The Khmer Rouge And The Pol Pot: The Cambodian Genocide

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I. Introduction Genocide is the of killing of a minority group of people. After the Nazi’s holocaust, the world swore to never to let another genocide to happen again. There have been many genocides occur after World War II that the international community decided not to intervene. Millions of lives had been lost. The Cambodian Genocide is one of the worst genocide that occur after World War II. The genocide primary located in Cambodia. Cambodia is an Eastern Asian country that borders west of Vietnam. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia capital, Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot is a communist that embraces Marxism ideology. In a course of four years, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated of 1.7 million to 2 millions …show more content…
Moreover, this was part of the Khmer Rouge goal to make a utopia. A utopia in their definition is,”to reboot society at "Year Zero." (Scarss). In fact, they wanted people to be free from family or religious influence. They also would remove currency and remove everyone's’ debt. Pol Pot wanted a new order that will move modern Cambodia into an antiquity time period. An order that would make everybody to live in farmland. The Khmer Rouge’s plan is to follow Marxism to the bitter end. Pol Pot wanted everyone to be equal and not have an advantage over each other. The utopia dream would need groups of people who don’t follow the standard for Cambodia to die, therefore Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge targeted,” Buddhist Monks, Cambodian Muslims, Cambodians of Chinese or Vietnamese ethnicity” (How the West Missed). Those groups of people are a small percentage of the whole population and Pol Pot would declare them to be a pseudo-Cambodian. The minority would be slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge. In addition, the Khmer Rouge targeted,” doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, merchants and clergy”(Scarss). The targeted people are the highly educated civilian. They receive an education that the average middle class would not afford and wouldn’t understand. Khmer Rouge killing the educated class means they want everyone to be equal, but also to feel equal to each other. The educated people would have a distinct …show more content…
Pol Pot wanted the dream of a utopia to happen in Cambodia. Everyone would be equal to each other and freed from religion and family ties. The Khmer Rouge targeted any faction that represents a small portion of the population. Pol Pot dislikes anyone who isn't a 'real' Cambodian because they are not part of the majority. One of the most famous ways of their execution is the "killing field." In the "Killing Field", people would starve to death. The Khmer Rouge's regime ended after the United States and South Vietnam capture the capital of Cambodia. The United States spent millions to bomb the Khmer Rouge. While the South Vietnam control the battlefield and capture Phnom Penh. Today, Cambodians are recovering from the catastrophe accident with the Khmer Rouge. One of the biggest problem is that many doctors, engineer, and lawyers were executed by the Khmer Rouge. Many people did not receive proper treatment of therapy. In the end, genocide should not be ignored. Many genocides would not happen if the world admitted the wrongdoing of killing a specific group of people and intervene the government. The world must understand genocide is driving the people back from a bright