Khmer Rouge

Who were the Khmer Rouge and why are they important to understanding the Cold War in Southeast Asia? (4)

• secret communist party based in the easter forests of Cambodia; worked with the security of the Vietnamese communist party

• emphasized self reliance + the purity of their revolution

• blame the vietnamese

• led by Pol Pot

Pol Pot (3)

commander of Khmer Rouge

• 1949: went to Paris to study + loved Stalin’s + Mao’s works; fell in with a Cambodian communist group

• liked Marx’s ideas for revolution

• 1953, fell under ranks in Vietnamese Communist cell + grew to despise the Vietnamese

What was the political context out of which the Khmer Rouge developed? (2)

• in 1962, Prince Sihanouk launched a full scale assault on the legal communist party + executed 12 leaders—> leaving the Khmer Rouge as the main communist gorup

what role did decolonization play in Cambodia? (4)

• 1941, prince sihanouk was chosen by the vichy government because he seem easily controllable + compliant

• in March 1945, the japanese overthrew the vichy and directly ruled the obliging prince, bombing of Nagasaki + Hiroshima in 1945 ended Japanese rule in Cambodia

• 1955, fraudulent elections unanimously voted Sihounok for the National Assembly

• 1963, the Siem Reap protest ended with the death of a protestor, causing students to surround police HQs and more students died, Sihanouk blames 34 subversives + triggers witch hunt; drives intellectuals out. of the cities to the communist jungle

What role did the Vietnam War play? (5)

• 1967: US military + Operation Salem House, turns into Daniel Boone: American soldiers searching for Vietnamese Communist sanctuaries

• 1969-1970: Operation Menu: (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Dessert) “targeted” Vietnamese cadres, but hit Cambodian civilians if necessary; kept these operations very secretive bc they didn’t want backlash

• 1970, Sihanouk resigns + leaves for medical treatment

• Lon Nol; prime minister cracks down on Vietnamese by demanding all Viet troops evacuate by the next week; Cambodia announces curfew for Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia; American bombing campaigns + Lon Nol forced thousands of Cambodians from their homes + many of them into the communist jungle: Khmer Rouge promised to free the nation from the tyrannical regime

• 1973, full US withdrawal from Vietnam → dramatic US focus on bombing in Cambodia

Once in power, how did the Khmer Rouge govern their country?

1975 took power: Kampuchea

• 1st thing they did: kick everyone out of the city (2million) and make nonnationals leave within 2 weeks (hundreds of thousands dead): executed govt officials, military commanders, anyone who worked for either

• Pol Pot’s 8 points

• Cambodia was divided into 7 zones + were strictly policed with the harvest placed under govt control

• 1976, wanted 3 metric tons of rice per hectare, more than doubling the average harvest—> villagers had plots of land to cultivate for the govt; no wages, no leisure; separated from families and spouses

• capitalist indicators killed people: eyeglasses, having lighter skin or uncalloused hands

• people regularly went missing/ disappeared

In May 1975, communist leaders across the country met in a stadium north of Phnom Peng for a 5-day meeting, from one account, Pol Pot’s main 8 points emerged

1) Evacuate people from all towns

2) Abolish all markets

3) Abolish Lon Nol regime currency + withhold the revolutionary currency that had been printed

4)Defrock all Buddhist monks and put them to work growing rice

5) Execute all leaders of the Lon Nol regime; start with top leaders

6) Establish high-level cooperatives throughout the country, with communal eating

7) Expel the entire Vietnamese minority population

😎 Dispatch troops to the borders, particularly the Vietnamese border

Tuol Sleng

• “S-21” located at former high school

• execution and torture center where incarcerating /investigating inmates happened

• no inmates ever granted release

• all prisoners for execution; more than 14k cambodians killed/tortured during 3.5 years of operation

• ran by commandant Duch, former math teacher

• 1976-1979

Choeung Ek

• daily executions from few dozen ppl to hundreds

• victims, blindfolded and bound made to kneel before ditches, + then beaten + killed

• 1975-1979