Cambodia is a country in the eastern region of Asia between surrounding neighboring countries Thailand at the North West, Vietnam at the east, and Laos situated at the northern section. It was on April 17, 1976 that Pol Pot the leader of Khmer Rouge regime entered the Cambodian capital of Phonm Penh and took control of the entire country for four horrific years that filled the citizens with terror. Once they got control they declared the day year zero, the day Cambodia would return back to a simply way of life based on mass agriculture. Basically no one was above one another in social class. The Cambodian people would essentially live the life of their ancestors’. Pol Pot and his political supporters thought going forward this was best thing for the Cambodian people. Yet in essence, Pol Pot the leader of the Khmer Rouge didn’t do nothing beneficial in helping Cambodia grow into a flourishing nation instead he reduced Cambodia and its populace into a poverty stricken country for many years after his rule. During his rule Pol Pot only imposed suffering upon the Cambodian people by forcing them into hard grueling labor and slaughtering their families at will. Pol Pot’s dreadful reign was finally brought to end during the year of 1979 by the South Vietnamese army.
Cambodia is a country home to one of the most atrocious acts that have ever occurred in the world. People today may view Cambodia as a magnificent country but concealed behind the vibrant scenery is a dark past so appalling it is having effects on the country even decades after it originally occurred. Cambodia was plagued by an act of genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge so horrendous that it nearly decimated the entire populace of Cambodia. During the 1960’s and much ...
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...ear of the civilians enclosed in the bubble of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge were successful because they forced all foreign media out of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge controlled the source of information tightly enclosed between their borders. They controlled what entered their country and who was allowed to enter Cambodia and which parts of the region they were allowed to observe. The Khmer Rouge soldiers kept media personnel from socializing with anyone unless specifically given consent by higher ranking Khmer Rouge officials. Media personnel were essentially kept on a tight leash and only exhibited what the Khmer Rouge wanted them to. Performing these events to perfection was the reason the Khmer Rouge were successfully able to hold their reign of Cambodia without any intervention from other nations until after four sickening years of terror the citizens had to endure.
Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot-the leader of the Khmer Rouge followed Maoist communism, which they thought they could create an agrarian utopia. Agrarian means that the society was based on agriculture. They wanted all members of society to be rural agricultural workers and killed intellectuals, who had been depraved by western capitalist ideas. A utopia means a perfect society. This idea went to extremes when The Khmer Rouge resumed that only pure people were qualified to build the revolution. They killed Cambodians without reasons by uncivilized actions such as: cutting heads, burying alive… There were about 1.7 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
"Cambodian Genocide." World without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. .
“The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot’s Regime”. Mtholyoke.edu. 11 May 2005. Web. 7 May 2014.
Ung (2000) mentions that the Cambodian genocide is a product of a perfect agrarian vision that can be built by eliminating Western influence. More specifically, the Angkar perceives peasants and farmers as “model citizens” because many have not left the village and were not subjected to Western influence (Ung 2000:57). Moreover, the Khmer Rouge emphasized the ethnic cleansing of individuals from other races who were not considered “true Khmer” and represented a “source of evil, corruption, [and] poison” (Ung 2000:92). Lastly, the ideology centered on obtaining lost territory was based on a “time when Kampuchea was a large empire with territories” (Ung 2000:78). In essence, Ung successfully demonstrates that multiple causes encouraged the Cambodian
On December 25th, 1978 Vietnam organized a invasion of Cambodia. On January 7th, 1979, Phnom Penh was no longer controlled by Pol Pot, who fled to Thailand with the remains of his Khmer Rouge regime. A new government, created by Khmer Rouge defectors, was instituted. Once Pol Pot lost control of the capital of Cambodia he lost a substantial amount of power and no longer could face the people of Cambodia and the Vietnam troops head-on. He decided to flee to Thailand to continue his plans of creating a communist government in Cambodia. For the next 17 years he continued fighting Cambodian governments but eventually lost complete control of the Khmer Rouge. Before he could be tried for what he did throughout the years 1975-1979 he died of a heart attack (i.e. heart attack was caused by a
"Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979." The History Place : Genocide in the 20th Century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979. The History Place, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
The Khmer Rouge years was a period of time that devastated all of the small country Cambodia, a story that was so well told by Loung Ung about the Pol Pot regime. The Khmer Rouge years was from 1975 to 1979 (http://www.cambodiatribunal.org). The Khmer Rouge, otherwise known as Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), conquered Cambodia for four years. The Khmer Rouge forced people to work in the fields including children. To make matters worse, the people that were forced to work were also malnourished and were living in grim conditions (http://www.wcl.american.edu).
