In Cambodia about 1.5 million people were killed in the mid 1970’s. The Khmer Rouge were responsible for all the action that took place during that time. The Khmer Rouge believed in communism. They wanted everyone to be equal. The Khmer Rouge was led by Pol Pot and his brothers. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. According to the Wikipedia article “1/5 of the country’s total population (estimates range from 850,000 to 2.5 million) under its regime, through execution, torture, starvation and forced labor” (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[1]). Also According to the same article, “The leaders were mostly from middle – class families and had been educated at French universities (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[2]). The Khmer Rouge’s idea of communism was bad for the country of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge relocated people, put all of the people in Cambodia to work as farmers in labor camp and changed the lifestyle of the country. The Khmer Rouge made the people work hard labor, killed a lot of people, and they brainwashed the country telling by them that communism was good for them.
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The Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975 and put all the people to work in hard labor and changed the way of life. Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge. When they took over Cambodia they closed down everything and relocated people. For example in the Khmer Rouge article the author writes, “New people driving them in all directions from the capital and other cities. It forcibly settled townspeople among the rural base people…and put them in agricultural labor camps without wages, right, or free time” (Khmer Rouge[3]). This shows that the Cambodians did not have any rights when the Khmer Rouge was ruling. This is important because the Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to work on farms and enslaved the people. The Khmer Rouge let many Cambodians die from starvations and the Khmer Rouge executed people. For example, in the article Khmer Rouge, it says, “by the early 1979 approximately 650,000 people, or one quarter of the new Khmer died from execution, starvation overwork, disease, and denial of medical care (Khmer Rouge[4]).” This shows that the Khmer Rouge had a lot of power and they could do anything to the people. This is important because the Khmer Rouge didn’t care about the people.
The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be poor and have no society. According to the Wikipedia article, “The Khmer Rouge attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless society by depopulating cities and forcing the urban population into agricultural communes. The entire population was forced to become farmers in labor camp” (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[5]). This shows that everyone had to work in the farms and everyone have the same job. This is important because the Khmer Rouge wanted to have a low class society and everyone has to be the same as one another. Having a classless society was important to Pol Pot. He did not want people to become rich. He feared that people with money would be able to gain power. So, Pol Pot decided to abolish the currency system, which made it impossible to become rich. Furthermore, he took the land away from the people and did not allow anyone to own land. The people of Cambodia had nothing. While the people had nothing, the Khmer Rouge had power and they had full control of the country. They could force people to do things and they could change the lifestyle of Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge killed a lot of people. The Khmer Rouge killed those who were not pure Cambodian. For example in the Khmer Rouge article it says they killed “ethic Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese, ethic Thai, Cambodian christens, Muslims, and Buddhist monks” (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[6]). This shows that the Khmer Rouge didn’t want to have a mixed race Cambodians. This is important because the Khmer Rouge wanted one race pure Cambodians. This was similar to Hitler when he killed all the Jews. Pol Pot and his followers executed and tortured anyone who was not “pure Cambodians.” He shot them in the head, he cut off their arms, he tore their eyeballs out, and beheaded many non “pure Cambodians.” He did this because he believed that they were not worthy to be human beings. He devalued them and treated them worse than animals. Pol Pot and his followers were filled with hate and anger.
The Khmer Rouge also killed educated people. For example, in the Khmer Rouge article it says they killed “professional and intellectual in practice this included almost everyone with an education…” (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[7]). This shows that the Khmer Rouge didn’t want educated people around. This is important because they might form a group and tell everyone that communism is bad then everyone going to be against it. Pol Pot and his followers didn’t want the people of Cambodia to be educated. They were afraid that if the people were educated, they would be harder to control. They didn’t want the people of Cambodia to resist what they were doing. The Khmer Rouge believed that the best way to control the people is by keeping them uneducated and ignorant and to use force with anyone that showed resistance.
