essay-fallofkhmer

Malcolm Lewis - Fall of Khmer, Cambodia

During the Khmer Rouge reign, Cambodia was turned into a giant labour camp creating a system of terror, genocide, and attempted cultural annihilation, a series of drastic events that the country is still recovering from. The years contained within this rule were devastating for the nation of Cambodia, with the establishment of the Khmer Rouge, a left-wing Communist political party whose actions have had an overwhelmingly effect on the political, economic and social structure of Cambodia, ruining the lives of millions. **If there’s one thing our world today has learned from the rise and fall of the Khmer Empire, it is that genocide leads no where.**

 In 1975 the Khmer Rouge communist group and Pol Pot, the leader, took over power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. All of the villagers were forced into the countryside to labor camps. An estimated 2 million died during Pol Pot's reign because of starvation, exhaustion or execution. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they did not like them, if the they did not work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from a different ethnic group or if they showed any kind of sympathy when they were taken away from their family, or if their family was taken away from them to be killed. The sick patients in hospitals were left there to die. Children were taken away from their parents to work in mobile groups or as soldiers. The loss of all those peoples lives ruined Cambodia.

 Cambodia wouldn't still be recovering from a tragedy if the devastating act of the Khmer Rouge had taken place. By December 1978, because of several years of border conflict and the flood of refugees fleeing Cambodia, relations between Cambodia and Vietnam collapsed. Pol Pot, fearing a Vietnamese attack, ordered a unplanned invasion of Vietnam. His Cambodian forces crossed the border and looted nearby villages. Despite American and Chinese aid, these Cambodian forces were repulsed by the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese forces then invaded Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. At the same time, the Khmer Rouge retreated west, and it continued to control an area near the Thai border for the next decade. By 1999, most members had surrendered or been captured. In December 1999, Ta Mok and the remaining leaders surrendered, and the Khmer Rouge effectively ceased to exist. Most of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders live in the Pailin area or are hidden in Phnom Penh. Since 1990 Cambodia has gradually recovered, demographically and economically, from the Khmer Rouge regime, although the psychological scars affect many Cambodian families and communities.

 The fall of the Khmer people had to due with the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia was turned into a war zone and millions of peoples lives were lost. Today, Cambodia is still trying to recover from the devastating act. The doing of the Khmer Rouge had an incredible impact on Cambodia's political, economical and social structure, and they will never fully recuperate from the genocide that happened so many years ago.

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