Cambodian History: Kymer Rouge (1975-78)


Figure 1.--Here we see how people were treated by the Kymer Rouge. The wire service photograph is dated June 14, 1979. We know about this because it occured in Thailand. Much worse of course took place in Cambodia while the Kymer Rouge were in power (1975-78). The caption explained what transpired at the Hhao Iarn refugee Camp where the Kymer Rouge had sought refuge from the Vietnamese Army. "As punishment for stealing food from a Kymer Rouge soldier in a refugee camp, this Cambodian boy was beaten repeatedly and tied to a crossbar so he had to remain on his tip toes all day in the tropican sun--Kymer Rouge style crucifixion. Thai guards said the Kymer Rouge camp leader would have killed the boy if the guards had not been poresent." The boy thus might be called lucky, but of course we do not know what happened when the Thai guards were not present,

The Khmer Rouge (KR) seized control of Phnom Penh at about the same time the North Vietnamese entered Saigon (1965). The victory of the Kymer Rouge (1975) ushered in a tragic period of Cambodia history. The Kymer Rouge sought to remake Cambodian society through a terrible genocide. The Khmer Rouge were an essentially rural, largely uneducated if not illiterate peasant army. They were largely hostile to urban Cambodians. The Kymer Rouge leaderhip called Angkar ordered Cambodian cities to be emptied and the people forced into the countryside. They were forced to work as what can only be described as state slaves in various forms of primitive agriculture. The leading figure in Angkar was Saloth Sar who became known as Pol Pot. The Government was the Democratic Kampochea (DK). It was run by rural Cambodians who were uneducated and largely illiterate. The basic qualification for Government office was was participation in the Khmer Rouge during the war. Angkar ordered that educated people be identified. Any one involved with the previous refime such as government workers, police, soldiers, teachers, and others were arrested and executed, often after beiung tortured. Intellectuals and religious people were also targetted. Ankasr saw these groups by their education and social class as being hostile to the regime and the society Angkar sought to create. People's hands were examined and anyone without eidence of manual lasbor was suspect. The Kymer Rouge muredered an estimated 20 percent of the Cambodian population. In percentage terms thisas far more than any other 20th century dictator (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and others and other totalitarian luminaries). Most were murdered outright Others died from abuse, malnutrition, and lack of medical care. After a series of KR raids along the Vietnamese border, Vietnamese officials decided to remove the KR Government. It was perceived as too unstable and pro-Chinese. Vietnam invaded with 150,000 troops (December 1978). The modern and well-equipoped Vietnamese defeated the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army in only 2 weeks. The Kymer Rouge retreated across the border into Thailand where refugee camps were set upb for them. The Vietnamese established a pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) (January 8, 1979). This was the start of a 10-year occupation.

Kymer Rouge

The Kymer Rouge (KR) is the name for both the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and the Party militia that fought the Civil War. The Cambodian communist movement, like the Vietnmese Communist Party, emerged from the country’s struggle against the French colonial regime. Some of the Cambodians and Vietnamese seeking education and work in France were exposed to the vibrant French Socialist and Communist movements. Communist influence prived most pronounced in Vietnam, and this influenced the Cambodians. Communist influence in Cambodia grew somewhat during the First Viertnamese War against French colonial rule, mostly fought in northern Vietnam (1950s). The KR took roots, largely in the countryside, and slowly grew. Prince Sihanouk and his royal government attempted to pursue a neutral stance in the Cold War. This proved difficult becuse the North Vietnamese extended the Ho Chi Minh trail into waster Cambodia and use it to funnel men and material south. Sihanouk's neutralism involved turning a blind eye to North Vietnamese military activities on Cambodian territory. Th Unites States pressed th Cambodians to take action. Marshal Lon Nol, a Cambodian politician who had previously served as one of Sihanouk's prime ministers, along with other anti-Communist Cambodians conducted a coup to depose Prince Sihanouk (March 1970). By this time the KR had built its ranks and had received weapon from the Vietnamese.