The Khmer Rouge also killed people who were against communism and the Khmer Rouge didn’t want capitalism in Cambodia. Pol Pot did not want a free market in his country. They wanted agriculture and farming as a way to bring the country of Cambodia to prominence. He did not want Cambodia to have any western influence. Because the previous government had affiliations with France, anyone with ties to the previous government were killed. For example in the same article it says they killed “anyone with connections to the former government or with foreign governments” (Wikipedia Khmer Rouge[8]). This shows that the Khmer Rouge didn’t want to have any connection with other government. This is important because the Khmer Rouge want to have control of the country. Therefore while Khmer Rouge was in power they killed all non-pure Cambodians, forced people into agriculture, killed people with an education, took away land and they didn’t want anyone the have connection with the government.
The Khmer Rouge believed in communism. According to the definition in Wikipedia, “communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general” (Wikipedia Communism[9]). This is important because the people of Cambodia believed that the Khmer Rouge would bring a classless society to the country. Furthermore, the people of Cambodia believed that every citizen in Cambodia would participate in the decisions making process in both political in economic spheres of life. However, the Khmer rouge had a different agenda. The Khmer Rouge was able to get the support of the Cambodian people based on the vision of a classless society that allows every Cambodian citizen to participate in the decisions making process both politically and economically. However, when the Khmer Rouge got into power, their actions were far from what they promised for the people of Cambodia. They brainwashed the people and told them that communism is good for the country. Communism is people who want everyone in the country to be the same and equal. They want everyone to have the same job and same everything. The Khmer Rouge told the people everyone gets paid the same or they might not get paid at all, everyone have access to heath care, public assistance and everyone goes to the same school. The Khmer Rouge made it sound good for the people and the Cambodians thought they were going to have those things and all the benefit. But the Khmer Rouge didn’t deliver the promise they made to the people. The Khmer Rouge separated families killed people, put them to work hard on the farms, and tortured people.
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Some people argued that it was beneficial to have the Khmer Rouge in control of the government and country of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge’s leadership provided independence from France and loosened the control from other countries. The people of Cambodia believed that if they were independent from other countries they would have peace in their country and they will not have war. Furthermore, the supporters of the Khmer Rouge believe they could be a prosperous and financially independent country. Therefore, According to An Independent Cambodia article, “They broke diplomatic and trade ties with virtually all countries and launched a program to achieve self – sufficiency through rice production as the great kingdoms of Angkor had done”(An independent Cambodia[10]). This is important because the Khmer Rouge wanted to bring independence and freedom to Cambodia. Therefore the Khmer Rouge wanted Cambodia to be independent from the other countries and they wanted the people of Cambodia to live free healthy and prosperous lives.
However, the Khmer Rouge brought pain and stress for the people of Cambodia. There were no benefits for having the Khmer Rouge in the country. They killed people, took away any rights, and they put the people to work as slaves. Although Cambodia had independence from other countries, the people of Cambodia continued to suffer. The people were forced to work on rice field up to 18 hours per day. The workers were rarely fed and were not paid any wages. Furthermore, many people were executed, tortured, and force to separate from love ones. The Khmer Rouge brought destruction, pain, and did not provide the freedom and prosperity it promised its citizens.
The Khmer Rouge’s leadership and idea of Communism was bad for the country of Cambodia. It brought nothing but bad things to the country. The Khmer Rouge put people to work hard labor. Many people worked in the rice field. They worked like slaves and they didn’t get paid. Furthermore, they didn’t have any freedom; they did not have a choice. They were forced to work on rice fields against their will. If they didn’t comply, they were executed, tortured, or beaten badly. The Khmer Rouge relocated people and separated families and forced them to work at different places. The Khmer Rouge killed a lot of people. The Khmer Rouge wanted all the Cambodian to be “pure” meaning that they didn’t want to have mixed racist they only wanted everyone to be one race and they killed educated people. The Khmer Rouge brainwashed people saying that communism is good for the countries but that really didn’t happen. Instead the Khmer Rouge put the Cambodians in labor camps and killing people. The Khmer Rouge’s reign in Cambodia was a horrific time period for many Cambodians.
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg7
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg7
- Khmer Rouge
- Khmer Rouge pg4
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg8
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg9
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg9
- Wikipedia Khmer Rouge pg9
- Wikipedia Communism pg1
- An independent Cambodia pg4
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