Pol Pot: Beast of the Southeast Of all the cruel and horrendous tyrants history has bedeviled upon humanity, Pol Pot is among the most evil and unforgiving. It was under his rule that from 1975 to 1979, millions of innocent lives were snuffed out during an event known as the Cambodian Genocide. The Cambodian Genocide was an effort by the tyrannical government of Cambodia, known as the Khmer Rouge, to establish a perfect communist utopia. They planned to do this by disposing of anyone in the country who was deemed rebellious or unfit. While it is true that Pol Pot is the man who initiated these killings, other events such as French decolonization, the Chinese Revolution, and the Vietnamese Civil War lead up to the carnage as well. Even though French Decolonization and ideas from the Communist Revolution in China were important factors leading to the Cambodian Genocide, the civil war in Vietnam was the largest contributing factor because it created chaos in the region which Pol Pot used in order to seize power in Cambodia.
To start, violence from the civil war in Vietnam directly led to Pol Pot taking control of Cambodia. The South Vietnamese and US militaries both were …show more content…
To this day, many families are still looking for lost loved ones and the poverty rate of Cambodia is among the worst in Asia. CNN Reporter Tim Hume further explains: “In an impoverished country -- one of Asia's poorest, albeit with 7% predicted economic growth this year -- most young people seemed to be focused on getting ahead than looking back” (How). There is no question that the ravages of the genocide directly correlate with the nation’s struggling economy to this day. The mass murder of doctors, attorneys, professors, engineers, and so on crippled the wounded nation when they needed help the most. The worst part about all of this, Pol Pot never faced punishment for his
To start, violence from the civil war in Vietnam directly led to Pol Pot taking control of Cambodia. The South Vietnamese and US militaries both were …show more content…
To this day, many families are still looking for lost loved ones and the poverty rate of Cambodia is among the worst in Asia. CNN Reporter Tim Hume further explains: “In an impoverished country -- one of Asia's poorest, albeit with 7% predicted economic growth this year -- most young people seemed to be focused on getting ahead than looking back” (How). There is no question that the ravages of the genocide directly correlate with the nation’s struggling economy to this day. The mass murder of doctors, attorneys, professors, engineers, and so on crippled the wounded nation when they needed help the most. The worst part about all of this, Pol Pot never faced punishment for his