Many people died in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 as a result of the Cambodian Tragedy, better known as the Cambodian Genocide. This event was very similar to the Holocaust, but there was a lot that was different about it, too. In our report we talk about what occurred, who was involved, and the affect it had on humans. Just like all genocides, this was a terrible action by Pol Pot, and hopefully nothing similar to it will happen again.
The Cambodian tragedy was primarily an economic and political issue. The problem began in 1970 when Prince Sihanouk was overthrown and Lon Nol became the leader of the new right-wing government. Prince Sihanouk joined forces with the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla organization. They attacked Lon Nol’s army and the Cambodian civil war began. The Khmer Rouge targeted everyone who opposed or threatened the communist regime. They targeted all intellectuals and educated people, as well as minority groups such as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai ancestry. Religion was banned and all Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Half the Cham Muslim population was murdered, as well as 8,000 Christians. It was possible to be killed just for wearing glasses, smiling, or crying. One slogan of the Khmer Rouge said, “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.” The Vietnam War was taking place at the same time, and Americans killed over 750,000 Cambodians in an effort to destroy the North Vietnamese. The Cambodian Civil War ended in 1975 with the defeat of Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge. Now that the Khmer Rouge was in power, they were free to implant their communist regime. They forced everybody to move out of the cities and become workers in a series of farms. Living conditions on the farms were horrible, and many people died from exhaustion and starvation. The Cambodian Genocide ended in 1979 when Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian Genocide lasted about four years, and during this time, almost two million people died as a result of the Khmer Rouge’s harsh policies.
The Cambodian Genocide is comparable with the Holocaust. Like the Cambodian Genocide, the Holocaust was mainly a political issue. Racism was a factor in both events. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed. Various Slavic peoples, the disabled, communists, socialists, and homosexuals were targeted as well. Persecuted groups were forced to live in horrible conditions and were forced to do hard labor. Thousands of people died of starvation, exhaustion, or disease. The people who were forced to work on Cambodian farms faced similar deaths. The Holocaust began in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, and ended in 1945 when Germany surrendered to the Allies. The Holocaust lasted much longer than the Cambodian Genocide, but they are both tragic events in which millions of people died.
During the Cambodian tragedy the Khmer Rouge invaded Cambodia because they wanted to create the “ideal” communist society. In order to achieve this goal they believed it was labor that could turn it. The Khmer Rouge made all Cambodians work as laborers no matter the age. They also thought if any person or group was a threat to this system they had to “eliminate” them. The Khmer Rouge saw many different groups as threats, some of the groups they had to eliminate are intellectuals, educated people, professionals, monks, religious enthusiasts, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. If this wasn’t bad enough they also vigorously interrogated their own members and sometimes accused them of treason and “eliminated” them just like they did with Cambodian threats.
The Holocaust was the Germans against the Jews. Adolf Hitler made the Germans believe that Jews were an inferior race. After the Nazis (Adolf Hitler’s followers) took power over Germany they started persecuting all Jews, the old, young, sick, healthy, store owners, farmers, workers etc. Jewish people were rounded up and sent too many different concentration camps that Nazis controlled. The Jews tried to hide or resist but the weapons that the Nazis had were too powerful and in too many numbers.
