What Happened:
Killing someone is often viewed as self defense, an accident, premeditation, or for a good cause, but what if it's for a radical communist movement? In the mid 1970s, in the small southeastern Asian country of Cambodia, mass murder was being committed while the rest of the
world carried on somewhat obliviously. During that time frame, the leaders of Cambodia, the Kampuchea(CPK), were intentionally mass murdering their population. The purposeful harm of the Cambodian people led to the immediate destruction of the Cambodian people’s lives and the continuous mark of devastation on their souls.
Cambodia had always been a country that struggled to be an independent power. In the late 1800s up until the mid 1900s they were a French colonial province until they gained power under their new king, King Sihanouk. His son, Prince Sihanouk, became leader of Cambodia when the problems within Cambodia began. Prince Sihanouk allowed the Vietnamese to establish military bases for their troops in Northern Cambodia while they battled the Americans in the Vietnam war. As a result of the Prince supporting the Vietnamese, the Americans began to bomb the Cambodian countryside where the Vietnamese military bases were. These bombings ruined crops, which forced the farmers out of the countryside and into the cities, especially Phnom Penh (BBC News)
The CPK needed to gain followers, so they immediately appealed themselves to those who struggle the most; the poor. Under Prince Sihanouk’s monarchy, the peasants viewed their prince similarly to a God ,so they worked for him as humble servants. The CPK convinced the poor peasants that their King was not as holy as he seemed and turned them against Prince Sihanouk. They did this by forming a radical regime out of the peasants and tribal Cambodians, and together as a whole they overthrew their monarch, Prince Sihanouk. Once they had dethroned their once powerful leader, the CPK, otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, began to show its true colors by unleashing its terrors upon its own people (Cambodian Genocide).
Pol Pot was a manipulative, well spoken, sociopathic genius. Coming from an early childhood fueled with agricultural labor and then the progression into higher education, he used
his skills to manipulate his way to the top of Cambodian society. By appealing to the emotions and oppressive nature of the old Cambodian society under Prince Sihanouk’s reign, he depicted revolution to the peasants and tribal people as new hope for the future. In reality, Pol Pot’s ideal society was basically an agrarian one where everyone showed no emotion, wore black, and worked until they were dead. The extremes of the conditions in Cambodia -starvation, war, mass murder, etc, combined with the twisted customs of the Khmer Rouge, are what led to the destruction of Cambodia from the inside out. Pol Pot and his followers not only killed intellectuals, but took over hospitals, schools, and businesses to further their control over their own people (Tyrants and Dictators).
The Americans and Vietnamese proved to be little help in stopping the atrocities because they left the Cambodian people to fend for themselves against their sociopathic leader once they signed their peace treaty ending the Vietnam war. Combined with the desertion of the Americans/Vietnamese in the Cambodian countryside, starvation caused by lack of food, and the continuous destruction of their homeland Cambodia sank even lower than before, economically and culturally than ever before. The minute country was left to protect itself from the bloodthirsty creatures living within its beloved walls.
Once Cambodia was abandoned by their two closest allies ,America & Vietnam, the rest of the rest of the world “had also abandoned Cambodia to its fate” (Tyrants and Dictators). Pol Pot’s new classless society was finally established using communist ideals. Under the name of the Khmer Rouge, he and his followers forced the Cambodian people to work long, cruel hours in the Cambodian countryside harvesting rice. The Khmer Rouge’s leaders, armed with guns, constantly reminded the innocent people what it felt like to be afraid. The notion that at any minute their life or that of a loved one would be taken at any time, is what helped weaken the Cambodian people’s resolve. On constant edge, the Cambodian people’s hearts were constantly filled with a sense of fear; but for those who remained hopeful, help would soon come (Khmer Rouge History).
This regime quickly fell apart a few years into its “cleansing” plan because the Vietnamese had invaded Cambodia. After bringing Cambodia under Vietnamese control, the previous monarch, Prince Sihanouk, was restored to the throne as leader of Cambodia. The Vietnamese provided aid to the people of Cambodia even though not all Cambodians felt as if they were good samaritans. Many people felt this way because of archaic wars with the Vietnamese who had also been better, economically, than the Cambodian population in the past. Although the Vietnamese nursed Cambodia back to stability, they were never able to remove the scars left by the Khmer Rouge (Doyle).
As a result of the Khmer Rouge’s horrific treatment, Cambodia lost 2 million innocent people. These people were wrongly murdered because of the maniacal mind of their immoral leader Pol Pot and his followers. A few Cambodian families have been reunited with lost family members, but countless survivors have not. Not only have these people been heartbroken, but many are permanently traumatized mentally and physically. For example, some older Khmer Rouge survivors now suffer from heart conditions because of the abuse imposed upon them. Others have lost limbs and many have illness and diseases from malnourishment and inaccessibility to medicine. Mentally, the abuse inflicted upon the Cambodian people has left many permanently traumatized (Effects).
The Khmer Rouge’s genocide obviously had a terrible impact on Cambodia’s economy, but it also hurt the people of Cambodia educationally, culturally, and physically. For example, when the Khmer Rouge obliterated ¼ of it’s population it took countless Cambodian artifacts, artists, dancers, anything that held a trace of their old and beautiful culture was destroyed. The education system in Cambodia had collapsed because all intellectuals fit to teach were dead. Physically the Cambodian people were left with marks of the Khmer Rouge by illnesses, deaths, heart conditions (in older people), and permanent mental trauma. By forcing the people of Cambodia to succumb to the procedures of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian people of that generation are forever damaged or haunted by the repercussions (Effects/Tyrants and Dictators).
For those that fled to safer countries as refugees and were able to start over, they often began new lives for themselves in America. Because of their choice to be reborn as American citizens they were given a second chance at life. And for those who share the American Dream, they too were able to pursue these aspirations. Especially in Lowell, Massachusetts where the second highest population in the U.S. resides many opportunities dwell there. For example, many Cambodian people now have the ability of getting a higher education and having successful successful lives.
For those that did not have the opportunity of gaining refuge, they were left to deal with the dominant Vietnamese. The Vietnamese stayed in Cambodia up until the 1990s, attempting to
repair the damage done in Cambodia. Eventually, when the Cambodian people were as steady as they could be for the time, the Vietnamese retreated from the still healing country. The severity of the Khmer Rouge’s brutal actions have often been overlooked by those who do not come from Cambodian descent; but the tragic losses of so many innocent souls is just as significant as the Holocaust of Germany. However the tragic Cambodian genocide did provide the world with a warning about the consequences of power being shifted into the wrong hands (Cambodian Profile).
*"Tyrants & Dicatators Video"
This video is a documentary that summarizes the events of the Khmer Rouge using audio. It gives a comprehensive explanation of the events of the Cambodian Genocide to those unarmiliar and farmiliar with the topic. The link to this video can be found under the about section of this website.