Pol Pot & the Khmer RougePol Pot & the Khmer Rouge

What leads to the rise of Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?

The Killing Fields of Cambodia• 1970s: Civil War in Cambodia: US backed Lon Nol Govt. vs. the

Khmer Rouge (Communist rebels) led by Pol Pot

•Vietnam invades Cambodia in 1978, doesn’t agree w/ KR’s style of communism

•1975: US leaves SE Asia, Khmer Rouge win civil war vs. Lon Nol, westerners flee Cambodia

•Khmer Rouge troops enter Phnom Penh, Pol Pot orders all people out of cities & into the countryside

•Cambodians go to reeducation camps to learn the ways of Angka (KR’s form of communism)

•April 17th, 1975 starts Year Zero of new Republic of Kampuchea

•1975-78: 2+ million Cambodians are exterminated by the Khmer Rouge