Cambodian Civil War (1967-75)

Cambodia was eventually drawn into the Vietnam War. Prince Sihanouk attempted to remain neutral in the Cold War struggle between the United Staes and the Soviet Union as the North Vietnamese attempoted to seize South Vietnm by supporting the Viet Cong. He changed his position when President Jojnson decided to intervene massively in the War (1965). He broke diplomatic relations with the United States. He also allowed the Communist Vietnamese to set up bases in eastern Cambodia to support their forces across the border in Vietnam. The War hurt the Cambodian economy. Sihanouk decided to renew diplomatic relarions with the United States in the hope of obtaining American assistance. The United States began planning to bomb the Vietnamese bases in Cambodia. While Sihanouk was out of the country, he was overthrowen (1970). He sought rfuge in China. Prime Minister Lon Nol hoped for massive U.S. assistance. The U.S. at the time was increasingly focused on withdrrawing from the Vietnam War. There was little support for another mahor commitment in Southeast Asia. The poorly equipped Cambodian Army did not have the capability of keep either the North Vietnmese out or South Vienamese incursions seachingfor the North Veitnamese. Sihanouk decided to set up a government while in exile, called the Khmer Rouge. he Khmer Rouge began to attack government forces in increasing strength. TheNorth Vietnamnese supported the Kymer Rouge.

Kymer Rouge Victory (1975)

The Khmer Rouge (KR) entered and seized control of Phnom Penh with little resistance. This was about the same time the North Vietnamese entered Saigon (April 17, 1965). It ended 5 years of foreign interventions, bombing, and civil war. At the time the world and many Cambodiuans knew little about the Kymer Rouge. Tragically they would quickly to lear what the Kymer Rouge were. The would prove to be one of the most murderous regimes in human history. They proceeeded to set up a repressive regime not only with no regard for human life, but established terror, torture, and murder as the major policies of the regime. Massacres on a massive scale soon followed, targeting any one with an education or without a working-class background. Rather than setting up Soviet or Maoist style slave labor camps for a portion of the population, they set about turning the all of Cambodia into a country-wide detention center and using total control of the population to murder nearly 2 million people. Even the peasantry was not safe and immune from Kymer Rouge terror tactivcs to achieve absolute control.

Emptying the Cities

The victory of the Kymer Rouge (1975) ushered in a tragic period of Cambodia history. The Kymer Rouge sought to remake Cambodian society. The Khmer Rouge were an essentially rural, largely uneducated if not illiterate peasant army. They were largely hostile to urban Cambodians. The Kymer Rouge leadership (Angkar) only a few days after seizing Phnom Penh ordered Cambodian cities emptied. The urban popultion qas forced into the countryside--some 2 million people. No provision was made for the elderly, sick, or children. Thousands perished in the evacuations conducted at gun point.

Agricultural Communnes

The population was separated into agricultural communes. The people were not allowed to leave their communes. And this was rarely given and actually could draw unwaranted attention on those who dared ask. go outside their cooperative. They evacuess were forced to work as what can only be described as state slaves in various forms of primitive agriculture--meaning primitive and inefficent agriculture. Thius meant that producivity and food production declined.

Maoist Cambodia

The CPK vision for Cambodia was a radical Maoist/Marxist-Leninist transformation of society. They saw the cities and the educated, bourgeois population as the source of evil that had to be totally rooted out. The CPK saw it as a purification. They wanted to remake the country as a pure rural, classless society. There would be no rich or poor and thus no exploitation. After moving the city population into the couuntryside, the CPK abolished money, markets, schools, private property, Western clothing, religion, and not only forign influences but traditional Khmer culture as well. Buildings like schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shuttered or converted into facilities needed by the new regime such as prisons and reeducation camps or uses meant to degrade the former society such as stables and granaries. The CPK's new society permitted no public or private transportation. No movement was permitted without Angkar's approval. There was no private property. Even leisure was restricted. Angkar wanted the people in the fields working. The entire population was mobilized for the effort. There was virtually no entertainment permitted unless propaganda lectures and indictrination is considered. Once in the country side in controlled camps, the population could be strictly controlled and regulated. Clothing was mandated--the black pajama outfits worn by the KR fighters. The vision was that mobilizing the population and moving the people into the country side and elimimated the educated middle vclass, Canodia would flourish and there would be a huge increase in harvests, eliminating poverty and hunger.

