Cambodian imports and exports”. This predominantly helped him cut all diplomatic ties with the United States and remain in good favor with the North Vietnamese. By allowing North Vietnam to have troops in Cambodia, in Prince Sihanouk’s mind he was keeping his country safe because he thought that North Vietnam would win the war. Sihanouk’s policies allowed him

Pol Pot and his communist movement, the Khmer Rouge, ruled in Cambodia from 1975 until 1979, they undertook a wanton attack on the lives of all Cambodian people. Pol Pot’s actions to enforce a communist structure have had an impact which has carried though into 21st century Cambodia. The rich national culture was stripped back as they were forced into the ‘Year Zero’. The acts of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are linked to the poverty being experienced by five million people.

In April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rebel group moved into Phnom Penh, seizing power in Cambodia. In December of that same year, two thousand miles away on the other edge of Southeast Asia, the Indonesian military attacked East Timor.1 The Khmer Rouge stayed in power for four years; in these four years nearly a quarter of population in Cambodia died.2 on the other hand the Indonesian military spent the last quarter of the twentieth century involving East Timor; when around one fifth of that little country's population died.3

The killing fields of Cambodia were bursting with bloodshed. The killing fields were a genocide that arose due to the takeover of the Cambodian people by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge establishment. The Rouge party leader “Pol Pot” sought to nationalize and centralize the peasant farming of Cambodia essentially overnight, in unity with the Chinese Communist agricultural model. This stemmed in the gradual devastation of over 25% of the country’s population in just three fleeting years. In the foregoing years of the genocide, the population of Cambodia was just over 7 million, almost all of who

The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the people of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, in Cambodia. It was formed in 1968 and was also known as the "Vietnam People 's Army". It was the ruling party of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, It was lead by a ruler named pol pot who was ruthless and did not care what the people said. Some of Pol pots comrade 's icluded, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Khieu, These men worked together to help rule Cambodia.Its offical name was called the Democratic Kampuchua. Through there ruling the Khmer Rouge made freinds with North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and Pathet Lao during the Vietnam War against the anti-Communist.(www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian.../khmer-rouge-history/) This political party had been responisble for what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide. This was a result of its social engineering and policies. Cambodia had failed at trying to reform its agricultural stability it once had but it never succeeded, This failed attempt led to the widespread hunger in Cambodia . Cambodia had a supply of medicine and they miscalculated the amount of medicine a person needs and the medicine supply was not enough to supply all of cambodia leading to millions dying from diesese. A random act of executions and torture had been put on the innocent people of Cambodia. The party 's aim was to establish a classless state based on rural agricultural

From 1975 to 1979 an estimated 1.5 million to 3 million people died in Cambodia as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime and their leader Pol Pot. Pol pot a french taught revolutionary was determined to rid his country of outside influences and establish a type of Socialism based on agriculture. In the name of purifying the Cambodian society; the Khmer Rouge targeted ethnic Chinese, ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Cham, and the religious groups Cambodian Christians and Buddhist monkhood. In addition to these ethnic and religious demographics the regime also targeted intellectuals, any opposing political groups and many other minority groups that they deemed as a corrupting influence to Cambodia.The main conflicts during this time period

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.

The Cambodian Genocide was a mass murder carried out by the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot, which was to make Cambodia an agrarian utopia. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge got control of Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh, and kicked out then prime minister Lon Nol’s government. Then they immediately began emptying the city’s population into labor camps in the countryside. After forcing the Cambodians to the labor camps, they began implementing this horrific and terrible regime against the people of Cambodia. This new regime did not allow them to resist. The perpetrators broke down the victim’s resistance by killing them if they were not capable of heavy labor, taking away their civil and political rights, and starving them to death.