In the 1970’s, horrible things happened. There was the Vietnam Wwar and the fashion. That’s what the 70’s are known for but not the worst thing to happen. The worst thing to happen isn’t as well known to most people. The worst thing to happen was the mass genocide in Cambodia. The genocide that happened from 1975 to 1979 killed close to 2 million people. Through this people have been convicted of their crimes and people have told their stories of what happened.
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To know how this genocide could happen you have to start from the beginning. During the Vietnam war, Cambodia was neutral. Even though Cambodia was neutral they still were attacked. They were attacked by bombings from the United States. The United States attacked because
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The people were hurt from the thousands of bombs that were dropped on them. When people are hurt like this, they turn for people to lead them. This has happened before in Germany with the Nazis. Hitler was elected into power because the German people were hurt. They were hurt from having to pay from WWI. The economy was destroyed from trying to pay back for the war. From the economy being destroyed the people looked for a leader to help them out. Hitler told the people he could help and they believed that he could so they elected him. This is similar to the Khmer Rouge and how they came to power because the people were hurt.The Khmer Rouge were taken out of power when Vietnam came and invaded. The Khmer Rouge were only in power 4 years and killed …show more content…
The Khmer Rouge is no longer in power. In 2006 the ECCC was formed to convict the people responsible for the genocide of Cambodia. The problem is 2 of the people being convicted died during the trail and another was seen mentally unstable. The leader of the Khmer Rouge Pol Pot has never faced any charges for what he had done because he died in 1998. The first case heard was of Kaing Guek Eav he was a commander for one of the prison. In this prison more than 14,000 people were killed. Kaing Guek Eab was sentenced to life for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. There were only to other verdicts of this court and both of the people applied their convictions. Through the years most of the Cambodian people don’t talk about what happened when the Khmer Rouge were in power. Now is a different story people are speaking about what has happened to them during that horrible time. These people want to tell their stories before they die so someone will
The Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust are unique in the areas of reason and aftermath effect. Hitler wanted to create a “Master Race” (“Holocaust”), also he wanted to exterminate the Jewish population because he believed they “hindered” population growth (“Some”). Pot wanted to deconstruc...
Daniel Goldhagen (2009) states that in less than four years, Cambodia’s political leaders induced their followers to turn Cambodia’s backwards and regressing society into a massive concentration camp in which they steadily killed victims. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of the Cambodian genocide is provided within Luong Ung’s personal narrative, “First They Killed My Father” (2000). Ung’s memoir is a riveting account of the Cambodian genocide, which provides readers with a personalized account of her family’s experience during the genocide. She informs readers of the causes of the Cambodian genocide and she specifies the various eliminationist techniques used to produce the ideological Khmer vision. Nonetheless, she falls short because
“The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot’s Regime”. Mtholyoke.edu. 11 May 2005. Web. 7 May 2014.
Most people in the world have not heard of the genocide going on in Laos today. Most people have not taken notice, read about it or bother to spend more than thirty seconds of their lives learning about it. The world has managed to almost entirely ignore the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos for over 30 years and still allows this crime against humanity to continue. Since the 1970s, the ethnic Hmong people in the Southeast Asian country of Laos have been persecuted by the Laotian government (Malakunas, 2000). This harassment is a direct result of the Hmong’s link to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States in what has become to be known as the Secret War (Malakunas, 2000). The Laotian government officials directing this massacre have not been detained due to lack of evidence (Sommer P.4).
In 1975, The Khmer Rouge became the ruling political party of Cambodia after overthrowing the Lon Nol government. Following their leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme form of social engineering on Cambodian society. They wanted to form an anti-modern, anti-Western ideal of a restructured “classless agrarian society'', a radical form of agrarian communism where the whole population had to work in collective farms or forced labor projects. The Khmer Rouge revolutionary army enforced this mostly with extreme violence. The book “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”, written by Luong Ung, is the author’s story of growing up during this time period. She was five years old when the Khmer Rouge came into power. As stated in the author’s note, “From 1975 to 1979, through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country’s population.”
It’s hard to imagine that people would support and act upon plans to kill millions of innocent human beings. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide were two of the most horrific genocides in the history of civilization. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide has not only similarities but also differences. How they treated their victims, USA involvement, and that they both killed millions of people are some things they share. Differences they include are the people they targeted, how the two leaders took office and lastly where these to genocides took place.
Marks, Stephen P. "Elusive Justice For The Victims Of The Khmer Rouge." Journal Of International Affairs 52.2 (1999): 691. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
The Cambodian Genocide was a trial and error of someone trying to make all people equal. Khmer Rouge had approximately 1.7 million people executed attempting to equal everyone out and make the world a “better” place. Although he tried very hard at this, he of course failed and and all of his attempts were, in the end pointless.
“The bones cannot find peace until the truth they hold in themselves has been revealed” This quote, said by Deputy Military Police Chief Nhim Seila, means that the deceased persecutors of the Cambodian Genocide cannot rest well until the reason for their actions has been told to the public. On April 17, 1975, soldiers of a communist group known as the Khmer Rogue, stormed into the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and attacked the city, forcing all the citizens into the countryside to work vigorously for the Khmer Rouge. The stories of Samnang Shawn Vann and Sisowath Doung Chanto paint a picture of what it was like to live under this cruel group.
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Genocide is “the deliberate systematic murder of a certain race, ethnic group, or even a nation.” To a very high extent the mass killings in Cambodia can be considered as genocide because the Khmer Rouge deliberately and systematically attempted to destroy the people of Cambodian people. After the deposition of Cambodian president Lon Nol the Khmer Rouge wasted no time in imposing their will on the country. Within days of overthrowing the previous government the Khmer rouge forced the civilians of Cambodia to leave their homes to go and work as unpaid labourers on a collection of farms. No one was shown mercy upon; the very old, sickly and very young were all sent. If they failed to move quickly e...
The 70s were a worldwide decade of chaos, violence, and debate. Lives were lost in the Munich Massacre, women gained the right to abort a child, and the controversial Watergate scandal stunned the nation. Moral standards were reevaluated causing a trivial debates across the world. Each event that took place has greatly contributed to where society stands today. Turmoil and tumult have created a platform for this nation to grow on. President Nixon explained it best when he said, “Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.”
These conditions were clearly morally deplorable, and the coup caused a change from aristocrats to an Indonesian business class, seen as a victory over communism at the climax of the Cold War. Seeing as similar killings happened right after Indonesia’s, one would think that the generals did not learn their lesson on moral validity. The inevitability of people being killed waters down the big question of moral validities by the minute. In the end, it all comes down to the point of view; depending on the point of view, any side’s moral values could be seen
During the late 60’s and early 70’s there were many social issues, and political hardships. This is the time when America had to deal with some of it's greatest challenges. Like The Vietnam War, The Civil Rights Movement, Drug Abuse, and The Women's Movement. All of these issues have made an Impact in the world today, especially America. The Vietnam War has made one the greatest history in the world.
The day that the survivors of the Cambodian Genocide will never forget, was the day that the Cambodian society took a turn for the worse. On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge went to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, took control and renamed it Democratic Kampuchea also known as DK. Pol Pot announced to all the citizens that he had to “purify” the Cambodian society. Although the Cambodian genocide did not kill as many people as other genocides such as the Holocaust, it is still just as important. I think that the Cambodian Genocide is an awful thing that took place and I feel bad for all the victims of racism. I also think that the perpetrators in this situation are heartless because of the torture that they put the people Cambodian society through because those people were discriminated and did not deserve it. Just like other people who get discriminated by in other genocides such as the Holocaust. When the Jews were discriminated by Nazi’s in the Holocaust .