By Adam Fifield
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
Cambodia's Communist Party was created in the early 1950s. By 1963, Saloth Sar, a former schoolteacher, had become its leader. He came to be known as Pol Pot. The party opposed American "imperialism" and the repressive policies of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Nicknamed the Khmer Rouge (the Red Khmer) by Sihanouk, the party advocated a fierce nationalism and ideological and racial purity. Its revolution claimed a mandate from peasants.
The Khmer Rouge came to power amid the chaos of the Vietnam War, which broke across Cambodia's border. The North Vietnamese had been using Cambodia as a supply route and a troop sanctuary. To destroy those bases, the United States bombed and invaded the country. This further involved Cambodia in the war, and helped Pol Pot recruit followers.
In 1970, pro-American general Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk and ordered the North Vietnamese out of the country. Defying him, they advanced even deeper. Cambodia now had its own civil war: On one side was the corrupt, U.S.-backed Lon Nol; on the other were the Vietnamese communists and their Cambodian allies, the Khmer Rouge. Sihanouk joined his former enemy, the Khmer Rouge, giving the group considerable support among Cambodians. Armed and trained by Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge became formidable.
On April 17, 1975, after five years of civil war, Pol Pot and his soldiers occupied the capital, Phnom Penh. They evacuated cities, set up forced-work cooperatives, and, over nearly four years, killed more than a million people.
In January 1979, after border clashes, Vietnam overthrew Pol Pot's regime and established a government made up of Khmer Rouge defectors. It included the man who would become the current prime minister, Hun Sen.
The Khmer Rouge came to power amid the chaos of the Vietnam War, which broke across Cambodia's border. The North Vietnamese had been using Cambodia as a supply route and a troop sanctuary. To destroy those bases, the United States bombed and invaded the country. This further involved Cambodia in the war, and helped Pol Pot recruit followers.
In 1970, pro-American general Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk and ordered the North Vietnamese out of the country. Defying him, they advanced even deeper. Cambodia now had its own civil war: On one side was the corrupt, U.S.-backed Lon Nol; on the other were the Vietnamese communists and their Cambodian allies, the Khmer Rouge. Sihanouk joined his former enemy, the Khmer Rouge, giving the group considerable support among Cambodians. Armed and trained by Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge became formidable.
On April 17, 1975, after five years of civil war, Pol Pot and his soldiers occupied the capital, Phnom Penh. They evacuated cities, set up forced-work cooperatives, and, over nearly four years, killed more than a million people.
In January 1979, after border clashes, Vietnam overthrew Pol Pot's regime and established a government made up of Khmer Rouge defectors. It included the man who would become the current prime minister, Hun Sen.
1 comment:
I know that the real numbers of deaths can not be known, but It seems to diminish the seriousness of the atrocity when someone uses the phrase "killed more than a million people". From new estimates, it's closer to 2 million people. It just annoys me.
Maybe most people might not feel this way, but some people take offense to this. (i.e. 2 million jews killed instead of 5 to 6 million during the holocaust)
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