The Worst Famine in Recorded History

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The worst famine in recorded history combined with mass killings of innocent people occurred in Cambodia as the result of the Khmer Rouge’s reign. Stripping their citizens of all modern technologies and practices, as well as killing all ethnic minorities and intellectuals destroyed Cambodian culture. Innocent people were killed on the basis that they may possibly be enemies of the state, although rarely was there evidence proving these millions of Cambodians were enemies at all. From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge was in power in Cambodia, and in that time around twenty percent of Cambodians died in their extreme communist society. Before the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia was becoming increasingly unstable after suffering war and an unstable government, enabling the Khmer Rouge to gain power, which they held during their reign by terrorizing the people. Although the ultimate goals of Khmer Rouge leaders had well-intentioned aspects, the communist and genocidal ideology of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia violated people’s freedoms and lives. The means through which the Khmer Rouge gained power and the methods used to sustain this power both showed radical change in Cambodia and ultimately led to millions of deaths.
Leaders of the Khmer Rouge believed that they were working to improve the lives of their supporting citizens and that there were actual threats in Cambodia which needed to be eradicated. Pol Pot was the main leader of the Khmer Rouge, who believed that the Khmer Rouge was not a radical group. Instead, he thought that many Cambodians shared his Marxist ideals, and that “the revolution and the war of liberation were waged by the people...for their benefit.” Second in command to Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, held similar views that the Khmer Ro...

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..., 2008. http://nytimes.com/.
Enemies of the People. Directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin. 2009; Cambodia: Old Street Films, 2010. Television.
Khmer Rouge History. Cambodia Tribunal Monitor. Last modified 2013. http://www.cambodiatribun al.org/history/cambodian-history/khmer-rouge-history/. Pol Pot. The National Anthem of Democratic Kampuchea. Dahp Prampi Mesa Moha Chokchey. 1976. Published May 23, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8pWhnRaxDI.
The Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea. 1976. Translation published by Craig Etcheson, The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea. (Colorado: Westview, 1984).
Jones, Adam. Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. London: Taylor & Francis Publishers, 2010.
"Khmer Rouge." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (September 2013): 1. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed April 18, 2014).

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