Four-Year Plan

The CPK emulating Communist Soviet and Chinese ecommics and issued a Four-Year Plan. Cambodians were expected to produce 3 tons of rice per hectare throughout the country. Angkar simply assumed that their new pure popultion with class enemies elinminated could chieve this. There was no assessment as to the needs of equipment and fertilizer. Angkar believed it could be done by hard work--essentially implementtiin of Marx's labor theory of value. To achieve this meant that people would have to grow and harvest rice non-stop all 12 months of the year. The KR forced people to work in the filds more than 12 hours a day without rest or even adequate food--the supply of which actually declined because of CPK mismanagement.

Terror and Hunger

Angkar did eliminate the rich, but they did not eliminate poverty. In fact they made everyone poor. And because agricultural productivity declined, hunger became a serioius problem. The Cambodian people under CPK were denied all basic rights. People were not even allowed to talk among themslves. Tgey could not gathered and talk except in officially sanctioned meetings. Even if three people were seen talking, this was grounds for arrest as enemies of the public. Arrest usually meant execution. Angkar even discouraged family relationships. People were prohibited from even the slightest familiar affection. Humor and pity werealso banned.

Leadership

The KR was extremely secretive. The mere existince of Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) was kept secret (until 1977). No one outside the CPK even knew who the leaders were. The CPK leaders called themselves Angkar Padevat-- esentialy a Borg-like collective. The KCPK demanded that every Cambodian to believe, obey and respect only Angkar Padevat. Annkar was to be everyone’s new 'mother and father'. The leading figure in Angkar was Saloth Sar who became known as Pol Pot. He was born in Cambodia. He traveld to France and became a member of the French Communist Party. He returned to Cambodia (1953). There he mmediately joined the small and clandestine communist movement. His international experience helped him rise in the ranks ranks of the secrative CPK. He success there enable him to become one of the most infamous mass murders in history. He was appointed the CPK’s party secretary and leader (1963). The death toll he achived was only limited by Cambodia's relatively small size and his his 3 years in power.

Government

The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) a few months after the KR victory (1976). The CPK ruled the country until the Vienamese invasin (December 1978). The Government was the Democratic Kampochea (DK). It was run by rural Cambodians who were uneducated and largely illiterate. The basic qualification for Government office was was participation in the KR during the war.

Genocide

An important part of the KR effort to remake Cambidia was genocide. Other Communists regimes had targetted so-called class denrnies for anihilation or long terms in slave labor camps. No other Communist regime set out to kill such a large part of the population. Angkar ordered that educated people be identified. Any one involved with the previous refime such as government workers, police, soldiers, teachers, and others were arrested and executed, often after beiung tortured. Intellectuals and religious people were also targetted. Angkar saw these groups by their education and social class as being hostile to the regime and the society Angkar sought to create. People's hands were examined and anyone without eidence of manual lasbor was suspect. The Kymer Rouge muredered an estimated 20 percent of the Cambodian population. In percentage terms this as far more than any other 20th century dictator (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and others and other totalitarian luminaries). Most were murdered outright Others died from abuse, malnutrition, and lack of medical care.

