Pol Pot's Legacy

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.

“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.

There is a Khmer word that describes the fate of two million people, about a quarter of the Cambodian population at the time – “Kamtech”, whose meaning is “to destroy with no traces left behind”. The responsible party is the Khmer Rouge, a political group who during the mid to late 1970s enacted a revolution according adopted the communist ideal of elimination of a social class system, and attempted to force that ideal on the population of Cambodia. Their leader was Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar), who promised that the policies set by the Khmer Rouge will bring the country to a state of utopia (Ly). If one were to look at film and pictures taken during the Khmer Rouge’s rule, there would be nothing to indicate that Pol Pot’s promises did not come to fruition: the surviving footage is almost entirely propaganda produced by the Khmer Rouge, and depicts Cambodia as the promised utopia (Panh). How can it be though, that in a country where the communist ideal has come to be, where everyone is equal and has their needs provided, that two million people are killed over the span of four years? Rithy Pahn, a film creator, tells the story of the missing people through his film The Missing Picture. In it, he tells stories of his experiences as an adolescent during the Khmer Rouge’s regime. The Missing Picture is ultimately about providing a replacement to the footage of Panh’s experiences (that was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge)—as a memorialization of the events that took place under the

Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. From the moment he was in control of Cambodia he set the calendars to year zero. His goal was to recreate Cambodia as a natural society, eliminating any trace of the modern world. Modern materials were seen as impure and dangerous and were quickly disposed of. Any intellectuals, artists, or monks were

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.

How did Pol pot's regime affect life in cambodia in the past and the present? Pol Pot's goal was to make Cambodia start at year zero. As soon as he came to power, He tried to eliminate anything that would ruin his idea for the utopia he wanted. The Khmer Rouge believed that to make the country perfect country, they must remove everything from the old way, including the old education way. In the past, Students were taught in Buddhist monasteries called Wats.(Bookbridge) After he took over, his first step was to remove education from Cambodia.

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

In 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot, invaded Phnom Penh and overthrew Lon Nol’s U.S. supported military dictatorship. The Communist Party of Kampuchea, otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, was a Cambodian political party that based its ideals on nationalism, communism, and agrarian socialism. The Khmer Rouge first gained attention during communist movement that emerged from the anti-colonial struggle against France. During French rule, Cambodia was under the influence of western ideas and culture. Because Cambodia had been a French Protectorate since 1863, many aspects of Cambodian culture and identity were lost within French colonial rule. After seizing power over Cambodia in 1975 and it was renamed as Democratic Kampuchea. The Cambodian genocide occurred because a radical idea of nationalism and ended up wiping out one-third of Cambodia’s population. A debate surrounding Cambodian nationalism has been argued while investigating the history of the Khmer Rouge. Michael Vickery, the author of the book Cambodia 1975-1982, argued that the Khmer Rouge was inspired by the peasants to create a nation in which everyone had the same living standards.Ben Kiernan, director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, argued that by favoring the peasants, the Khmer Rouge destroyed the working class. Kiernan also argues that “Pol Potism” rose from the idea of Cambodian nationalism. In 1976, Pol Pot created the “Four Year Plan” to build socialism in

Pol Pot who was born in Cambodia,led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until 1997 and also served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.On April 1975,when his forces captured Phnom Penh,he became leader of Cambodia.During that time of his leadership, about 1.5 million Cambodians out of a total population of 7 to 8 million died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork, apparently the death toll was higher.At one point in his life,Pol Pot taught history, geography and French literature at a private school while simultaneously planning a revolution.Sadly, Pol Pot died unexpectedly in his sleep on April 15, 1998, due to heart failure.

On December 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a land invasion of Cambodia in the hopes of ending the Khmer border attacks. On January 7, 1979, Pol Pot was disposed of and the capitol fell to Vietnam control. A temporary government was established and consisted of Khmer defectors. Pot retreated to Thailand with the remainder of the Khmer and fought a series of guerrilla wars against the new Cambodian government for 17 years. Pot lost power and later died of a heart attack just shortly after being arrested in April 1998. He did not live long enough to be tried in international court.

After that, he began to go to a French Catholic primary school. He continued his learning until 1949, where he went to Paris, France. He studied radio technology and was an avid communist. After his arrival back to Cambodia, he had found that its people were rebelling against French rule, a year later they got their independence. From 1956, Pot had taught history, geography and French literature, all while he had joined a secret communist party and plotting a revolution. In the 60s, he made the party exclusively focusing on Marxism-Leninism. The group moved deep in the countryside and in 1968 they began a national uprising that led to his total command of the country. In 1970, while the Prince of Cambodia was out of the country, the group started a civil war. The Prince had been kicked out of power and turned to the Khmer Rouge movement. He supported Pol Pot in the uprising. By 1975, the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital. As its leader, Pol Pot became the leader of the country. Life under the Rouge was deadly. Everyone was stripped of their belongings and worked in the fields as part of a re-education program. Anyone that refused would be taken to detention centers,

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 1964, Pot, supported by Vietnam, established a base camp on the Vietnam-Cambodia border, and began to revolt against Prince Sihanouk. The KPRP reformed in 1966, also known as the Khmer Rouge. However, General Lon Nol, a Cambodian military commander, took over