The Khmer Rouge, whose military leader was Pol Pot, was the dominant group during the Cambodian Genocide. Once its troops grew large enough to take control over all of Cambodia’s territory, they started the conflict. Whenever one of the members of the targeted group, made up by most of Cambodia’s citizens, misbehaved, they were almost always killed after being tortured in a detention center. That is one example of how the Khmer Rouge oppressed the citizens. The Khmer Rouge was the only group involved in oppressing the targeted group because almost everybody was a part of the targeted group. While Pol Pot did not seem to have a complete plan for creating his farming society, he definitely knew how he was going to start. When he took a visit to Communist China, he witnessed “Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.” Mao called what he had done to China his “Great Leap Forward.” This involved the evacuation of some Chinese cities and getting rid of those who opposed the government. Pol Pot decided that he wanted to do something similar in Cambodia. Genocide was not part of the plan of this tragedy. However, the members of the Khmer Rouge did not care whether the people died or not. It did not affect them, so, in their opinion, it did not matter. Power and wealth were not a major part of the reason for the Cambodian Genocide. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were already in power when they started the “Great Leap Forward.” Widespread deception was not used by the Khmer Rouge. All of the citizens could see what was going on, but since most, if not all, of them were a part of the targeted group, there was nothing they could do to stop this genocide. I think that Pol Pot accomplished his goal because all immigrants were expelled, every Cambodian city was evacuated, and millions of Cambodians were forced into slave labor in the “killing fields.” Those were sites where millions of Cambodians died and were buried. Propaganda was not used as a weapon during this time because there were not many people left to turn against those who were affected. The Khmer Rouge did not attempt to make peace with the Cambodians once they accomplished their goal. The Cambodians who survived the genocide were not set free until Vietnam invaded Cambodia and took over its capital city. This happened in 1979. Pol Pot did not lose of the Khmer Rouge until 1997. On April 15, 1998, he died because of heart failure. This was before he could be brought to trial. Some of the Khmer Rouge leaders have been convicted of crimes against humanity. At least 1.5 million Cambodians died during the Cambodian Genocide. That was about 25% of the population.
The Holocaust had some of these characteristics, but it was a lot different from the Cambodian Genocide. The dominant group during the Holocaust was the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Throughout the years of World War II, the number of members of this party greatly increased. The targeted group was made up of Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, the disabled, and many others. In order to oppress them, they were thrown into concentration camps. Many German citizens were a part of the Nazi party, but not all of them were against people who were not a part of the “master race.” Hitler had a plan for mistreatment that he called his “New Order.” This was a policy that involved creating a German “Master Race,” imprisoning eastern Europeans, and killing those of the targeted group in Europe. Genocide was definitely a part of the plan. Adolf Hitler wanted all Jews gone. He also wanted power over all of Europe. He used widespread deception by telling people that the Jews were the cause of all of Germany’s economic problems. He mainly used propaganda to spread his message across the country. Hitler did not kill off all Jews and other “imperfect” people, but, during World War II, over twelve million people died. Over half of that number was made up of people from the Jewish population. The Nazis never attempted to make peace with the Jews. They did not stop killing them until 1945, when World War II ended in Europe. After the war, many Nazi leaders were either arrested and punished or sentenced to death. Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Most of Germany’s citizens had to start their lives over with almost no money.
It was hard to rebuild Cambodia after the genocide occurred because Pol Pot’s policies had ruined the economy. All educated people had been killed. Throughout the 1980s, the Khmer Rouge forces were supported by America and the UK, and their support held up Cambodia’s recovery for almost a decade. Cambodia was under the control of communist Vietnam until Vietnam withdrew in 1989. In the military conflicts of 1978-1989, an additional 14,000 Cambodian civilians were killed. In 1991, a peace agreement was finally reached, and Buddhism was reinstated as the official state religion. Many genocide scholars believe that the events in Cambodia do not qualify as an official genocide, because intent to destroy one specific ethnic or religious group cannot be proven. Instead, they call these events an “auto-genocide” because it occurred across all of society instead of targeting one group. In 1997, Pol Pot was arrested by Khmer Rouge members. He died of natural causes in 1998, and the last members of the Khmer Rouge were officially disbanded in 1999.
Hopefully you have learned more about the Cambodian Tragedy and how it compared to the Holocaust. This, like the Holocaust, was an awful event that affected not only members of the targeted group, but members of the dominant group as well. This project really showed us how similar two events that did not take place anywhere near each other can be. Events like this should make Americans happy that they live where they can be free.
Works Cited
“Cambodia 1975.” Talking About Genocide. Peace Pledge Union N.d. Web. Feb. 21 2015.
“Cambodian Genocide.” World Without Genocide. Luke Walker, 2012. Web. March 3 2015.
“Genocide in Cambodia (1975-1979).” Holocaust Museum Houston.Holocaust Museum
Houston. N.d. Web. Feb. 22 2015.
“Introduction to the Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum. N.d. Web. March 4 2015.
