Pol Pot: Genocide In Cambodia

After Year Zero and the purge of his own people, he lost a large amount of public support. Many believed that he was a traitor “whose hands are stained with blood” because “Cambodians don’t kill Cambodians” (Thayer). He claimed to have committed those crimes to ensure better lives for his people, but he only made them hate him by killing their fellow Cambodians. To make matters even worse, Pol Pot refused to repent or even talk about the thousands of executions or the million deaths that he caused, he only continued to blame the Vietnamese for his actions (Becker). He believed that there were countless Vietnamese agents in Cambodia who “didn’t give rice to the population”, causing widespread starvation (Thayer). He took no personal responsibility for the over one million deaths that he caused and believed that his “conscious is clear”. Somehow Pol Pot thought that he could deny that the mass genocide, that occurred during his own rule, was his fault. Even his old allies turned against him and were the ones to capture him in the end (“Khmer Rouge”). Pol Pot turned on every possible person that could have helped him, and when he was captured he had no one left. But, even with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s known terror, the Vietnamese government that was installed after the Khmer Rouge was led by Khmer Rouge leaders and Khmer Rouge trained communists (Rainsy) . As

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

When the Soviet Union officially acknowledged the Viet Minh as the true Vietnamese government, the French communist group Parti communiste français declared their support for Vietnamese independence. Enraptured by their anti-colonialist views, Sar joined the Communist Party in 1950. He later became the head of the Khmer Student Association’s “Marxist Circle.” It was during this time period that Sar took on a new name, and a new mission in life. When Pol Pot returned to his home country in January 1953, he did so on a mission to overthrow his country’s government and put into power a communist dictatorship.

Pol Pot had a better time growing up in Cambodia than most, and was known for liking sports and the arts. He was born in 1925 to a Buddhist family, and followed all of the Buddhist traditions along with his family (Cohen,Warren). His family was rice farmers and were poor, but had rich and powerful connections. Through these connections Pol Pot was able to travel to

The Khmer Rouge was a ruthless party led by Pol Pot that killed many Cambodians in a gruesome fashion known as the Cambodian Genocide, using methods such as torture and starvation, which led to execution. History To many Americans the Cambodian Genocide was the most unknown genocide that took place.

In Cambodia in the 1960s The Khmer Rouge Regime rose to power, which lead to the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s. Pol Pot, the leader of this group, believed in a new country without evils. He describes evils such as money and religion as the cause for the corrupt and terrible world he lives in. Pol Pot's goal was to bring Cambodia back to the middle ages. Pol Pot dreamed of a ‘perfect’ Cambodia in which the society “build a prosperous and happy Cambodian society in which all enjoy equality, happiness and a society free from all class or individual forms of exploitation, in which everyone strives to increase production and to defend the country (pg 415)”. He began enforcing communal farming as a new way of living. Pol pot states “When we have rice, we can have everything” is their ‘slogan’ (Journal of Contemporary Asia pg 414). Pol Pot along with the rest of the Khmer Rouge Regime believed strongly in the perks that come out of farming. They

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)

Pol Pot shut the country off from all outside influences such as newspapers, radio, television, mail, and even money. This was Pol Pot’s attempt to go back in time and have a higher control over the people. Human rights were revoked, no more free speech, religion was forbidden when 90 percent of the people were Buddhists. There was no traveling was permitted and the whole community was put on schedules and have strict rules. People who broke even the smallest rule were killed. People who were inhabitants were forced out of the cities by Khmer Rouge. Two million people had to leave Phnom Penh

Genocide is the mass killing of a specific group of people, mainly targeting people with certain ethnic backgrounds or religious groups. The Pol Pot genocide in Cambodia was endorsed by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. The Cambodians were under the control of Pol Pot during this time and the regime killed approximately 1.5 to 3 million Cambodian citizens, both children and adults. The Khmer Rouge was a communist party who began to make a move after seeing French colonization in Cambodia begin to struggle. The Khmer Rouge wanted to create the best community they could be, they started by killing and enslaving many Cambodians those who were educated and high up the social ladder (Sites.google.com, 2013). But there was one main perpetrator, Pol Pot who was a member but later on become the leader of the Khmer Rouge communist party.

The Cambodian war lasted eight years, from 1967 to 1975, the Cambodian genocide was four years long starting in 1975 until 1979. According to History, “Pol Pot was a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979” (Pol Pot). As shown Pol Pot was the leader during this time, whether it was in the background or upfront. He believed in communism and thought it was what was best for Cambodia.

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,

The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) was their official name, Pol Pot later in 1963 he became the party’s secretary and leader. A coup was staged, and Prince Sihanouk was no longer the head of state, the Khmer Rouge had been gaining more members and had an alliance with Sihanouk. With this alliance and the help of Vietnam, Lon Nol began losing territory and battles. The U.S began dropping bombs in Cambodia killing many and having more join forces with the Khmer Rouge, on April 17, 1975, the capital Phnom Penh was taken by the communist group. The Khmer Rouge treated its population as slaves and worked

Cambodian Communist Party leader, Pol Pot (1962), went into hiding from the then Cambodian leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk. While he was avoiding the Prince he created a movement called the Red Cambodians (Khmer Rouge) and tried to wage guerrilla warfare against Sihanouk. When a military coup staged by the U.S. took away Sihanouk’s power, he joined forced with Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. As the U.S. continuously bombed North Vietnam holding locations as far as Cambodia, their population of peasants began to feel the effects as hundreds of thousands were in the midst war games between 1969-1973; as a result the Cambodian peasants went to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. The U.S. presence was seen as harmful eventually pulled away from supporting

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.

In 1962 the Cambodian government commenced arresting and killing authoritative members of the communist party due to the upcoming elections and their desire to destroy any chance of the party being elected. Due to the arrest and execution of the current leader Pol Pot was subsequently named leader. Whilst Pol Pot was leading the Cambodian Communist Party restrictions on