Conflict with Vietnam

The Khmer Rouge (KR) were initially of little importance. They became increasinly competent militarily as the North Vietnamese began traiing them and providing more modern weaponry. Without North Vietnamese aid, the KR would probably not have been anle to seize power. The KR leadership from the beginning was extremely provincial and suspicious of foreigners. This was not only the French and Americans, but also their Vietnamese allies given the historical antagonism between the two people. As KR military capacity grew, so did suspicious of Vietnamese intentions. Here we are talking avout Communist Vietnamese intentions. As the North Vietnamese seized power in South Vietnam, scattered skirmishes between military patrols were reported (1975). It soon became clear that this was not accidental and associated with North Vietnamese forces moving south. These scirmishes steadily escalated in both frequency and size. Angkar sent tens of thousands of people were sent to fight the competiion. Thousands perished.

Vietnamese Invasion (December 1978)

After a series of KR raids along the Vietnamese border, Vietnamese officials decided to remove the Khmer Rouge Government. It was perceived as too unstable and pro-Chinese. The KR was prepaing a major attack into Vietnamese occupied areas. The Vienamese struck first. Vietnamese officials were not prepared to accept a permanent low-level war on its borders. China was providing military assiance to the KR while the Soviets were aiding th Vietnamese. Even so the KR did not have the military firepower or professiinalism of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) which sent a force of 150,000 men jnto Cambodia (December 1978). The Vietnamese invasion force blasted through Cambodian defenses. They decisively defeated the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army in only 2 weeks. The KR government and laeadership fled Phnom Penh and the Vietnamese entered the capital (January 7, 1979).

Kymer Rouge Government in Exile

The Kymer Rouge along with Pol Pot retreated west to the Thai border region. Eventually they crossed the border into Thailand where refugee camps were set up for them. They were given asylum by the Thai government. Thailand and Vietnam did not have friendly relations. KR leaders reorganized on Thai territory and set up a governmnt-in exile--the DK. China continued to support the KR. The United Nations voted to recognize the resistance movement to the Vietnamese, meaning primarily the KR, and gave them a seat in the General Assembly. The United Nations for more than 10 years recognized them as the legitimate government of Cambodia (1979-90). The Khmer Rouge formed an unlikely coalition with Prince Sihanouk, who had been exiled in China after being deposed in 1970 (1982). Non-communist leader Son Sann joined th allance to create the Triparty Coalition Government. The Khmer Rouge continued fobmany years, but gradually its leaders defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia, were arrested, or died. The KR long after the Cold war had ended finally disappared (1999).

People’s Republic of Kampuchea

The Vietnamese supported the Kymer Rouge during the Vietnamese War. This was critical in the Kymer Rouge victory (1975). There was subsequntly a falling out. Viuetnam invaded Cambodia and drove out the Kymer Rouge, their former Communist allies (December 1978). They set up a puppet regime -- People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The Vietnamese used former KR personnel as well as Cambodians who had fled into Vietnam before the KR victory in 1975. The PBK was led by Heng Samrin. Few new governments faced such daunting prolems with so few resources. The Vietnaamese were sucesful at making war, but like othr Communist regimes unable to manage a sucessful economy. Vietnam became pne of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia while neighnoring counttries made conomic progress. As a result, while the North Vietnamese drove out the Kymer Rouge, they could not provide significant economic aid. As the Cambodian people trickled back from the countryside, they found few operating amenities or a Givernment unable to provide basic necesities. The PRK faced a task of rebuilding a country more devestated than most countries had been by World War II and largely by their own government. . Nearly 2 million people had been murdered or died from diseases due hunger, over work, and a lack of medicines and medical services. Tens of thousands were made widows and orphans. Not wanting to live in a Communist country, some half a million people, resettled in other countries. The millions who managed to survive were severely traumatized by their horrendous experiences--leading to mental disorders that lasted a life time. Several hundred thousand Cambodians had fled their country and became refugees. The Civil War combatant forces laid millions of mines leading to thousands of deaths and disabilities. These horrors continue to plague modern Cambodia.

Sources

Dy, Khamboly. A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979).






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Created: 9:32 AM 11/2/2011
Last updated: 5:33 PM 9/27/2018