The Consequences Of Pol Pot And The Cambodian Genocide

Hatred and atrocities between nations has always been a common occurrence, and violence is a side effect of this hatred. There are many well-known genocides that have taken place around the world, including the Holocaust, Armenia, and Bosnia. There are also devastations that not so many people know about, or have even heard of. The Cambodian Genocide is a mystery to many, being it isn’t widely researched. The killing fields of Cambodia “(1975-1979)” (Krkljes, 2015) are where Pol Pot and his authoritarian government committed a mass murder. The Khmer Rouge knew that knowledge is power, which is why they mainly focused on “exterminating” the “educated.” There were nearly “2 million Cambodians” murdered on these killing fields. (Center) Cambodia today is still working to fully recover from the loss of those millions of lives. They are in the midst of an enduring …show more content…
There are others who don’t consider this a genocide due to the fact that it involved the murder of a variety of types of people. Pol Pot and his regime, The Khmer Rouge, were aware that knowledge is power, and mainly focused on killing off the educated, including doctors, teachers, and engineers. The Khmer Rouge envisioned a perfect communism and wished to purify the society. There were nearly 2 million Cambodians murdered on these killing fields. Although, many had died from starvation, exhaustion, or disease. Citizens were killed for many reasons, they were also tortured and forced to go against their cultures. Vietnam soon intervened and kicked out Pol Pot, this brought an end to the killings and the torture, but the society was still not where it needed to be. Things took over a decade to return back to a place that was remotely close to what it was before Pol Pot took over. The people of Cambodia are now working to rebuild what was destroyed by this