The Cambodian Genocide

Precursors to Genocide: Rise of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, informally known as the Khmer Rouge, referencing the majority ethnicity of the country and red as the color of communism, was originally born out of the struggle against French colonization and was influenced by the Vietnamese. The movement was fueled by the first Indochina War in the 1950s, evolving into an official party in 1968 and grew over the next 20 years.

In the years leading up to the Khmer Rouge’s regime, the neighboring Vietnam War spilled over into Cambodia. U.S. troops used Cambodia as a regrouping zone in addition to bombing parts of the country to destroy suspected Viet Cong targets, setting the foundation for animosity toward the West.

In March 1970, Marshal Lon Nol, backed by pro-American associates, staged a successful coup to depose Prince Sihanouk as the head of state. The Khmer Rouge headed by Pol Pot, allied itself with Sihanouk, setting the stage to become a major player in the civil war that followed.

With help from the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge began beating Lon Nol’s forces on the battlefields. And their growth was aided by the fact that Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic government, with assistance from the U.S., dropped about a half million tons of bombs on the country, killing as many as 300,000 people between January and August of 1973, further disenchanting them from the West.

On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country’s capital city, Phnom Penh, effectively ousting the Lon Nol government. They immediately began emptying the city’s population into labor camps in the countryside, where physical abuse, disease, exhaustion, and starvation were extremely prevalent.

Their policies were radical adaptations of Maoist and Marxist-Leninist theories, attempting to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society comprised of collectivized farms. The country’s name was changed to Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and Pol Pot declared it “Year Zero” as he began building his new republic.

The hypocrisy of the Khmer Rouge can be directly seen in their leadership, as many of the higher ranking officials were university-educated. In particular was “Brother Number One” – Pol Pot himself. Born as Saloth Sar in 1925, he came from a small village roughly 100 miles north of Phnom Penh. His family was relatively affluent and owned 50 acres of rice paddy, roughly 10 times the national average. He attended a French Catholic primary school in Phnom Penh until 1949, when he moved to Paris for post-secondary education and became active in communist groups.

The Khmer Rouge regime was extremely brutal. The regime generally singled out doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, the rich, artists, anyone with an education, and ethnic or religious minorities. But they also executed people who could no longer work or make the journey to the camps, those perceived to be in opposition to the party (whether or not this was true), as well as the families of those were deemed undesirable so that they could not be chased down for revenge.

Unlike in other genocides or conflicts, no one was immune from being branded an enemy of the state. Even if one was considered to be on the right side that could change the next day – many Khmer Rouge members were also killed during purges.

Children and babies were not exempt from their cruelty; it was often noted “to stop the weeds you must also pull up their roots.” Anyone affiliated with Lon Nol’s regime or military was also immediately killed.

No evidence was needed in order to send one to prison and people often fabricated their confessions of various crimes, with the belief that this would end their torment. In reality, they were more often than not executed once they gave up a list of names of new people to arrest.

In the beginning, executions were not necessary – starvation served as an effective tool to dispose of undesirable populations, but as more and more people were sent to prison, the Khmer Rouge moved over to a system of “killing fields,” establishing hundreds all over Cambodia.

As the genocide progressed,  survival was determined by one’s ability to do work on the collective farms. This meant many of Cambodia’s elderly, handicapped, ill, and children became targets due to their inability to undertake harsh manual labor.

Money, free markets, schools, private property, foreign styles of clothing, religious practices, and other aspects of traditional Khmer culture were abolished, and buildings such as schools, pagodas, and government properties were turned into prisons, stables, camps, and granaries. Family relationships were heavily criticized, and the Khmer Rouge insisted that everyone consider “Angka” (translated to the Organization, referring to the top level of the regime) as their mother and father. Child soldiers were a huge tool of the Khmer Rouge, as they were easy to control and would follow orders without hesitation, to the point where many were forced to shoot their own parents.

International Response

The international community was largely silent during the course of the genocide. Neither the U.S. nor Europe called attention to the genocides as they were happening, although scholars and others in the West tried to bring attention to the atrocities being committed. At this time the U.S. had just lost the war in Vietnam, resulting in the government’s reluctance to involve itself in the region again. While their public stance against the killing gradually strengthened, it did not amount to action. It wasn’t until the regime was overthrown that the atrocities that had been committed gained the focus of the international media. However, this still did not lead to an international investigation.