The Khmer Roug t
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The Khmer Rouge was the communist alternative to the government of Cambodia. In April 1975, the Rouge marched into the capital city of Phnom Penh, and began a cycle of ruthlessness, brutality, and repression. By 1979, the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot was forcibly ousted. It was replaced by a Vietnamese backed People's Republic of Kampuchea. In the early 1980s, Kampuchea was designated one of the places in the global village in which the United States hoped to reassert its global power.1 This paper will first present an overview of the Rouge, especially from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. It will then seek to answer some basic questions about United States involvement in the region. For instance, what was the involvement of the C.I.A. with Cambodian leader Lon Nol; what role did U.S. agencies play in the overthrow of Pol Pot; what happened under Pol Pot and why did the United States fail to forcibly denounce his regime; and why was Vietnam able to exert its influence in Cambodia? Finally, the paper will conclude with the probable reasons that the United States presently supports the Rouge Coalition.During the era of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the state of Cambodia was very much on the minds of military strategists. As well, it was clearly part of the political 1 See, for instance, Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power, (London: Verso Press, 1985). Scholars characterize the years 1960 to 1967 as the early revolutiona
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least of all, a suicidal war against Vietnam.13
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11 Irwin Silber, Kampuchea The Revolution Rescued, (Oakland: Line of March Publications, 1986), 39.
12 The Chinese Ruler's Crimes Against Kampuchea, (Phnom Penh: People's Republic of Kampuchea, 1984), 3.
13 Silber, 41.
Pol Pot's atrocities were committed in the name of Maoism at a radical level. He sought to expunge any and all remnants of capitalism from the country at any cost. Further, instead of a gradual development into socialism, he sought to force the issue by whatever coercive means were necessary. However, one of the important questions centers around the fact that the world at large remained somewhat "unaware" of the atrocities being committed, and the United States in particular did not forcibly speak out against Pol Pot and his regime.
Some Americans argued that the mass killings in the months following Pol Pot's seizure of power were little more than the result of unplanned, spontaneous excesses by vengeful and largely ignorant teenaged peasant soldiers.14 Never theless, the regime had done a good job at limiting the amount of hard or physical evidence of the slaughter but,
many of the observers early on in the tenure of the
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Pol Pot, Pol Pot's, Republic Kampuchea, Lon Nol, Verso Press, York Times, Phnom Penh, Democratic Kampuchea, Marxism DK, Rouge Coalition, pol pot, democratic kampuchea, southeast asian, york times, phnom penh, boston south press, pol pot's, conflict southeast, vickery cambodia, press 1984, boston south, conflict southeast asian, people's republic kampuchea, eastern economic review, march publications 1986,
Approximate Word count = 2158
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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