Cambodia Research Paper

Cambodia, a country located in South East Asia. It’s a country smaller than California. In 1953, only 62 years ago, they were able to earn their own independence. Which happened after the French rule of 100 years. Since the 1960s Cambodia has a population about over 7 million. Mostly the people there are Buddhists and are under the rule of a monarch, Prince Sihanouk. In 1970 Cambodia got all caught up in the mess of neighboring country's war, Vietnam. They were fighting against the French to gain their own independence. With the help of Cambodia, Vietnam was able to win the war against the French in 1954. Once that was over Vietnam ended up being split up into two. The communist north and pro-western south. Causing the civil war to break

There was about 8,000 Christians that were also murdered. There was an estimation that there was way over than 2 million deaths. Finally by December 25, 1978 Vietnam went and invade Kampuchea. Which ended in overthrowing Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979. Pol Pot were forced to leave and many went to Thailand. There they began a guerrilla war against Cambodian governments. This lasted the next 17 years. He struggled all the way into the 1900's. Where he then lost control. On April 1998, Pol Pot died from a heart attack at the age of 73. He died right after his arrest and couldn’t be put on trial for the events that happened from 1975-1979. Vietnam, now being communist with having the help of the Soviet Union, set up for what was known as a puppet government. Meaning they were composed of recent defectors from the Khmer Rouge. They began to build a socialist government, even though they still struggled with organizing and reconstructing. It didn’t help that the Pol Pot's policies had destroyed the economy, not really anything left for foreign aid, and all the professionals in the most needed fields such as; engineers, technicians, and planners were all killed. Leaving them at a complete stand