“Pol Pot.” History.com. A&E Televiesion Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015
“The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979.” N.p., n.d Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
“The Khmer Rouge and Cambodia.” The Cold War Museum. Laura Szakmary. N.d. Web. Feb 22
2015.
The Cambodian tragedy was primarily an economic and political issue. The problem began in 1970 when Prince Sihanouk was overthrown and Lon Nol became the leader of the new right-wing government. Prince Sihanouk joined forces with the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla organization. They attacked Lon Nol’s army and the Cambodian civil war began. The Khmer Rouge targeted everyone who opposed or threatened the communist regime. They targeted all intellectuals and educated people, as well as minority groups such as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai ancestry. Religion was banned and all Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Half the Cham Muslim population was murdered, as well as 8,000 Christians. It was possible to be killed just for wearing glasses, smiling, or crying. One slogan of the Khmer Rouge said, “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.” The Vietnam War was taking place at the same time, and Americans killed over 750,000 Cambodians in an effort to destroy the North Vietnamese. The Cambodian Civil War ended in 1975 with the defeat of Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge. Now that the Khmer Rouge was in power, they were free to implant their communist regime. They forced everybody to move out of the cities and become workers in a series of farms. Living conditions on the farms were horrible, and many people died from exhaustion and starvation. The Cambodian Genocide ended in 1979 when Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian Genocide lasted about four years, and during this time, almost two million people died as a result of the Khmer Rouge’s harsh policies.
The Cambodian Genocide is comparable with the Holocaust. Like the Cambodian Genocide, the Holocaust was mainly a political issue. Racism was a factor in both events. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed. Various Slavic peoples, the disabled, communists, socialists, and homosexuals were targeted as well. Persecuted groups were forced to live in horrible conditions and were forced to do hard labor. Thousands of people died of starvation, exhaustion, or disease. The people who were forced to work on Cambodian farms faced similar deaths. The Holocaust began in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, and ended in 1945 when Germany surrendered to the Allies. The Holocaust lasted much longer than the Cambodian Genocide, but they are both tragic events in which millions of people died.
During the Cambodian tragedy the Khmer Rouge invaded Cambodia because they wanted to create the “ideal” communist society. In order to achieve this goal they believed it was labor that could turn it. The Khmer Rouge made all Cambodians work as laborers no matter the age. They also thought if any person or group was a threat to this system they had to “eliminate” them. The Khmer Rouge saw many different groups as threats, some of the groups they had to eliminate are intellectuals, educated people, professionals, monks, religious enthusiasts, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. If this wasn’t bad enough they also vigorously interrogated their own members and sometimes accused them of treason and “eliminated” them just like they did with Cambodian threats.
The Holocaust was the Germans against the Jews. Adolf Hitler made the Germans believe that Jews were an inferior race. After the Nazis (Adolf Hitler’s followers) took power over Germany they started persecuting all Jews, the old, young, sick, healthy, store owners, farmers, workers etc. Jewish people were rounded up and sent too many different concentration camps that Nazis controlled. The Jews tried to hide or resist but the weapons that the Nazis had were too powerful and in too many numbers.
The Khmer Rouge, whose military leader was Pol Pot, was the dominant group during the Cambodian Genocide. Once its troops grew large enough to take control over all of Cambodia’s territory, they started the conflict. Whenever one of the members of the targeted group, made up by most of Cambodia’s citizens, misbehaved, they were almost always killed after being tortured in a detention center. That is one example of how the Khmer Rouge oppressed the citizens. The Khmer Rouge was the only group involved in oppressing the targeted group because almost everybody was a part of the targeted group. While Pol Pot did not seem to have a complete plan for creating his farming society, he definitely knew how he was going to start. When he took a visit to Communist China, he witnessed “Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.” Mao called what he had done to China his “Great Leap Forward.” This involved the evacuation of some Chinese cities and getting rid of those who opposed the government. Pol Pot decided that he wanted to do something similar in Cambodia. Genocide was not part of the plan of this tragedy. However, the members of the Khmer Rouge did not care whether the people died or not. It did not affect them, so, in their opinion, it did not matter. Power and wealth were not a major part of the reason for the Cambodian Genocide. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were already in power when they started the “Great Leap Forward.” Widespread deception was not used by the Khmer Rouge. All of the citizens could see what was going on, but since most, if not all, of them were a part of the targeted group, there was nothing they could do to stop this genocide. I think that Pol Pot accomplished his goal because all immigrants were expelled, every Cambodian city was evacuated, and millions of Cambodians were forced into slave labor in the “killing fields.” Those were sites where millions of Cambodians died and were buried. Propaganda was not used as a weapon during this time because there were not many people left to turn against those who were affected. The Khmer Rouge did not attempt to make peace with the Cambodians once they accomplished their goal. The Cambodians who survived the genocide were not set free until Vietnam invaded Cambodia and took over its capital city. This happened in 1979. Pol Pot did not lose of the Khmer Rouge until 1997. On April 15, 1998, he died because of heart failure. This was before he could be brought to trial. Some of the Khmer Rouge leaders have been convicted of crimes against humanity. At least 1.5 million Cambodians died during the Cambodian Genocide. That was about 25% of the population.
