FYI Juw177...
The Cambodian Genocide was a time period in the early 1970’s where Cambodians were slaughtered and placed under a “pure” communist society. The Cambodian genocide involved bombing, rebellion, a civil war, propaganda and an estimated two million deaths. When looking at the relationship between the Khmer Rogue, the Cambodian Government and the International World, perhaps the genocide was never the Khmer Rogues fault to begin with. Although they were the cause of the genocide, if certain actions were not taken, the Khmer Rogue would have never had the opportunity to take control of Cambodia (Peace Pledge Unition).
Cambodia is a country in Southern Asia, neighboring Vietnam. Originally a neutral country during the Vietnam War, certain area’s of Cambodia were used as trade routes to import food and military supplies to Northern Vietnam. The United States bombed parts of Cambodia because of the trade routes going through Cambodia which provided supplies to North Vietnam as well as the sanctuaries provided in Cambodia that helped wounded soldiers (Peace Pledge Unition).
During this time frame, President Nixon was the Commanding Chief for the United States, He originally tried to stop the Vietnam War but ended up expanding it to Cambodia. The first attempt to bomb Cambodia was called, Operation Breakfast, this bombardment targeted both trade routes and sanctuaries, but failed miserably. Following Operation Breakfast came Operation Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Desert and Supper. The bombing lasted a total of fourteen months, hurting both Vietnam and Cambodia
(The Cambodian Genocide).
Events soon followed after the bombardment including the use of Napalm, a flame substance used to incinerate buildings and help spread the fire. United States infantry were deployed into Cambodia on April 1970. It was now that a rebel group known as the Khmer Rogue had the chance to strike at the Cambodian government. The Khmer Rogue were a group of teenagers that were tired of the Cambodian government, under the control of Pol Pot, they rose together to try to end the Cambodian government and start communism in Cambodia. Given the opportunity, they aligned themselves with North Vietnam and waged war against the Cambodian government leading into a five year Civil War in Cambodia. The United States sided with the Buddhist Cambodians (the government of Cambodia) while the Vietnamese forces lead by Lon Nol joined the Khmer Rogue (The Cambodian Genocide). Prince Silhanouk; the current ruler of Cambodia, agreed to join the Americans as siding with the Khmer Rogue was considered a act of rebellion. The Buddhist Cambodians were considered puppets of the Americans by the Cambodian people while the Khmer Rogue were considered loyal and honest.The Americans were issued to lead air raids to rend the Khmer Rogue infantry useless, the bombing was intense and killed tens of thousands Khmer Rogue members and Cambodian Civilians. Not only did the air raid decimate homes, it caused the exact opposite of the effect it was purposely intended to cause. Initially used to wipe out the Khmer Rogue, the air raids caused the Cambodian people to fear the government and the Americans, causing them to join the Khmer Rogue. By 1969, an estimated 540,000 tons of bombs were dropped in Cambodia, destroying the countries economy. By 1973, inflation in Cambodia topped 275%, almost half of the roads and bridges in Cambodia were considered un usable (Peace Pledge Unition).
Because of the affects of the United States bombardment, the government of Cambodia asked the United States to withdraw. The Khmer Rogue took this as an advantage and over threw the Cambodians, allowing the leader Pol Pot to take control of Cambodia starting the Cambodian Genocide (The Cambodian Genocide).
Basing his communism after the Chinese, Pol Pot successfully rounded up all the civilians of Cambodia to the capital, he then demanded that they marched to the rice fields picking food for their country. The harvest lasted from 4 A.M to 10 P.M giving the Cambodians little time to rest and only half a bowl of rice to eat per day. Any form of resistance ended in quick death, but this was just the beginning of the “pure” communist country (Peace Pledge Unition).
Pol Pot soon made rules that all Cambodians must abide by, These were clear indications of the early stages of the genocide. Pol Pot had the civilians wear scarfs, and along with this, he separated Cambodian family members and disallowed communication. Communication was illegal and must be moderated by an officer. Least to say, Pol Pot was a very paranoid man, making unnecessary rules that only caused his people harm (Peace Pledge Unition).
A few months after Pol Pots rule, he began to become even more paranoid than he already was, he wanted all Cambodians with intelligence to be executed. All forms of education were considered illegal and anyone that showed a sign of education was sent to S-21, originally a High School but turned into a prison when Pol Pot became ruler of Cambodia. Out of the 17,000 prisoners inside S-21, only 7 managed to survive because of their exceptional skills in certain area’s such as painting or weaving. Although the majority of the prisoners of S-21 were falsely accused, they were tortured until they confessed what they did that could have possibly sent to prison, resulting in execution. Although the prisoners confessed, many of the confessions were lies, either to end their pain or for an attempt to escape the prison (Peace Pledge Unition).
Outside S-21, The farm workers were over worked and died from starvation and lack of sleep. Pol Pot felt no remorse and continued his “pure” communist country by executing any other ethnic group other than Cambodian. He had a hatred for the Vietnamese and ended up executing 50% of the Vietnamese living in Cambodia, a total of 450,000. This was considered his way of “ethnically cleansing” Cambodia.
Fearful that the Vietnamese might attack Cambodia, he launched an attack towards Vietnam but was thwarted by the Vietnamese Forces. The Vietnamese counter attacked Cambodia resulting in many more deaths and of course, the over throwing of the Cambodian capital city, Phnom Penh. When the Vietnamese raided Cambodia, they located S-21 and raided the prison, looting the documents and revealing that Pol Pot lead a genocide towards his own people. Pol Pot was sentenced to court but was never tried due to heart failure at the age of eighty three (The Cambodian Genocide).
The Cambodian Genocide caused 2.3 million deaths but was this Pol Pots fault. If the Americans never joined the civil war, would Pol Pot had the opportunity to attack Cambodia with such a large force? What if the Americans stayed. Would Cambodia be faced with this horrible genocide. Perhaps it was Vietnams fault for allowing Pol Pot to conquer Phnom Penh. If Vietnam never waged a Civil War, would Cambodia be the same as it is today? Although the Khmer Rouge caused the genocide, if actions were taken and the Cambodian Government didn’t allow the Khmer Rogue to strike, the Cambodian Genocide would have never began.