The Khmer Rouge Regime

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

Pol Pot once said, “although a million lives have been wasted, our party does not feel sorry.” Pol Pot was the ruthless dictator of Cambodia during the 1970s and was single handedly responsible for millions of deaths and suffering. Pol Pot was considered a dictator because he was the leader of three consecutive parties and governments in Cambodia, and in all of them, he made his own people suffer while trying to make radical changes. His main goals were to completely reshape his country Cambodia, into a communist society based on peasants and agriculture. He wanted to create a new type of Cambodia where the population was made up of entirely workers and peasants, and all evidence of the wealthy classes was removed. Pol Pot wanted an equal society

The time before the Khmer Rouge came to be, Cambodia was a healthy and prosperous country. The rise of the Khmer Rouge was a local Communities party that believed that everything should be fair and equal. They were just like the Nazi’s; ruthless and careless. Pol Pot murdered artists because they thought they were to intelligent. The Khmer rouge took pictures of the victims that they killed by poison gases or with spades to help save on ammunition.

Pol Pot took advantage of Cambodia’s corrupt government and their lack of military support from the U.S. after the Vietnam war. Not only that but during the Vietnam war Pol Pot started a civil war within cambodia with his army which greatly weakened Cambodia’s army who was protecting themselves from North Vietnam but also fighting off Pol Pot’s army, the leader of Cambodia eventually fell and Pol Pot and his regime took over the capital city for nearly four years causing over a million deaths.

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

The Cambodian genocide began in 1975 when Pol Pot, a Khmer Rouge leader, attempted to for a Communist peasant farming society. About 1.5 million Cambodians died. [10]

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)

The Cambodian genocide happened between 1975 and 1979 in the country of Cambodia. Almost 2 million Cambodians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Buddhist, Cham, intellectuals, anyone with above a 7th grade education, and western influenced-people were systematically killed during the genocide. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge started the genocide on April 17th, 1975 when they evacuated the city of Phnom Penh along with other major cities and forced people into the countryside where their work camps were. Even though Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge failed to create a “Pure Kampuchean Society”, their actions devastated all of Cambodia. Millions of Cambodians were displaced from their homes and lost their belongings. The trauma of the work camps caused PTSD in millions of people, which have been passed down to generations who did not experience the genocide. Various diseases and famine have also affected many Cambodians after the genocide. Despite this, many Cambodians were willing to share their gruesome past. For example, Loung Ung, Cambodian genocide survivor, wrote the memoir First They Killed My Father. Her memoir describes her struggles as a five year old girl leaving behind everything she considered as home. Through her experiences, she communicates to her audience an important theme: that people are willing to do anything for family.

1 - In your opinion, how important are the years of the Khmer Rouge for modern Cambodia? Does their history still play a role in the counry's politics?

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,

During the Pol Pot Regime, 25 percent of Cambodia’s population was killed due to executions, starvation, and overwork. Pol Pot wanted to form a communist farming society which resulted in the death of 2,000,000 people during 1975-1979. This genocide started because of a man named Pol Pot and the Communist group (Khmer Rouge) in Cambodia.

Even though the Khmer Rouge made all people living in labor camps do the same amount of work, those who had lived in rural Cambodia were treated less harshly and were given more to eat. Thousands of people living within these camps suffered and died at the hands of starvation. These were not the only people who died during this time; throughout the rule of the Khmer Rouge, over 2 million people died due to executions, famine, and disease (Kiernan). Under Pol Pot’s regime, thousands of people were murdered including: doctors,

In the jungle, Pol Pot created an armies resistance and armies training that became known as Khmer Rouge in order to fight against King Sihanouk who was the leader of Cambodia. King Sihanouk is loved and respected by the people of Cambodia by his majority, his style of leadership and his characteristics. However, not everyone love him, there are many people in the government who did not really like him for many reasons. He interested in filming and directing in movies

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.

“There is no doctor who can heal me. But I know that a man like Pol Pot, he is even sicker than I am. He is crazy in the head because he believed in killing people. He believed in starving children. We both have the horror in our heads."-- Upon the death of Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, in 1998, quoted in The Times. The Cambodian genocide is the greatest injustice. Between the years of 1975-1979, complete annihilation happened inside the nation of Cambodia. A socialist named Pol Pot had assumed control over the administration with his armed force, Khmer Rouge, and was persuaded that transforming Cambodia into an entirely comrade nation was crucial. The reason to sort out a socialist gathering was to acquire influence, however to acquire