The Holocaust had some of these characteristics, but it was a lot different from the Cambodian Genocide. The dominant group during the Holocaust was the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Throughout the years of World War II, the number of members of this party greatly increased. The targeted group was made up of Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, the disabled, and many others. In order to oppress them, they were thrown into concentration camps. Many German citizens were a part of the Nazi party, but not all of them were against people who were not a part of the “master race.” Hitler had a plan for mistreatment that he called his “New Order.” This was a policy that involved creating a German “Master Race,” imprisoning eastern Europeans, and killing those of the targeted group in Europe. Genocide was definitely a part of the plan. Adolf Hitler wanted all Jews gone. He also wanted power over all of Europe. He used widespread deception by telling people that the Jews were the cause of all of Germany’s economic problems. He mainly used propaganda to spread his message across the country. Hitler did not kill off all Jews and other “imperfect” people, but, during World War II, over twelve million people died. Over half of that number was made up of people from the Jewish population. The Nazis never attempted to make peace with the Jews. They did not stop killing them until 1945, when World War II ended in Europe. After the war, many Nazi leaders were either arrested and punished or sentenced to death. Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Most of Germany’s citizens had to start their lives over with almost no money.
It was hard to rebuild Cambodia after the genocide occurred because Pol Pot’s policies had ruined the economy. All educated people had been killed. Throughout the 1980s, the Khmer Rouge forces were supported by America and the UK, and their support held up Cambodia’s recovery for almost a decade. Cambodia was under the control of communist Vietnam until Vietnam withdrew in 1989. In the military conflicts of 1978-1989, an additional 14,000 Cambodian civilians were killed. In 1991, a peace agreement was finally reached, and Buddhism was reinstated as the official state religion. Many genocide scholars believe that the events in Cambodia do not qualify as an official genocide, because intent to destroy one specific ethnic or religious group cannot be proven. Instead, they call these events an “auto-genocide” because it occurred across all of society instead of targeting one group. In 1997, Pol Pot was arrested by Khmer Rouge members. He died of natural causes in 1998, and the last members of the Khmer Rouge were officially disbanded in 1999.
Hopefully you have learned more about the Cambodian Tragedy and how it compared to the Holocaust. This, like the Holocaust, was an awful event that affected not only members of the targeted group, but members of the dominant group as well. This project really showed us how similar two events that did not take place anywhere near each other can be. Events like this should make Americans happy that they live where they can be free.
Works Cited
“Cambodia 1975.” Talking About Genocide. Peace Pledge Union N.d. Web. Feb. 21 2015.
“Cambodian Genocide.” World Without Genocide. Luke Walker, 2012. Web. March 3 2015.
“Genocide in Cambodia (1975-1979).” Holocaust Museum Houston.Holocaust Museum
Houston. N.d. Web. Feb. 22 2015.
“Introduction to the Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum. N.d. Web. March 4 2015.
“Pol Pot.” History.com. A&E Televiesion Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015
“The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979.” N.p., n.d Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
“The Khmer Rouge and Cambodia.” The Cold War Museum. Laura Szakmary. N.d. Web. Feb 22
2015.