Throughout the nation’s 2000-year history, Cambodia, a developing Southeast Asian country located on the Indochina Peninsula, has experienced a number of glories and tragedies; as a matter of fact, it was until 1993 that the democratic election, supported by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), were conducted to restore peace in Cambodia under a coalition government (CIA World Factbook, 2013). In order to transform from the negative peace which is just the absent of direct violence to the positive peace meaning the absent of cultural and structural violence, Cambodia, the younger member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has been trying as hard as possible to address the problem of inequality with the obvious hope that if inequality is not natural, according to Hobbes, but rather constructed, there are probably chances to level down its impacts or even demolish its existence.
Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in December of 1978, resulting in nearly 130,000 more Cambodians to migrate into California, catching the atten...
Walker, Luke. "Cambodian Genocide." World Without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Theda Skocpol grew up in Detroit, Michigan, received her B.A. from Michigan State University and went on to earn a PhD from Harvard in sociology, where she is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Sociology and Government. She is widely regarded in academic circles for her unique approaches to understanding political and social science issues. In 2007, Skocpol was awarded the John Skytte Prize in political science, one of the world’s most prestigious, academic awards. Theda Skocpol’s, Social Revolutions in the Modern World, was widely published in 1994 and presents an extension of her structurally-based, comparative analysis of various social revolutions. In addition to this book, she has also published numerous other works including States and Social Revolutions and the acclaimed, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, applying her social theories to the genesis of the American welfare state.
Marks, Stephen P. "Elusive Justice For The Victims Of The Khmer Rouge." Journal Of International Affairs 52.2 (1999): 691. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
These conditions were clearly morally deplorable, and the coup caused a change from aristocrats to an Indonesian business class, seen as a victory over communism at the climax of the Cold War. Seeing as similar killings happened right after Indonesia’s, one would think that the generals did not learn their lesson on moral validity. The inevitability of people being killed waters down the big question of moral validities by the minute. In the end, it all comes down to the point of view; depending on the point of view, any side’s moral values could be seen
Settled in the end of the fifth century, two groups established themselves in what is now present day Cambodia. The Champa controlled the central and southern part of Vietnam and the Funan is the southernmost part Vietnam and present-day Cambodia. Influences from both China and India were obvious as dance and music spread throughout the area. Ruling on its own till 1864 when the French absorbed it into French Indochina Along with Laos and Vietnam. For nearly a century, the French exploited Cambodia commercially, and demanded power over politics, economics, and social life. It was not until a leader Norodom Sihanouk proclaimed Cambodia's independence in 1949 which was later granted in 1953. Cambodia fell into chaos during the 1970’s as General Lon Nol and his connections to the Khmer Rouge brought Cambodia into a genocidal age. For a decade Cambodia was surrounded by despair and carnage until the reign of the Khmer Rouge ended in 1979. Slowly rebuilding of the nation began as outside countries and organization such as the United Nation helped to get Cambodia back on its feet. Plans were made for general elections by 1993 which lead to the constitutional monarchy that the country has today. With its cyclical and oppressive history, Cambodia future is optimistic with the economy growing rapidly due to industries such as tourism, textiles, oil and the traditional farming. Slowly the nation reaches to find its place among the other powerhouses in Southeast Asia and around the world.