Khmer Rouge Revolution In Cambodia Essay

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

In the 1950s Cambodia gained its independence from France and became peacefully ruled by Prince Sihanouk. In the 1960s, Cambodia was dragged into the Vietnam War and in 1970, the prime minister General Lon Nol assumed power and announced the implementation of the Khmer Republic and sent the Khmer Republic’s army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia (Smith-Hefner 264). Prince Sihanouk formed a communist guerrilla

The Cambodian Genocide initially started during the vietnam war. Cambodia was practically in the middle of it working neutral. They still got bombed many times though, mostly from the US and communism eventually began trying to change something but what really happened was the Cambodian Genocide of the 20th century. The genocide ended with over 2,000,000 deaths. (P.P.I.C.)

By the hundreds and thousands peasants left the countryside and settled in Phnom Penh. All these events helped Pol Pot rise in popularity. On April 17, 1975 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh and took control of the

Vietnam eventually overthrew the Khmer Rouge and effectively installed a socialist regime consisting of Khmer Rouge defectors. Most members of the Khmer Rouge escaped and fled to Thailand to receive assistance from the western countries. The Soviet Union would end up fighting the Khmer Rouge with help from China and Vietnam for over a decade. Due to economic sanctions that the U.S. placed on Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge had to withdraw their troops and leave. Afterward, a peace agreement was signed and a coalition government was formed and former monarch, Prince Sihanouk, was elected to run. Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge until 1997, when he was placed under house arrest until he died of natural causes without any charges being pressed against him (“The Cambodian Genocide”). The Khmer Rouge lasted until 1999, when most of it’s members died off or been arrested (“The Cambodian Genocide). After the genocide, the world was silent and refused to talk about it. Craig Etcheson, a Cambodia expert from George Mason University, felt that “For many years, their was a virtual taboo on even speaking of the Khmer Rouge, as if their words were … a malevolent spirit lurking in the corner of every room (Hume and Coren). Most of the Cambodian citizens were too afraid to speak up because they did not want to relive the horrors of what occurred. In essence, the Cambodian genocide was one of many genocides throughout history that share similarities with other

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

In 1953 Cambodia gained independence after nearly a century of French rule. The country was ruled by a monarch, Prince Sihanouk. In 1970, Sihanouk was deposed in a coup while in a foreign country. General Lon Nol, gained power. He announced the plan of the Khmer Republic and sent the Army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia. Sihanouk formed a small independent group with Cambodian Communists. The Khmer Rouge was lead by Pol Pot from 1962. During the early 1970s, the Cambodian Army faced two enemies: the North Vietnamese and Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

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

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

The Cambodian genocide was one of the worst atrocities in the twentieth century. Innocent civilians living in Cambodia were targeted by a communist group called the Khmer Rouge. Victims such as Cham Muslims, Buddhist Monks, Christians, and anyone who was considered a threat to the ultimate goal of the perpetrators were extensively tortured or brutally murdered. Year Zero was a society that the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, wanted Cambodia to adapt. In order to do carry out his plan, he made everyone become farmers and started the genocide by evacuating the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. On April 17th, 1975, the Khmer Rouge Army stormed into Phnom Penh and forced two million people to the countryside. They ruled Cambodia until 1979

Arguably, the formulation of internal purges within the Khmer Rouge can be considered a consequential, contributing factor to the death toll of the Cambodian genocide. Fostered by a “mix of hubris and paranoia”, the upshot culminated widespread violence and terror. From 1977 to 1978, Pol Pot initiated purges against the “hidden enemies, burrowing from within”, causing Khmer Rouge cadres to turn on themselves. The purged were mostly imprisoned within S-21, and out of the 14,000 who walked through the gates, more than 1,000 were Khmer Rouge cadres accused of disloyalty to the regime. 12.50 - Overall it is estimated that 200,000 individuals were executed due to the bloody purges put into motion by Pol Pot. - make it clear that these individuals

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,

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