Pol Pot Research Paper

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The spread of the Vietnam War to Cambodia can be significantly attributed to the rise of Pol Pot's regime. The purpose of the policy was to turn Cambodians into "New People" through agricultural labour. This attempt by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot to form a Communist peasant farming society resulted in the death of 25 precent of the country's population from executions, work exhaustions, illness, and starvation. The spread of the Vietnam War to Cambodia is significantly connected with the rise of Pol Pot's regime, but there were also other reasons that triggered the invasion, some of these reasons are revealed through President Richard Nixon's speech disclosing the invasion of Cambodia. President Nixon declared on television in April, 1970, that …show more content…
However, another major factor causing the spread of the war to Cambodia includes the U.S. involvement in the conflict, and minor causes such the ruling of Prince Sihanouk whose governing took an unexpected turn, and the rise of Lon Nol. Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by Marshal Lon Nol in 1970 and he retaliated by joining with Pol Pot, further allowing the Khmer Rouge to become a major player in the civil war. The Khmer Rouge began to defeat Lon Nol's forces on the battlefields. In 1969, a secret bombing campaign ordered by U.S. President Nixon lasted for four year. This campaign was the cause of hundreds and thousands of deaths in Cambodia. Eventually, Cambodia's government lost its American military support when they withdrew troops from Vietnam in 1975. Lon Nol's defeat to the Khmer Rouge led to Pol Pot's rule and the announcement of a Communist state. In power, the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea carried out brutal cleansings where 25 precent of the population died from executions, work exhaustions, illness and starvation. These murders and arrests transformed the party into a terrifying reign of violence that went on until the Vietnamese invasion in January
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be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. " -Adolf Hitler 1956 - Cambodia issues total gun control ● In 1961 Pol Pot, who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (which was a communist party in Cambodia) murdered as many as 1 million "educated" people in "killing fields" ● He believed these people represented a threat to his power. There…

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