True Cambodia Case Study

Now that there was no possible way for Cambodians to communicate the horrors that were taking place as the entire population was being used as a sort of slave labor, the Khmer Rouge ideology had prevailed throughout Cambodia and it was time to ethnically cleanse the country and reestablish the “True Cambodia” of old, for the Khmer Rouge this meant the total abolishment of any “Western Influence” which meant policies and social. Some argue that the specific group that was targeted during Pol Pot’s reign were those that were trying to “sabotage” his communistic policies that he had planned for the country’s future and conjure this idea that those people deserved to be punished on the grounds of treason, others, including myself, argue that the …show more content…
The Khmer were notorious for separating Cambodians from their children and eventually murdering them, the effect that this had on those individuals cannot be measured in any shape, way, or form, but you can bet that the people who survived these four years of Khmer policy would have a hard time trusting any governmental power that proceeded over the country until the thought of these atrocities were forgotten, which will be next to impossible since it is now embedded into Cambodian history. As of this moment that I am typing this only three individuals have been sentenced for their roles in the Cambodian genocide, Kang Kek Iew, the overseer of S-21, Nuon Chea, the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge, and Khieu Samphan, Cambodia’s head of state from 1976 until 1979, all of whom are serving life sentences. Is this truly justice? The fact that only three individuals have been sentenced for the deaths of between 1.7 million and 2.5 million Cambodians, really able to serve any type of justice towards the victims and survivors of the genocide, it’s just like the Nazi hunters that still to this day track down Nazi officials to be brought into a court of law, they know they are guilty, but what good would it do, does it provide any, if at all, form …show more content…
As a result, social psychologists, by and large, do not think of evil actions as the product of evil dispositions or personalities. In truth, though, any complete explanatory model of human behavior— including one of extraordinarily evil human behavior— must include both dispositional and situational components.6 I have decided to use this quote from James Waller a psychological and genocide expert and I feel it speaks on deeper levels just like the research that I have done on the Cambodian genocide. The quote itself explains that in a way the people who have carried out the act of genocide may not necessarily be evil, but may be driven to the point that they feel it is the only option that would work. For Cambodia, getting bombed by the United States not only effected the people physically and mentally, but also economically through the destruction of their rice trading, this could have easily corrupted the minds of great men to stop at nothing to make sure these kinds of actions would never harm their country again by closing itself in completely, but actually being the ones who would cause its ultimate destruction. Maybe these men had the best intention for their country, as I am not defending the actions that were taken, I am defending the fact that these people were ravaged by something that was out of their control, but once the