By April 1975, a Communist group known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, seized control of Cambodia, renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea.
Civil war had existed in Cambodia since 1970.
Between 1970 and 1973, during the Vietnam War, the United States bombed much of the countryside of Cambodia and manipulated Cambodian politics to support the rise of pro-West Lon Nol as the leader of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge used the United States’ actions to recruit followers and as an excuse for the brutal policies they exercised when in power.
Khmer Rouge’s polices were guided by its belief that the citizens of Cambodia had been tainted by exposure to outside ideas, especially by the capitalist West. The Khmer Rouge persecuted the educated — such as doctors, lawyers, and current or former military and police. Christian, Buddhist and Muslim citizens also were specifically targeted. In an effort to create a society without competition, in which people worked for the common good, the Khmer Rouge placed people in collective living arrangements — or communes — and enacted “re-education” programs to encourage the commune lifestyle. Those who refused re-education were killed in the fields surrounding the commune or at the infamous prison camp Tuol Sleng Centre, known as S-21. Over four years, the Khmer Rouge killed more than 1.7 million people through work, starvation and torture.
In January 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime, and established a pro-Vietnamese regime in Cambodia. Many survivors fled to refugee camps in Thailand; of these, many went on to immigrate to the United States.
Polpot’s last words before his death were “I don’t have a massacre, I’m just fighting.“
In fact, there are many lies about the history of the Khmer Rouge massacre.
For the evaluation of the Khmer Rouge, all the information used by the evaluator comes from Polpot’s enemies, not from the entourage of Polpot. This historical memory is very biased.
According to the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, the Cambodians welcomed the Khmer Rouge regime over the pro-American one due to being pelted by American bombs that were trying to flush out the Viet Cong as an extension of the Vietnam War.
Lon Nol’s army carried out massacres in rural Cambodia, those who died in American bombings, those who died in the Vietnam invasion in 1979, and those who were killed in the Heng Sam-rin purge campaign. All the dead are counted on the heads of the Polpot. This is politics, Losers are always in the wrong. (ps: Heng Sam-rin is a member of the Khmer Rouge who opposed Pol Pot and was still elected chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly in 2006)
The excavated bones piled up into mountains, and all the excavated bones were used as evidence of Pol Pot’s cruel rule ( is Polpot’s name written on all the bones?)
Cambodia has been a war-torn country since 1970.
Cambodia had hardly stopped war and famine before 1975.
A whole lot of infants and children died because of lack of food and medical care.
Of course, Pol Pot also carried out large-scale cleaning during the Khmer Rouge period, but not many people died as a result of the Great Purge, Not as exaggerated as the rumors say!
If you are killing almost 1 in 4, that means everyone knows someone close who is killed, then who is following orders and doing all the killing? They would have rebelled and stopped following orders.
However, to everyone’s surprise, the Khmer Rouge did not completely lose the support of the Cambodian people, allowing the Khmer Rouge to survive in the jungle for 20 years. The Khmer Rouge surrendered not because the government forces eliminated them, but because of peace talks.
Anyone who knows a little about guerrilla warfare knows that guerrilla warfare needs the most people’s foundation. Pol Pot’s guerrillas requires the cooperation of local people, timely information and logistical support.
The locals did not sell Pol Pot’s whereabouts to the government army to receive the bounty, which shows that Pol Pot has not completely lost the hearts of the people!
Whether we admit it or not, history does serve politics. So history is often concealed or distorted, but no matter from any angle.
Small countries are often the chessboard of the political game of big countries.
Hun, the current Prime Minister of Cambodia and leader of the Cambodian People’s Party, was once the Khmer Rouge.
Polport was just a common scapegoat for the French Lon Nol regime, the bombing by the US army, the massacre by the Vietnamese army and the Heng Sam-rin purge.
If Pol Pot is sacrificed, France, the United States and Vietnam will not lose face, and they will not continue to interfere in Cambodian affairs, so Cambodia has compromised internally.
Why him? Because he was old and died of a heart attack. He could not defend himself.
Heng Sam-rin, who really led the purge, is now the chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly.
The history of Cambodia is very clear in their hearts.
Today, many people like to repeat lies.
They think that Cambodians are all fools and only they are “thinkers”.
I am willing to believe that these people do not understand the real history of Cambodia.
Omitting the key historical process can only lead to a short circuit of ideas, leaving only the repetition of lies.