Pol Pot & Cambodian Genocide
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In ChandlerÆs (1999) Voices from S-21, a book recounting the firsthand experiences of prisoners of Pol PotÆs secret prison, the author illustrates the Khmer RougeÆs Party motto: ôOne hand is for production, the other is for beating the enemyö (41). Beliefs about human behavior determine how human beings act, both as individuals and as nations. In the world of human affairs, objective truth often matters far less than subjective perceptions. Behavior aimed at causing physical or psychological injury to an individual or group is known as aggression. Aggressive behavior refers primarily to human actions directed toward persons rather than physical objects. The question of intention in the aggressor is central, but intent is usually unknown to an external observer because it requires subjective knowledge of the aggressorÆs state of mind. In the case of the Khmer RougeÆs genocide of more than two million of their own Cambodian people, however, the aggressorÆs intentions were demonstrably political and social in nature.According to William Pfaff (1998), the two million murders that ôPol Pot and his movement were responsible for in Cambodia were inspired by a desire to surpass in revolutionary zeal the Chinese cultural revolution, so as to cleanse Cambodia of a;; sorts of depraved cultures and social blemishesö (8). In other words Pol Pot created an idealized image of self while venting aggression toward a chosen ôotherö.
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es of the Khmer Rouge.
While instrumental aggression entails aggressive responses to ensure self-preservation, drive-oriented aggression assumes a more pathological nature. It identifies out-group members as appropriate targets for aggression aimed at demonstrating dominance and, by implication, the aggressorÆs legal, moral, and philosophical superiority. Such was the case in Iraq with respect to Saddam HusseinÆs gassing of hundreds of thousands of Kurds, as was the case in Nazi Germany with the extermination of Jews, Slavs, homosexuals and others considered undesirables. A similar rationale was employed by the Pol Pot in Cambodia. Although the Cambodian genocide has its own unique origins. Cambodia has historically been a nation divided between peoples of urban and rural background. In many areas, the peasantry was isolated and hostile to everything urban, and many had been angry and dissatisfied long before 1970. The Khmer Rouge channeled this anger into a political program of genocide. So many people joined the Khmer RougeÆs program of genocide that it is impossible to bring to justice all involved because as many as hundreds of thousands of Cambodians aided in the four-year period of slaughter that killed millions. As
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Approximate Word count = 2349
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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